By Paul Semendinger
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Imagine pitching in three big league games and being considered the best… at anything.
It happened.
Imagine walking five batters, and hitting another, in your full seven innings of work as a pitcher and being considered the best.
It’s true.
Imagine averaging 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings. Wait, that’s actually pretty good.
In 7 Major League innings, Michael Yajure, allowed just one run on three hits. He struck out 8. (You already know about the walks and the hit batter, but what you may not remember is that he also threw a wild pitch.)
The 2020 season was a strange one in many ways, but for Michael Yajure, it was a great one. In 2020, he got his chance to pitch for the New York Yankees.
In the three games he pitched, he battled against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Miami Marlins.
Two out of every three teams he has faced in his career hail from Florida.
The Yankees lost two of the three games he pitched in, but the won the last game, so he’ll enter 2021 on a high note.
Two of the games were in New York at Yankee Stadium, the other game was in Camden Yards in Baltimore.
The greatest Yankee in history to wear #89 is Michael Jajure.
But that’s not all, in the entire history of Major League Baseball, no other player had worn #89. None. Michael Yajure was the greatest ever in that number - across the history of baseball!
Michael Jajure wasn't just the greatest Yankees player to wear #89, he was, for about 16 days, the greatest player of ALL-TIME to wear #89.
But... Jajure first pitched on August 31. On September 16, Tanner Houck of the Red Sox started a game and went five innings to earn the victory in a game the Red Sox won over the Miami Marlins. Then, on September Houck defeated the Yankees.
All in all, Tanner Houck went 3-0 for the Red Sox in September. He is the greatest across MLB to wear #89, at least for now.)
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(Most of the research for this project comes from Baseball-Reference.com. Information for this post, and the cover photo image (cropped) come from Fansided’s Call To The Pen.)
