By Scott Barancik, Editor
Ryan Sherriff made his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals last night (8/25/2017), and boy, did he impress.
Coming on in the 5th inning, the 27-year-old southpaw tossed three shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, yielding just two singles (including a bunt) and a walk while striking out 4. The outing was longer than any of Sherriff’s 48 minor-league games this season, where his median appearance last just one inning.
Twice during Friday night’s game, Sherriff faced Rays CF Kevin Kiermaier, who wore the nickname “Outlaw” on his jersey. Sherriff got the better of the battle, inducing a fielder’s choice and a groundout the second.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny liked what he saw. “After an outing like that, we’d like to get him back in there,” he remarked after the game.
“I should be ready to go tomorrow,” Sherriff said.
A 28th-round draft pick in 2011, the Culver City, CA, native went 5-1 with a 3.19 ERA for the Memphis Redbirds (AAA) before getting the call-up this week. He also converted 6 of 7 save chances and held opposing batters to just 0.99 hits/walks per inning, among the least in the Pacific Coast League.
Sherriff played for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. After Friday’s game, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he couldn’t stop thinking about his late father. When Larry Sherriff died from multiple myeloma in 2012, son Ryan was ready to quit baseball, but his mother, Renee, told him his father would have wanted him to pursue his dream.
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