NEWSLETTER
In one of the wilder stories in baseball this morning, Matt Russell completed an eight inning outing that will go down in the scorebooks as a 129-pitch outing that spanned 129 days and two different ballparks.
On May 1, Russell started a game for the Jersey Shore Blue Claws, the High-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, against the Aberdeen IronBirds, the High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Before a weather delay paused the May 1 contest, Russell tossed three innings in which he allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits with six strikeouts and a walk.
On Tuesday Russell was allowed to start the resumed contest between Jersey Shore and Aberdeen with the IronBirds leading 2-1, this time in his home ballpark (the original game started at the IronBirds ballpark).
Russell allowed just one run on six hits over five innings of work. The 23-year-old also racked up six strikeouts to bring his total line for the game to 8.0 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, and 12 K.
“I was pretty stoked that our staff let me finish my own game,”
