Barry Enright Wins Debut For Arizona
6/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 30, 2010
MALIBU, Calif. - Barry Enright, a three-year varsity letterwinner at Pepperdine from 2005-07, was victorious for the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday in his major league debut against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Enright and four Arizona relievers defeated the defending National League Central champions at Busch Stadium, 4-2.
The right-handed Enright surrendered a two-out run in the first before holding Albert Pujols and company scoreless over the next four innings with five strikeouts. The Stockton, Calif., native also tossed 105 pitches and stranded several Cardinal base runners in scoring position as the Diamondbacks salvaged the final game of their three-game set.
Enright's Arizona teammate Dan Haren started game one vs. the Cardinals Monday night, making them the first pair of Waves to start games in the same series. They are also the third set of Pepperdine pitchers to be part of the same club. Randy Wolf and Steve Montgomery were with the 1999 Philadelphia Phillies, and Wolf later joined Will Ohman on the 2009 Los Angeles Dodgers.
Enright is the 31st Wave to make it to the major leagues and the second this season. Detroit called middle infielder (and Enright's Pepperdine teammate) Danny Worth up to the Tigers' 25-man roster in May. He is batting .273 with six RBI for the Motor City Kitties through 21 games.
Both Enright and Worth were part of head coach Steve Rodriguez' first recruiting class and they are two of about a dozen former Rodriguez protégés still playing at the professional level. Enright was drafted by Arizona right ahead of Worth during the second round of the 2007 MLB First-Year Player draft alongside eight other Waves.
Enright spent his first two years of professional baseball pitching at the single A and rookie levels before making the jump in 2009 to AA Mobile (Ala.). Through 14 starts with the Bay Bears this season, Enright posted a 4-1 record and 2.88 ERA with 83 strikeouts (15 walks) in 93 2/3 innings.
Enright is one of three Wave pitchers to win their major league debuts. In his first career start, Wolf and the Phillies beat the Toronto Blue Jays on June 11, 1999 and Doug Simons pitched two innings of scoreless relief for the New York Mets in a 2-1 (10 inning) win over Philadelphia on April 9, 1991.
Elsewhere: Outfielder Eric Thames, who played for the Waves from 2007-08, was named to the 2010 Eastern League All-Star Game along with five of his teammates from the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Toronto Blue Jays).
The 23-year-old Thames who Toronto picked in the third round out of Pepperdine University in 2008 has 12 homers to go along with a team-leading 54 RBIs.
