Adelaide’s Jack O’Loughlin has made an impressive Major League Baseball debut, pitching three scoreless innings for Oakland against Houston.
The 24-year-old entered the game in the seventh inning to become Australia’s 38th Major League player.
O’Loughlin joined another South Australian in MLB, with infielder Curtis Mead on Tampa Bay’s roster.
Relief pitcher Liam Hendriks has signed a two-year deal with Boston after overcoming stage four non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but remains sidelined following elbow surgery.
Away from the star trio, there are 29 other Australians in the minor leagues.
O’Loughlin recorded an out on his first pitch, inducing a ground ball, then stamped his first big league strike-out two batters later, taking the scalp of Jon Singleton.
After loading the bases, O’Loughlin then forced Astros hitter Yanier Diaz into a shallow fly ball pop-out to close the inning.
He settled down in his second and third innings, retiring the next six batters including future hall-of-famer Jose Altuve.
His final stat line on his MLB debut: 3.0 innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, 0 earned runs.
“It’s incredible — the atmosphere, everything about it has just been a wild ride,” O’Loughlin said before the game.
“It feels good to be in green and gold (with Oakland) – it’s the Australian colours, so it’s awesome.
“Seeing the clubhouse this time knowing I was going to be on the roster was a completely different feeling. I just tried to take it all in.”
O’Loughlin was Team Australia’s go-to starting pitcher in his country’s historic run to the quarter-finals at the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
They recorded an upset win over powerhouse South Korea before downing Czechia in the knock-out round clincher.
The left-hander was also a key part of the Adelaide Giants’ last two ABL Championships, helping them end a 43-year title drought in 2023.
O’Loughlin spent the previous six years coming up through the Detroit Tigers’ farm system, having started his career in the US as a teenager in 2018.
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AP
