Source : ABC NEWS
On a day where two Australian-born baseball players have opposed each other in a Major League Baseball game for the first time since 2017, another Aussie-related person took centre stage — even though he was not on the ground.
Adelaide’s Curtis Mead hit two home runs as the Washington Nationals crushed Sydney-born and raised Travis Bazzana’s Cleveland Guardians 10-2 in their series opener at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Monday night, local time.
Mead’s first homer of the game gave the Nationals a 3-0 first-innings lead following James Wood’s lead off HR and Luis Garcia Jr’s double.
It was here that a fan, Jack Seiple, enhanced the Aussie hitters’ night.
Jack Seiple had probably hoped to see Travis Bazzana score for the Guardians. (Supplied: Washington Nationals)
Mead crushed a cutter at the bottom of the strike zone 122 metres into the left field bleachers at almost 170km/h.
Waiting in those bleachers, wearing an Australian national team jersey he bought while watching the World Baseball Classic in March, was Seiple.
“I realised there was no-one else here, so I just decided to go for it,” the Ohio native told MLB.com.
Seiple jumped and caught the ball with his left hand before landing on his feet, then high-fiving a security guard while a man dressed as a hot dog watched on in a scene incongruous only in that a man in an Australian jersey caught a fly ball hit by an Australian hitter.
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After his 125-metre homer last week, the 2024 number one overall pick, Bazzana managed a double in the bottom of the third inning, his only hit of the game.
However, by that stage the Nationals already led 6-1 and Mead had more to add.
In the fifth, the 25-year-old right-handed bat hit another fly ball to left field to make the score 8-1, registering his first career multi-homer game.
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Mead, playing third base in this match, has three home runs in his last three starts and is hitting at .241 so far this season, just above his career average of .239.
It seemed as though Seiple had got his money’s worth out of that Australia jersey after all.
“I’m very happy,” he said.
“I followed them during the WBC. I’m really glad the game is growing in Australia.”
Cleveland Guardians second baseman Travis Bazzana managed just one hit in the game. (Getty Images: Icon Sportswire/Frank Jansky)
Both Mead and Bazzana cut their professional teeth in the Australian Baseball League with the Adelaide Giants and Sydney Blue Sox, respectively.
It was the first time two Australia-born players started a match on opposing teams since Perth’s Luke Hughes (Minnesota Twins) and Sydneysider Trent Oeltjen (Los Angeles Dodgers) faced off on June 27, 2011.
Reliving pitchers Peter Moylan (Kansas City Royals) and Warwick Saupold (Detroit Tigers) were both in opposing sides on September 6, 2017, but neither started.
There are three active Australian players in Major League Baseball at present, with Oakland pitcher Jack O’Loughlin the third.
