Toms River native Ron Marinaccio pitches scoreless inning for Yankees in MLB debut
NEW YORK — Toms River's Ron Marinaccio made his Major League debut for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, striking out a pair and keeping the Red Sox off the board.
"A ton of adrenaline, definitely," said Marinaccio. "It's as special of a moment as I could have come into and it's Yankees-Red Sox, so I'm glad to have killed two birds with one stone and get that out of the way."
Marinaccio was the first pitcher out of the bullpen after Luis Severino's first start since the 2019 season. Severino surrendered a hit to the leadoff batter to begin the fourth inning, which ended his outing. Marinaccio then came in and allowed a four-pitch walk to Trevor Story for his first batter faced.
"I love his makeup so I knew he would get through it," said manager Aaron Boone after the game. "That's a big moment. I'm sure there were those nerves."
Marinaccio settled down after that, following a pep talk from first baseman Anthony Rizzo and catcher Kyle Higashioka, striking out Bobby Dalbec for his first Major League strikeout. The ball used for the strikeout was taken out of play for Marinaccio to keep.
"I definitely needed it," said Marinaccio. "After ball five, Rizzo came up and said, 'just give me a deep breath' and that's exactly what I needed at that point. [Higashioka] told me to go slider next pitch and I had confidence in him and landed that next one and it was gone from there."
Following a ground ball out off the bat of Jackie Bradley Jr., Marinaccio got Christian Vasquez to strike out to end the threat on his 19th pitch of the inning.
A product of Toms River North High School, Marinaccio made the Yankees Opening Day roster earlier this month after a strong spring training, not allowing an earned run in six appearances.
'Incredible': Ron Marinaccio, Toms River native, makes Yankees' Opening Day roster
Marinaccio was a 19th round selection by the Yankees in the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft after pitching at the University of Delaware.
Marinaccio is the first Yankees player to ever wear the number 97 during a regular season game.
After the game, Marinaccio had a few new objects in his locker: a baseball from his milestone strikeout, the championship belt given by the Yankees to the player of the game and a phone filled with messages from people that know him.
"It's tough to catch up on right now," said Marinaccio. "I'm trying to get back to my fiancé and my parents and take it from there."
Email: aitken@northjersey.com
Twitter: @robertaitkenjr
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Yankees: Ron Marinaccio has scoreless inning in MLB debut
