Caracas; May 5, 2022 (Alexander Mendoza | LVBP Press).- Juan Yepez unloaded a pair of doubles and scored a run in his major league debut, helping the St. Louis Cardinals win 10-0 over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
The red birds had promoted the Venezuelan, on Tuesday afternoon, to fill the vacancy on the active roster of Panamanian Edmundo Sosa, who was placed on the list of disabled by COVID-19.
Yepez, 24 years old, was available with the team last year for the wild card knockout game, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but did not see action. This time, after watching a game from the bench, he fulfilled his dream of being baptized as a major leaguer, after manager Oliver Mármol lined him up as the fifth batter and right fielder.
The rookie wasted no time and equaled a mark for Creoles. In his first at-bat he went to the opposite wing, with a loose shot out of reach of Edward Olivares in right field, against left-hander Kris Bubic, who helped him get to second base and later score, in the middle of a cluster of five little lines, which indicated the path that the challenge would take.
In the third, Yépez made a copy of his previous time at the plate, although his connection was closer to the chalk line on the right, and he arrived safely in the second, against Dominican reliever Joel Payamps.
That performance made him only the second member of the tricolor delegation to debut in the Big Top with a pair of biangulars, joining Carlos González, who did so in the uniform of the Oakland Athletics against the Texas Rangers, on the 30th. May 2008. Something that a member of San Luis stars in for the first time and that no batter belonging to a National League club had obtained since June 22, 2013, when Corey Dickerson -now signed by the Cadenales- obtained it. – for the Colorado Rockies, according to Baseball-Reference.
“The game was seen by my eldest son, along with his wife and Juan’s fiancee, who were able to get to Kansas City,” said Omar Yépez, father of the new major leaguer, in a conversation with LVBP.com. “I am in San Francisco for the next Cardinals series and I look forward to seeing him play.”
