Bush's Impressive Debut Goes Wasted For Toronto
7/2/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 2, 2004
San Juan, PR - Former Deacon All-American pitcher Dave Bush struck out the first batter he faced in his major league debut and cruised through five innings. But his Blue Jays didn't lend any run support, losing 2-0 on Friday night to Montreal. Bush took the loss though he pitched 5.2 effective innings. He allowed just one run on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
Bush struck out Montreal leadoff hitter Brad Wilkerson three times.
The game between the two Canadian franchises was played in San Juan, Puerto Rico in front of an announced crowd of 8,020.
"Actually, I think it was a little easier because it's kind of similar to what I was having at Triple-A," Bush told MLB.com. "Obviously, it's a little more of an emotional crowd and you can feed off that a little bit. It was fun being down here and a great experience. I'm glad to get the first one out of the way, and everything went smoothly for the most part."
Toronto manager Carlos Tosca was impressed with Bush's performance.
"He was aggressive and did not seem real nervous out there," Tosca told MLB.com. "He located the fastball real well to both sides of the plate, and he had a breaking ball and a changeup. You can't ask for anything more than that."
Bush, who wore jersey number 49, allowed just one runner to reach third base and that happened as a direct result of a throwing error.
He left the game in the sixth inning after allowing back-to-back two out singles to Jose Vidro and Nick Johnson. Moments later, Blue Jay reliever Justin Spier allowed an RBI single to Tony Batista, who had popped out twice against Bush, giving Les Expos all the runs they would need.
Because the game technically a home game for Montreal, that meant Bush was batted ninth in the order. Bush came to Wake Forest as a catcher, but never batted in a game. His first at-bat since high school came against former World Series MVP Livan Hernandez. Bush made contact against Hernandez and his flare into short right field was caught by the second baseman, Vidro.
In his second at-bat, Bush attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt. But the bunt went quickly back to Hernandez who got the lead runner at third, and Bush was aboard on a fielder's choice.