Mariners Season Review: Top 5 Moments In June

2. Diaz Makes His Electrifying Debut- June 6th

With the departure of Felix Hernandez to the DL earlier in the week, the Mariners were in need of an explosive replacement. Luckily for them, they had the perfect guy waiting in the minors to be a skillful power-pitcher.

Edwin Diaz was doing very well in AA ball before the Mariners called him up to be part of the bullpen. He had shown off his high-nineties fastball at the lower levels, but he was ready to bring a little something extra up in the big leagues.

Diaz would come in the seventh inning, down 3-1, to replace James Paxton. The crowd cheered with excitement as he made his way to the hill. Most of us had heard about his fiery fastball, but few had seen it. The crowd waited on every pitch.

Diaz thrilled the crowd hurling the ball over 100MPH often. He would reach a max speed of 101.2MPH. After his first strikeout on a fastball thrown at 100MPH, most of the crowd came to their feet. We were all watching the young man develop so quickly before our eyes, doing things few pitches have ever done in the sport. And, doing it so well.

His perfect seventh inning was the beautiful start to what will hopefully be a long, successful career as one of the league’s most intimidating and masterful power-pitchers.