Lodi native makes Major League Baseball debut
Mitch Walding didn’t answer his phone when it rang at 3 a.m. Eastern Time, early on Wednesday.
Thinking it was a telemarketer, he set his phone aside. Then he got a call from his coach with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
That missed call was the big one — his call-up to The Show.
Walding, 25, made his Major League Baseball debut on Wednesday against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, after cobbling together a few hours of sleep on the flight from the East Coast.
“It’s kind of surreal. We almost don’t believe it’s real,” said Karrie Walding, Mitch’s mother. “We’re in shock. A lot of emotions today.
“He started playing baseball when he was 4, so we’ve been waiting for this since he was basically 4 years old.”
Once Walding got the call, he phoned Lodi to let his parents know. It was around midnight on the West Coast, and the Waldings also got almost no sleep as they planned their last-minute trip to see his debut at Dodger Stadium.
The debut itself wasn’t exactly what a rookie hopes for — Walding, wearing No. 29 and starting at third base, went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Two of his strikeouts were swinging against Dodgers starter Ross Stripling, and two were looking — one to Stripling and one to reliever Pat Venditte, a switch-pitcher who went after Walding as a southpaw.
Walding was solid in the field, throwing out Matt Kemp on a groundout in the fifth, and throwing out Yasmani Grandal at second base on another ground ball from Kemp in the seventh. Kemp also hit a home run and a double, with the double screaming down the line past Walding in the first inning.
The Phillies lost two players to the disabled list in the past few days, both to foul balls — shortstop Pedro Florimon left Dodger Stadium on Tuesday with a fractured bone in his foot after fouling a pitch onto the top of his foot, and outfielder Rhys Hoskins went on the DL on Wednesday after fouling a ball into his chin on Monday. Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters on Wednesday that a CT scan revealed a fracture in Hoskins’ jaw.
Walding was drafted in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft out of St. Mary’s High in Stockton, and has risen steadily through the ranks of the minor leagues. This was his first season starting at Triple-A after he was a late call-up from the Double-A Reading Fightin’ Phils last year.
So far in Triple-A this year, he’s batting .271 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 48 games.
“I’m glad for him because he worked his tail off to get to this point,” IronPigs manager Gary Jones said. “It’s always good to tell a guy [who]
has been grinding his way through the system, worked for everything he’s got. It’s well deserved.”
Walding joins the Phillies in the middle of a West Coast swing, with Wednesday’s game the third of a four-game series against the Dodgers. On Friday, the Phillies begin a three-game series at San Francisco.
“I know he’s looking forward to the Giants game this weekend,” Karrie said. “He’s got all kinds of friends and family that are going to see him.”
Walding batted .442 his senior year for a St. Mary’s team that won the Tri-City Athletic League with a 9-1 record and won the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I title with a 24-10 record.