Curtis Mead’s Tampa Bay Rays may have lost the opening game of their Major League Baseball wildcard series but not before the South Australian made a bit of baseball history.
Mead, who made his MLB debut in August, became the first Australian who isn’t a pitcher to start in a playoff game.
The 22-year-old then doubled-up on his history making deeds by becoming the first Australian to get a successful hit in the playoffs.
All the other five Australians to play in the MLB post-season, including two-time World Series winner Graeme Lloyd, have been pitchers.
But Mead, who has played mainly at third base this season after his entry to the big-time, started at second base and picked up his hit as the Rays lost to the Texas Rangers 4-0 in game one of their American League wildcard series.
Mead, who last month he became the first Australian in 12 years to hit a major league home run, also picked up a hit with his first major league at-bat two months ago.
He wasn’t a given to be on the Rays roster for the opening playoff game so to get a starting spot was a massive vote of confidence in the rookie who started his baseball career with the Adelaide Giants.
Mead is one of two Australians currently in the league, joining Perth’s Liam Hendriks – a relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who has overcome non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, to continue his career.
