Major League Baseball

Rockies' rookie has memorable major league debut

Published Jun. 20, 2010 2:09 p.m. ET

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Chris Nelson bunted his way on base in his first major league at-bat and all everyone could talk about afterward was his power at the plate.

Nelson sparked Colorado's wild victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday night with a heads-up, shoulder-down play that had teammates and fans alike wondering if he had ever played football growing up in Georgia.

Nope, he was too busy on the diamond to ever get to the gridiron.

So, his linebacker-like play?

``I don't know where it came from,'' Nelson said.

Summoned from the minors 24 hours earlier to replace star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (broken wrist), Nelson hit for the pitcher with a runner at second base, nobody out in the eighth and the score tied at 4.

His instructions for his major league debut were simple: bunt the ball down the third-base line.

He did just that and when Brad Hawpe beat right-hander Kameron Loe's throw to third, the Rockies had runners at the corners. Ian Stewart followed with a walk to load the bases and Jason Giambi's sacrifice fly with one out gave the Rockies a 5-4 lead.

Then, Seth Smith dropped a single into left and Nelson was waved around third, but Ryan Braun's perfect throw to catcher Jonathan Lucroy had him nailed by several feet.

``He was going to be very out,'' Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

His only hope was to jar the ball loose, but how often does that work?

``I was initially going to slide headfirst and try to get under the tag, then I heard the mitt pop when he caught the ball, so I just tried to do everything I could to pop the ball loose,'' Nelson said.

He thwacked Lucroy's mitt with his left shoulder and the ball went flying so far that Stewart also scored on the strange play in which Lucroy was charged with an error and Smith was credited with a run-scoring single.

Smith ended up at third and scored on Jonathan Herrera's fourth single of the night, giving the Rockies a four-run cushion.

They needed every bit of it as Corey Hart's three-run homer, his 18th, with two outs in the ninth made it 8-7 before Rafael Betancourt secured the win by retiring Lucroy on a lineout to right with the bases loaded.

Barreling over the catcher to spark the game-deciding rally. It doesn't get much better than that for a major league debut, especially when all that was expected of him was a sacrifice bunt.

``That was pretty aggressive, wasn't it?'' Tracy said. ``That was a very, very clean baseball play, nothing dirty about it. He went through the catcher and tried to jar the ball loose and that's exactly what happened.

``If you want to get right down to it, it's a difference-maker in the game.''

When was the last time he jarred the ball out of the catcher's mitt like that?

``That was the first time ever,'' Nelson said.

These are the kinds of instincts that led the Rockies to draft Nelson in the first round in 2004.

Six summers later, here he was coming up with a huge hit - minus the bat - in his major league debut.

``He hit me pretty good,'' Lucroy said. ``He hit my hands. He didn't hurt me, he hit me pretty much perfect to knock it out. He didn't want to hit me square on, he tried to hit my hands and my glove. It was a good job on his part. If he would have hit me square on he would have been out.''

Nelson sure won't have to worry about any rookie hazing now.

``I owe him a dinner or something,'' Smith said. ``I told him if anyone messes with him, I'll take care of it.''

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