ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Tucker Davidson was in bed Sunday morning when his phone rang with Braves manager Brian Snitker on the line.
Five days after watching the World Series opener from a hotel room about 700 miles from the ballpark, the Atlanta prospect was going to start Game 5.
鈥淚 was pumped,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was like: `Let鈥檚 go do this!'鈥�
Davidson's journey from World Series viewer to pitcher resulted in neither stardom nor shame. He looked like the inexperienced rookie he is, struggling to throw strikes.
A 25-year-old left-hander making his first big league appearance in 4 1/2 months, against the Houston Astros, who roared back from a four-run deficit for a 9-5 win Sunday night that forced Game 6.
鈥淲e were going to try to stretch him as far as we could, and I think we did,鈥� Snitker said.
Given a 4-0 lead by Adam Duvall鈥檚 first-inning grand slam, Davidson gave up Alex Bregman鈥檚 RBI double and Mart铆n Maldonado鈥檚 sacrifice fly in the second.
He allowed a pair of unearned runs in the third after shortstop Dansby Swanson let Jose Altuve's leadoff grounder bounce out of his glove for an error. Davidson walked Michael Brantley and was replaced by Jesse Chavez, who gave up Carlos Correa鈥檚 run-scoring double and Yuli Gurriel鈥檚 RBI groundout that tied the score 4-all.
Added to the roster after Charlie Morton broke his leg during Game 1 on Tuesday night, Davidson followed Ian Anderson and Dylan Lee to become Atlanta鈥檚 third straight rookie starting pitcher 鈥� a Series first.
Snitker informed Davidson of the starting assignment at about 11:30 a.m., his first major league appearance since June 15 and just the sixth of his career.
Snitker had deliberately delayed divulging the news to Davidson, as he had for Lee a day earlier.
鈥淚 know their phones have been blowing up and would be and processing a lot,鈥� the 66-year-old manager said.
About 8 1/2 hours later, Davidson headed to the mound for what he called 鈥渁 dream of mine for my entire life.鈥�
鈥淲alking out to the bullpen to warm up, I definitely soaked it in," he said. 鈥淧eople were chanting my name.鈥�
Then he tried to slow down. During his two innings, he repeatedly stepped off and stood on the infield grass for deep breaths.
鈥淲henever you get out there, it felt like another game,鈥� he said.
Davidson started with a slider to Altuve for a called strike and retired him on a popup. He reached 95.4 mph and got out of the first by getting Correa to ground into an inning-ending double play.
But he walked three of 11 batters and threw only 28 of 53 pitches for strikes. He allowed two hits, blowing a fastball by Astros pitcher Framber Valdez for his only strikeout.
When Snitker came to the mound to take the ball, third baseman Austin Riley and catcher Travis d鈥橝rnaud walked over to give Davidson pats on the back.
A 19th-round draft pick in 2016 from Midland College in Texas, Davidson made his big league debut on Sept. 26 last year against Boston. He started this season at Triple-Gwinnett and made four big league starts over a month with a 3.60 ERA and no decisions.
He went on the injured list with left forearm inflammation, and his only appearance since was in a Triple-A game Oct. 3.
鈥淚 do feel like my stuff was very good,鈥� Davidson said. 鈥淔astball command wasn鈥檛 where I wanted it to be. I left some pitches to good hitters over the plate, and they did damage to them.鈥�
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
