Former Cal Poly second baseman Mark Mathias made his first Major League start Wednesday night, playing left field and batting seventh in the Milwaukee Brewers lineup.
Mathias went 1-for-3 with a single in his first Major League at-bat and scored the only run of the game as the Brewers beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Mathias stroked a 1-1 pitch from White Sox southpaw Dallas Keuchel into center field for a leadoff single in the third inning.
Mathias advanced to second base on a single by Orlando Arcia and scored the game's first run on the Brewers' third consecutive hit of the inning, a single to center field by Eric Sogard.
With one out and runners at first and second in the fourth inning, Mathias flied out to center field. He led off the seventh inning and lined out to shortstop. He was in the on-deck circle when the Brewers were retired in the ninth.
On Tuesday, Mathias became the 18th Cal Poly baseball player to play in the Major Leagues.
A Mustang baseball player from 2013-15, Mathias was inserted into Tuesday's game as a pinch-runner for Ryon Healy after a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning. He moved to third on another single by Omar Narvaez, but Ben Gamel ended the game by grounding out.
Mathias was recalled from the Brewers' alternate training site in Appleton, Wisc., on Monday. In early July, Major League teams named a 30-man playing roster as well as up to 30 players to practice at alternate training sites prior to the restart of the 2020 season.
Cal Poly has produced 18 Major League players and one coach.
Mathias, who celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday, has played second, shortstop, third and left field as a professional. He played all of last season at Class AAA Columbus in the Cleveland organization, recording a career-high .797 OPS with a .274 batting average, 12 home runs, 59 RBI and 13 stolen bases over 115 games.
Mathias claimed the Big West batting title in 2014 with a .386 average and hit .356 the following year, earning first-team Big West honors both seasons. The second baseman was Big West Field Player of the Year and a second-team All-American in 2014 and stole 21 of 29 bases in his three Mustang seasons. He was named to Cal Poly's All-Time NCAA Division I squad (1995-2019) in January.
Mathias was a third-round pick of the Cleveland Indians in 2015 and has a .258 batting average in five minor league seasons at Mahoning Valley, Akron, Lynchburg and Columbus.
In December, he was traded by the Indians to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for catcher Andres Melendez as Cleveland had no room on its 40-man roster to protect Mathias from the Rule 5 Draft.
A graduate of Irvington High School in Fremont, Calif., Mathias was one of five former Mustangs named to the 60-man player pools of their respective teams in early July.
Former Mustang first baseman/designated hitter Brian Mundell is in the Player Pool of the Colorado Rockies and right-handed pitcher Spencer Howard was placed in the Player Pool of the Philadelphia Phillies. Mitch Haniger, currently on the injured list, is getting ready for his fourth season with the Seattle Mariners while right-handed pitcher Bud Norris, who signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in January, is in the club's Player Pool.
-Provided by Cal Poly
