Ben Joyce made headlines — and college baseball history — last year with his triple-digit fastball.
The right-hander lived up to his fire-balling billing in his Major League debut Monday.
Joyce topped out at 102 mph for the Angels as he struck out two in a scoreless inning against the White Sox.
“It felt awesome. I felt very comfortable, a lot more comfortable than I thought I’d feel,” Joyce said, according to MLB.com.
“Just went out and trusted my stuff and threw strikes, and it worked out. It was an amazing feeling.”
According to Baseball Savant, the University of Tennessee product had the 11 hardest pitches of the game and topped out at 102.2 mph.
His only pitch that did not reach at least 100 mph was his one breaking pitch, an 89 mph slider.
In relief of starter Griffin Canning, Joyce yielded a leadoff single to Andrew Vaughn but then fanned Gavin Sheets and Romy Gonzalez before inducing a flyout from Yasmani Grandal to end the seventh inning.
The high-velocity heater was par for the course for the 22-year-old, who set the NCAA record with a 105.5 mph pitch for Tennessee in 2022, which was just a few ticks short of Aroldis Chapman’s record 105.8 mph pitch for the Reds in 2010.
He whiffed 53 batters in 32 ⅓ innings with the Volunteers, holding a 2.23 ERA.
Speed has never been an issue for the right-hander, but he’s had several injuries — previously undergoing Tommy John surgery — and battled control issues.
For Double-A Rocket City this season, Joyce walked 13 in 15 ⅔ innings.
Four of those free passes came in ⅔ of an inning in an ignominious April 8 game when the Trash Pandas threw a no-hitter but ended up on the losing side against the Chattanooga Lookouts.
But on Sunday, when Los Angeles called up the 2022 third-round pick call-up to replace the injured Matt Moore, Angels manager Phil Nevin praised the prospect for his improving control.
“He’s commanding where we wanted him to be,” Nevin said, according to Yahoo. “There’s some things we felt like he needed to work on. We’re still developing here.”
