5-year Marliniversary: Yamamoto shines in debut

Still talked about with sensitivity in South Florida, the trade that sent Christian Yelich from the Miami Marlins to the Milwaukee Brewers never went quite as many had hoped. For one of the players involved in that trade, however, things started quite well.

On this day five years ago, Jordan Yamamoto shined in his Major League Baseball debut. The right-hander from Hawaii threw seven incredible innings on the mound and drove in a run at the plate as Miami blanked the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-0.

In his seven shutout frames at Marlins Park on June 12, 2019, Yamamoto allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out five. He needed just 32 pitches to get through his first three innings, allowing just one walk.

Offensively, the Marlins didn't waste a lot of time staking the rookie to an early lead. After Brian Anderson drove in the game's first run with an RBI single in the first, Garrett Cooper's second grand slam in less than a month pushed the advantage to 5-0. In the fourth, however, St. Louis looked as though it would make things interesting.

A double from Paul DeJong and a single from Paul Goldschmidt put runners on the corners with nobody out. Having to work around traffic for the first time, Yamamoto was able to get Marcell Ozuna to fly out to shallow left before Yadier Molina grounded into an inning-ending double play.

In the fifth, Yamamoto was able to erase a lead-off single by Kolten Wong by getting Dexter Fowler to ground into another double play. A walk to Molina in the seventh would serve as the final baserunner of the night for the Cardinals against Yamamoto. 

While the St. Louis bats were stifled, the Marlins continued to tack on. Yamamoto helped himself by squeezing home Miguel Rojas in the bottom of the sixth. Curtis Granderson capped the scoring with a three-run home run in the eighth.

Though Yamamoto stole the show on the mound, Cooper had three hits at the plate. Anderson and Rojas each added two. Miles Mikolas took the loss for St. Louis.

As a rookie in 2019, Yamamoto had the look of a future star, winning his first four decisions. Unfortunately, he dropped his final five and has just one win since. That came in 2021 as a member of the New York Mets—the last time he pitched in the big leagues.

Although Yamamoto's career never flourished as the Marlins would have hoped, he gave the fans of South Florida a memorable debut. It came on this day five years ago.