Chris Tillman debuts! Or Ryan Freel makes his long awaited return to Camden Yards

Sorry if the title of the post confused anyone; I had to make the joke since Freel (on his third team this season) is in town with the Royals.

But, seriously, Chris Tillman made his big league debut last night against KC. He didn't do too well or poorly but kept the Orioles in the game and left to a nice standing "O"vation from the fans who waited through a 45 minute rain delay to see his debut. Chris pitched 4.2 innings and allowed 3 earned runs, which were all solo home runs, so I can make the argument that he really only threw three bad pitches. He did throw 58 of his 93 pitches for strikes and while that is a lot for 4.2 innings, at least he was keeping it in the zone.

Here are some of my pictures and autographs of Tillman:


I have to start with the shot of Tillman and me at the Tides game I attended earlier this season. You can read about the trip here if you missed the post.




The Tides have one player sign on the concourse when the gates open and I was lucky enough that it was Tillman! You can even see that he is smiling in this picture although he appears to prefer being photographed straight-faced.



I got this Tillman card signed last year while he was at Bowie. He was a consistently good signer and I was able to get him a few times.




Here is Tillman in the dugout before the game. I like to think he was visualizing a W.



And here is Chris Tillman's first Major League pitch. Here's to hoping that there are many more pitches and victories in his future with the Birds. And I won't complain if he mixes a few Cy Young trophies and World Series rings in too.