France shakes off nerves in memorable Major League debut

SEATTLE -- In the hours after he was told he would be making his Major League debut Saturday night against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park, J.P. France kept telling his teammates at Triple-A Sugar Land that the first inning was going to be the key. Just get through the first inning and everything would be fine.

“That first inning is usually my Kryptonite,” he said.

So when the Mariners loaded the bases with one out in the first, France had to dig deep and make some clutch pitches to keep his big night from going awry. He struck out Cal Raleigh and Teoscar Hernández to end the threat, and proceeded to throw five scoreless innings in a 7-5 loss to the Mariners.

“By getting out of that first inning, it helped me relax a little bit more,” France said. “Going through those five innings, everything felt good. It’s just surreal being out there. Facing those guys now and knowing I can do that, it’s definitely going to shoot my confidence through the roof even more. It’s an amazing experience.”

The Mariners rallied for seven runs with two outs in the eighth inning against the Houston bullpen, costing France his first Major League win. He’s the first Astros pitcher to throw at least five scoreless innings in his Major League debut since Hunter Brown tossed six scoreless last Sept. 5 against the Rangers.

“It was a solid outing,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “I was hoping to give him the victory lineup [card] on his first start. He didn’t seem in awe of the situation or the magnitude of the game, and we were proud of him.”

The first batter France faced was 2022 American League Rookie of the Year Julio Rodríguez. France threw three consecutive balls before coming back to strike him out swinging. Catcher Yainer Diaz tossed the ball toward the Houston dugout as a souvenir for his batterymate.

“Three-0 is obviously not ideal, but to be able to come back and to be able to strike somebody like him out, it’s awesome,” said France, who was called up from Triple-A on Thursday after the Astros lost starting pitchers José Urquidy (shoulder) and Luis Garcia (Tommy John surgery) to injury on consecutive days earlier this week.

The good feelings quickly turned to despair as Seattle’s Ty France singled, Jarred Kelenic was hit by a pitch and Eugenio Suárez walked, loading the bases with one out. The strikeouts of Raleigh and Hernández started a stretch in which France retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. He admitted there were some early nerves.

“While I was waiting for the game, my brain was kind of going in spurts, like, ‘Hey, it’s the same game we’ve always played. It’s 60 feet, 6 inches away,’” he said. “A couple of seconds later, my brain would flip like, ‘Hey, you’re debuting today in Seattle.’ And that was doing that for a good two hours while I was waiting in [the clubhouse]. The whole time I was out there, the heart rate got elevated, but as long as I kept my eyes down and on the field and on Yainer back there, I was fine.”

France relied mostly on his four-seam fastball among his 84 pitches, throwing that pitch 31 times (37 percent). He mixed in his curveball 18 times, cutter 14 times, slider 13 times and threw eight changeups. He got two strikeouts on fastballs, two on sliders and one on a curveball.

“The third, fourth and fifth innings were more like I usually pitch -- trusting the cutter,” he said. “The first and second inning, I think we were throwing a little more sliders. The slider was working today. Just sometimes I was trying to make it too nasty and that’s why it was balling up every time.”

There were about a dozen friends and family members in the stands cheering France on. That included his parents, Pat and Kim, along with his wife, Jessica, and their 3-month-old son, Liam, who had a pacifier with a plastic mustache that is similar to Dad’s.

“They said he was a trouper,” France said. “They showed me pictures of him with the mustache binky he’s got in and they said that picture is everywhere right now. That little man is a trouper. He’s been to six or seven different states in his three months of being on this planet. He didn’t know what he signed up for, but he’s going to figure it out.”

The ride is just starting.