After recording the first save of his professional baseball career, Chase De Jong was in the middle of giving a shoutout to his teammates when he got a celebratory shower courtesy of them.
The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander took a twisting path to the milestone moment that he called “very humbling,” so De Jong was grateful after getting the final five outs in a 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night at American Family Field .
“It’s been an incredible journey,” De Jong said in an on-field postgame interview with Robbie Incmikoski of AT&T SportsNet. “A lot of people helped along the way and I want to thank each and every one of them. (This) was pretty special. I’ve never gotten a save before. It’s pretty cool to have earned this organization’s trust in situations like that.”
The 28-year-old De Jong leads Pirates pitchers in both ERA (1.95) and WHIP (0.96) in 55 1/3 innings over 30 relief appearances this season, resurrecting his career after season-ending knee surgery last year and receiving a non -roster invite to spring training.
After being drafted in the second round by Toronto in 2012 and traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers three years later, De Jong bounced from Seattle to Houston to Minnesota to the Pirates, including a stint playing independent baseball in Sugar Land, Texas. He started 19 of 24 games in his first five major league seasons before moving to the bullpen this season, where he has thrived in multiple roles.
“Chase is a great dude. We all love him here,” said Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller, who started against the Brewers and had a career-high 10 strikeouts. “His journey to the big leagues has been different than a lot of ours. To see his perseverance, even in that last inning, the perseverance he showed to get through it and make pitches.”
De Jong replaced lefty Manny Banuelos with one out in the eighth inning, and got Willy Adames to fly out to center and Hunter Renfroe to pop up to short.
With All-Star closer David Bednar on the injured list, rookie right-hander Yerry De Los Santos out for the rest of the season and Wil Crowe blowing a save opportunity a night earlier, Pirates manager Derek Shelton kept De Jong in for the ninth.
Shelton stuck with De Jong after he gave up a leadoff double to Kolten Wong followed by a single to Keston Hiura. The Brewers had pinch-hit for lefties Jace Peterson and Garrett Mitchell, so Shelton liked the right-on-right matchups against McCutchen and Urias.
“I pride myself in, I want to take the ball as much as I can, every day if possible and do something to help the team win. It’s a role that, it’s not glamorous,” said De Jong, who has pitched multiple innings in all but six of his relief appearances this season. “That’s one of the first bigger situations I’ve thrown in this year, but you’ve just got to be mentally ready to go in and try to help the team.”
The Pirates backed up De Jong with great defense. It started with shortstop Oneil Cruz chasing Andrew McCutchen’s pop fly into shallow left field for the first out, holding Wong at third base.
“The guy’s got a canon for an arm,” De Jong said, “so he’s got to respect it and not tag up.”
The double play that ended it. pic.twitter.com/ika4saCwea
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 31, 2022
With a full count against Luis Urias, De Jong got him to ground to second, where Rodolfo Castro went to his left to field it and spun to throw back to second, where Cruz fired to first to turn what De Jong called a “phenomenal double play” to end the game and clinch his first career save.
Shelton said he was “really excited” for De Jong.
“I’ve known Chase a long time. This guy has grinded through a lot, went to indy ball,” Shelton said. “To come in there in a big situation, get us out of the eighth and then do that in the ninth was outstanding. I was really happy for him.”
So were his teammates, who dumped a cooler of ice water on De Jong during his postgame interview. De Jong didn’t seem to mind, given that he helped the Pirates beat the Brewers one night after losing to them on a walk-off home run.
“This year he’s been nails for us, too,” Pirates first baseman Michael Chavis said of De Jong. “You can’t say enough about him as a guy, either. So just being part of his first save is awesome. We get to celebrate with him and things like that. He’s been throwing so well. That’s good for him, good for us and that’s really great to see.”
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .