Toronto Blue Jays: Top 10 moments from the 2020 season

5.  Pearson’s major league debut

Long the fodder for pre-game shows and 30-minute specials, Nate Pearson was starting to feel like an apparition, a player who just existed in name and not flesh.

But finally, after years of radar gun watching, the 6’6, 250-pounder from Odessa, Fla. made his major league debut.

His assignment was not easy. Although it was technically a Blue Jays home game, the start came in Washington D.C. against the defending World Series champions.

On top of the unfamiliar environment, Pearson also had to contend with a lack of support in the stands. For the biggest moment thus far of his baseball life, his family would not be in attendance.

As if the situation couldn’t get more intimidating, standing opposite Pearson was three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, and leading off for the Nationals was none other than hit machine Trea Turner.

For his first pitch in the big leagues, Pearson froze Turner with a 94 m.p.h. fastball inside. After missing up in the zone with a 96 m.p.h. heater, he threw Turner two vicious sliders to get the speedster swinging. That was all Pearson needed to find his groove.

The product of Central Florida Community College cruised through five innings of two-hit ball, not allowing a run and striking out five. Although the Blue Jays would go on to lose the game 4-0 in extras, the overarching storyline of Pearson’s debut was a complete success.

While Pearson struggled to regain the form he found in Washington before going down with an elbow injury in mid-August, the tall right-hander flashed ace level stuff. His fastball didn’t quite hit the numbers that were teased at the start of the year, but with some experience under his belt, look for Pearson to test the limits of that radar gun next season.