DeSalvo Dominates in Debut
by Mike Ashmore

BRONX, N.Y. -- If this had happened following the 2005 season, nobody would have been surprised to see Matt DeSalvo on the mound at Yankee Stadium.

But after 2006, even DeSalvo himself was a little surprised to get the call every minor leaguer dreams of.

"Coming into this season, I didn't think I'd be standing here in this locker room," he said. "But those questions, those doubts, they're out of my mind now. It doesn't matter."

The 26-year-old righty earned a spot on the 40-man roster after his 2005 campaign at Double-A Trenton, going 9-5 with a 3.02 ERA in 25 games for the Thunder.

"Last year when we broke Spring Training, everybody knows that he was the next guy on the list to come up," said Yankees GM Brian Cashman. "He had a great spring, but he couldn't follow up and he had a tough year."

Starting the year at Triple-A Columbus, DeSalvo struggled and was sent back down to Trenton after posting an abysmal 1-6 record, complete with matching 7.68 ERA.

"Matt DeSalvo's had a bad year," Yankees special advisor Reggie Jackson said last season. "He's had some off the field issues that we believe he's got straightened out."

"Every year isn't a great year," Jackson said. "But the organization still loves him and is behind him."

Well, sort of.

DeSalvo's personal problems haunted him for the rest of the season, and he was eventually designated for assignment. Any of the other 29 MLB teams could have claimed him, but he made it through waivers and remained in the Yankees organization.

But with prospects like Phil Hughes, Tyler Clippard, Chase Wright, Darrell Rasner and others ahead of him, it seemed that DeSalvo was destined to spend another season tantalizingly close to his Major League dream.

That all changed last Monday.

Before the game, the talk about DeSalvo was...well, that nobody knew all that much about him.

"I'm not familiar with him," admitted shortstop Derek Jeter. "Obviously he's done some things right or they wouldn't have called him up to pitch. But you just want him to go out there and throw strikes and give us a chance to win. But I really don't know what to expect."

Outfielder Johnny Damon echoed similar sentiments.

"I played behind him a few times in Spring Training, and that's about it," he said. "I know that he has great potential, and hopefully we get to see it tonight on the mound."

DeSalvo did more than that, showing flashes of brilliance during a seven inning performance in which he allowed one run on just three hits.

"Last year was a building block for me," he said after the game. "When you do throw a game like this, you have to remember what you went through last year to get to a point like this and keep building on it. If I forget about last year, it'll take away my building blocks and eventually I'll crumble."

DeSalvo gave a lot of credit to catcher Jorge Posada, who's familiar with catching pitchers in their Major League debuts.

"You just try to keep them as calm as you can," Posada said. "Make him laugh a little bit, make him throw his pitches and realize that everything's the same. You want to make them trust their stuff."

Despite not factoring into the decision thanks to a blown call at second base, DeSalvo not only earned a second start five days later, but the praise of a certain "unfamiliar" teammate.

"He did an outstanding job," Jeter said. "You couldn't ask for him to do anything else. He pitched well, he threw strikes, he worked quick. You couldn't ask for anything more than he did."

Yankees manager Joe Torre also walked away thinking he might finally have someone reliable for his crippled pitching staff.

"Right now, he's going to figure to fit in our rotation," he said. "Even Phil Hughes didn't have a great start his first time out there."

Nobody would have guessed before the season started that Matt DeSalvo would outshine Phil Hughes in anything.

But in the Yankees unpredictable 2007 season, anything's possible.

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