Former Buhach Colony star struggles in his Major League debut for Oakland Athletics
Daulton Jefferies’ Major League Baseball debut was a tough one on Saturday afternoon against the Texas Rangers.
Jefferies lasted two innings in his first career start for the Oakland Athletics. The former Cal-Berkeley and Buhach Colony ace gave up five runs on five hits and two walks before he was lifted before the start of the third inning. The Texas Rangers defeated Oakland 5-2 in the first game of a doubleheader.
The 25-year old right-hander suffered from rare control issues in the first inning, surrendering two walks before Texas’ Roughned Odor laced a three-run home run over the right-field wall to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.
Jefferies walked just nine batters over 79 innings of Single-A and Double-AA baseball in 2019.
Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus followed Odor’s blast with a single and Ronald Guzman added a two-run home run to give the Rangers a 5-0 lead in the first inning.
The Rangers sent all nine hitters in their lineup to the plate in a first inning that saw Jefferies throw 35 pitches.
Jefferies rebounded to throw a scoreless second inning.
He threw 53 pitches in his two-inning outing, with 34 finding the strike zone. The A’s trailed 5-1 after two innings when Jefferies was pulled from the game.
Oakland selected Jefferies, who graduated from Buhach Colony in 2013, with the 37th pick overall in the first round of the 2016 MLB draft out of Cal. Jefferies was the Merced Sun-Star High School Baseball Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
Jeffries was a first-round pick, going 37th overall in 2016 MLB draft. Jefferies underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, which sidelined him for most of the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Jefferies graduated from Buhach Colony High School in 2013.
