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58 minutes ago
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The New York Mets were looking for a jolt.
A.J. Ewing certainly provided it in his MLB debut on Tuesday night.
Ewing walked three times, stole a base, and hit a triple. That's a rare trifecta for a debut.
In fact, he's one of just four players 22 or younger (Ewing is 21) to have a triple, a steal and at least two walks in a game in the last 25 years -- the rest of the list is James Wood, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Francisco Lindor. Not bad company, with the stat provided by Mets writer Mike Mayer.
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And if you want to take Ewing's stats to their full conclusion, to account for the triple, steal and all three walks, only three players in MLB history have ever done that at younger than 22.
Those other two: Greg Gross and Whitey Lockman -- not exactly household names, but still, it's rare company.
An important note with these stats from Mayer: This wasn't just filtering for major league debuts. This was for any game played in a season by players 22 or younger.
The fact that Ewing did it in his first-ever game at the big league level was remarkable.
It helped the Mets pull off a pretty comfortable win Tuesday night, too, and that's a lot of what they'll be focused on. They've fallen well off the pace with a rough start to the season, but it's still the first half of May. There's still time to turn things around.
If a guy like Ewing can truly provide a spark and get the Mets moving in the right direction, that's as big a deal as anything -- but a historic statistical night in his debut isn't a bad thing, either.
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