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Veteran southpaw Scott Kazmir made his first big-league appearance since September 2016 when he started for the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. Kazmir, 37 years old, took the mount againsts the Los Angeles Dodgers, the MLB team for whom he pitched most recently.
Kazmir completed four innings, allowing a run on two hits (including a Max Muncy solo home run in the first inning) and no walks. He struck out two batters on 55 pitches. Kazmir averaged 91.8 mph on his fastball and generated three whiffs on 28 swings. Two of those swinging strikes came on his four-seamer.
The Giants had an open spot in their rotation because of injuries to both Aaron Sanchez and Logan Webb. Sanchez has been dealing with tight biceps while Webb has a strained shoulder.
Kazmir, appearing in his 13th big-league season, debuted in The Show as a 20-year-old in 2004 with the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He had an uneven, if occasionally brilliant career thereafter. Kazmir made three All-Star Games, but a six-year gap came between his second and third. This comeback, in a sense, qualifies as the second of his career: injuries and poor performance left him on the outs following the 2011 season. Nevertheless, he was able to recover and reemerge as a member of the Cleveland rotation in 2013.
In two outings with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, he struck out five batters and allowed two runs on four hits and a walk over six innings. Kazmir also threw 15 innings last year with the Eastern Reyes del Tigre, a Texas-based independent team that plays in the Constellation Energy League. He allowed 16 hits and seven earned runs while striking out 10.
Kazmir entered Saturday with 298 career big-league outings. Over those, he accumulated a 4.01 ERA (104 ERA+) and a 2.36 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Giants will be his seventh organization, joining the Rays, Dodgers, and Cleveland. Kazmir also pitched for the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, and Houston Astros. He was originally drafted 15th overall by the New York Mets in 2002.