Nick Aiello was fascinated with the way the ball came out of Tyler Wagner’s hand. He wasn’t as impressed by how the ball jumped off the shortstop’s bat, however.
So the coach convinced Wagner, a high school senior at the time, to give pitching a try.
The rest isn’t history – not yet – but it might end up being that way judging by how well Wagner pitched Thursday afternoon in San Francisco in helping the Diamondbacks secure their first ever four-game sweep of the Giants at AT&T Park.
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Wagner came on in relief of the struggling Shelby Miller and pitched five shutout innings to post his first major-league win, becoming one of five National League pitchers since 1975 to earn a victory in a scoreless relief outing of five or more innings within their first five career games.