Jaime Barria was nine months old and probably crawling around in diapers in his Panama City, Panama, home when Bartolo Colon made his major-league debut for the Cleveland Indians at Angel Stadium on April 4, 1997.
Friday night, Barria, now 21 and an Angels starter, stood on the same mound Colon threw his first big-league pitch from more than two decades ago, and opposing him was the seemingly ancient and ageless Colon, the 45-year-old who is still pitching, this season for the Texas Rangers.
Youth prevailed, and it wasn’t even close. Barria, a rookie right-hander making his seventh major-league start, allowed four hits over six scoreless innings, striking out six and walking one, and the Angels clobbered Colon for six runs and eight hits in the first three innings of a 6-0 victory.