Los Angeles Angels fans aren’t used to getting good news about their pitchers based on actually games just yet, but Sam Aldegheri provided some with his performance for Team Italy, striking out eight hitters in 4-2/3 shutout innings as Italy beat Brazil in their WBC opener.
Aldegheri, who also gave up just one hit, is the first Italian-born player to reach the majors in almost 80 years, so the nationalistic pride he inspired from Team Italy manager Francisco Cervelli was understandable.
Everybody's proud of him -- the first pitcher ever pitching in the Major Leagues [born and raised] in Italy," said Cervelli, who's known Aldegheri for the better part of two years now in a piece written by David Adler of MLB.com. "We had this idea a long time ago about [saving] this game for him."
The game represented a strong start for Team Italy, which made it to the quarterfinals back in the 2023 WBC, but it probably meant even more to Aldeghiri. Like many Angels pitching prospects, he’s been rushed to the majors, so he’s had some of the struggles that typically come with that.
Not so much this time, although Aldegheri did admit to feeling a lot of pressure.
"I was trying to not think about it the last couple of days," Aldegheri said of preparing to make his start with the hopes of Italian baseball resting on his shoulders. "But this morning I was feeling a lot of pressure."
That emotion became even more prominent when the Italian national anthem was played at Daikin Park in Houston, which is where the game was played.
"I had goosebumps all over my body," Aldegheri said. "It was chilling. I was in the bullpen next to our pitching coach, [Alessandro] Maestri, who has been on this stage a couple of times. I was just feeling it deep inside. I was just trying to think about the game. But in those moments it's hard. You have all these feelings about back home -- everything goes through your mind. So it was really cool."
His first strike out early, and that helped settle Aldegheri down and reminded him to just be himself. Seven more strikeouts followed, and both Team Italy and the Angels would take that performance that then some if the pitcher is able to deliver consistently.
But Aldegheri also had to whether a lack of support, as Team Italy was also held scoreless for the first six innings before breaking out to post the 8-0 final score, so this one wasn’t quite as easy as it looked in the box score.
That made it an even better lab experiment for the Angels, who are hoping Aldegeri can bring some of the poise and stuff he showed back to camp after the WBC, although the pitcher admitted that the experience was unique, even when compared to his big league start.
"It's different," Aldegheri said. "Playing for your country is something that you can't really explain -- but you can feel it, feel all the support from back home. It's amazing."