It’s official. Palm Desert grad Travis Adams is a Major League Baseball player.
Adams, a right-handed pitcher who was a sixth-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2021, was called to the majors by the Twins in June, but was sent back down to Triple A before he got into a game.
On Saturday, though, the 25-year-old was finally able to fulfill his lifelong dream.
Adams was called up again from the team’s Triple A affiliate in St. Paul on Saturday morning and pitched for the Twins against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday afternoon. In doing so, Adams became the ninth player to play in a Major League game after attending a desert high school.
Wearing No. 45, Adams entered the game to start the third inning of Saturday’s game as the “bulk pitcher” in a bullpen game for the Twins. He pitched four full innings and was touched up a bit. He yielded five earned runs on nine hits. The Twins did, however, rally to win the game 6-5.
In all, Adams threw 68 pitches, 46 of them for strikes.
Here were some of his firsts from Saturday’s game:
There are currently two other desert grads in the Major Leagues aside from Adams. Shadow Hills grad Taylor Ward is an outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels. Now in his eighth season, he has played by far the most games of any desert product at over 600. San Diego Padres relief pitcher Jeremiah Estrada is a Palm Desert grad and has pitched in 41 games for San Diego this season.
Adams becomes the fifth Palm Desert grad to play Major League Baseball.
Desert Major Leaguers
These are the nine players who have graduated from a desert high school and gone on to play in the major leagues (in order of number of games played through Saturday, July 5):
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Travis Adams makes Major League debut with Twins, becomes desert’s ninth MLB player
Reporting by Shad Powers, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
