Is Matt Palmer (4-0) real?

A lot of people have been waiting for Matt Palmer to crack. It looked like it was finally going to happen Wednesday night. I mean, how does a 30-year-old career minor league pitcher go unscathed for a month in the majors? If you’re good enough to start the season 4-0 with a 3.37 ERA, you usually get discovered before your 30th birthday.

The first-inning home run Jason Bay hit off him was absolutely hammered. It was one of those that you weren’t wondering if it was out, just how far. It took a great play by Erick Aybar to get Palmer out of a rocky second inning in which the Red Sox added two more runs to Bay’s two-run homer.

After toiling in the San Francisco Giants minor league system for seven years, Palmer was admittedly already heaping pressure on himself to deliver in this opportunity with the Angels. Add to that the return of two-all star pitchers and it was an obvious time for Palmer to cave. Before the game Angels manager Mike Scioscia even left it open for Shane Loux to return to the rotation the next time around and you can bet he wasn’t going to take anybody’s spot but Palmer’s.

After dropping himself into a 4-0 hole, Palmer was untouchable. He retired 19 in a row, 22 of his last 23. After Bay’s third-inning single was negated by an inning-ending double play, not a single Red Sock (is that the singular of Sox?) reached base.

Palmer pitched his first career complete game and the Angels won 8-4.

After the game Scioscia had some interesting insight on Palmer’s rise to prominance. First of all he thought Palmer only started two games for the Giants last season – his first and only major-league starts – because San Francisco “has the best young arms in the major leagues.” Secondly, he thought Palmer didn’t have the type of stuff that’s going to wow scouts. But he quickly followed that up with the fact that Palmer proved he could win in the minor leagues.

Four starts in the big leagues. Four wins.

At this rate, Palmer may not just be keeping a spot in the rotation warm for Kelvim Escobar.

“He spent seven years in the minor leagues” Torii Hunter said. “but he’s up here now, fulfilling his dream, pitching his butt off.”

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