In first major league start, Turlock’s Kevin Kramer gets first career hit, RBI

Kevin Kramer’s major-league career is off to a fast start.

Called up to the Pittsburgh Pirates last week, the Turlock High graduate made the most of his first career start.

On Friday, he had his first career hit in the third inning — a liner to right field — then drove in the game-tying run in the seventh inning to help lift the Pirates to a 5-3 victory over the Miami Marlins.

Twelve of Kramer’s family members took red-eyes from California to see him play, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

“To have my 4-year-old nephew with my name on his back, on his jersey, that’s priceless,” Kramer told the newspaper.

Kramer started at second base before moving to third. Batting second in the lineup, he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run.

In his first at-bat in the first inning, he lined out to left field. In the third, he lined a sharp single to right field. TV cameras caught his smiling family members in the crowd, and the ball was tossed back to the Pirates’ bench for safe-keeping.

In the fifth, he lined out to end the inning before coming to the plate in the seventh. With two out and Jody Mercer on third, Kramer had his first career RBI on a single to center to tie the game at 3.

“High fives all around,” said a Pirates announcer as the cameras focused on celebrating family members.

The game-tying single came off a pitch clocked at 100.6 mph.

“I knew (Tayron Guerrero) threw hard,” Kramer told The Associated Press. “I had never faced him before. I just wanted to be early, because I knew it would be impossible to be early.”