Ex-Vaq Axelrod gets 1st Major League start
SBCC BASEBALL
By Dave Loveton, sports information
Monday, Sept. 12, 2011
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Right-hander to face red-hot Tigers
Former SBCC right-hander Dylan Axelrod will make his first Major League Baseball start on Wednesday, Sept. 14 for the Chicago
White Sox when they host the Detroit Tigers. He got the start after Jake Peavy was shut down for the remainder of the 2011
season with arm fatigue. To enhance the challenge of his first start, Axelrod gets to face quite possibly the hottest team
in Major League Baseball.
"I mean, that just adds to the excitement of it," Axelrod said. "It's a great opportunity to go against a team that's hot
like that. It makes it that much better."
Axelrod, 26, pitched for SBCC in 2004-05 before playing at UC Irvine. This season, he posted a 9-3 record and 2.69 ERA over
26 combined appearances for Double-A Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte. Twenty-four of those 26 games came as a starter, and
Axelrod fanned 132 and walked a mere 35 in 150 2/3 innings.
"First of all, it's whatever they need me to do," Axelrod said. "But I like starting. I like having a routine. It helps."
Axelrod was called up by the White Sox on Monday, Sept. 5. He pitched two innings of scoreless relief in his Major League
debut.
The former Santa Barbara High hurler set SBCC's single-season strikeout record with 117 in 2005.
Axelrod entered the 2011 season ranked by Baseball America as having the best control in the White Sox's minor-league system.
He helped UC Irvine to a spot in the College World Series in 2007.
He was signed as a free agent in August of 2009 out of the independent Frontier League, shortly after he had been released
by the San Diego Padres.
This story includes information from MLB.COM and ESPN's Doug Padilla in Chicago.
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