Tag: Joey Loperfido

Duke baseball star Joey Loperfido hits first MLB home run on Thursday night

Former Blue Devils baseball star Joey Loperfido smashed one into the stands against Oakland on Thursday night, his first big-league home run in his 11th MLB game.

The Duke baseball team beating North Carolina wasn’t the only good diamond news in Durham on Thursday night.

Joey Loperfido, the former Duke star, hit his first MLB home run on Thursday night. In his 11th MLB game, the newest Houston Astro drove a low bullet into the stands against the Oakland Athletics in front of his home crowd.

The two-run shot made it a 6-0 ballgame.

Loperfido got called up at the end of April shortly before being named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month for his performance in the minors.

Across 34 career at-bats in the big leagues now, Loperfido is batting .324 with an on-base percentage of .378 due to his three walks. His home run on Thursday was the second extra-base hit of his career after a double two games before, and he’s already compiled five RBIs in the young season.

A seventh-round draft pick in 2021, Loperfido played for the Blue Devils from 2018-21. He was named ACC Baseball Tournament MVP when Duke took home its first conference tournament title during his senior season.

Loperfido and the Astros won the game 8-1 to round out a four-game sweep of the A’s.

Former Blue Devil Joey Loperfido named Pacific Coast League Player of the Month

Former Duke star Joey Loperfido was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month after he hit 10 home runs and drove home 20 runs in 22 games.

Former Duke baseball player Joey Loperfido was named the Pacific Coast League Player of the Month for April on Friday.

Loperfido, who played for the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, hit 10 home runs and batted in 20 runs across 22 games in April. He ended the month with a .289 batting average.

The former Blue Devil notably hit three home runs in a single game on April 12. For the season with Sugar Land, Loperfido batted .287 with 13 home runs and 27 RBIs.

Loperfido won’t get the chance to defend his crown, however, as the Houston Astros called him up to the show this week. He drove in two runs with an RBI single in his debut game on Tuesday. He has two hits in his nine MLB at-bats thus far.

Loperfido played for the Blue Devils from 2018-21 before the Astros took him in the seventh round of the 2021 MLB draft.

Duke baseball alum Joey Loperfido called up by Houston Astros; set to make MLB debut

Duke baseball alum Joey Loperfido set to make MLB debut for the Houston Astros.

The Houston Astros have played horrific baseball to start the 2024 season, and now, with their backs against the wall and in desperate need of a spark, the Astros are looking to a former Duke baseball alum.

Former Blue Devils Joey Loperfido got called up to make his MLB debut on Tuesday when the Astros host the AL’s best team, the Cleveland Guardians.

Loperfido leads all minor league baseball with 13 home runs, including a solo bomb he smashed during his final game with the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Sunday. He finished the game 2-for-3, raising his OPS to 1.106 after 101 at-bats during a remarkable April.

Loperfido may not be a seasoned first baseman, but he’s had enough reps there, playing in seven games in Triple-A. His time in Durham saw him as an outfielder, so he also offers the Astros versatility defensively.

 

Houston drafted Loperfido out of Duke in the seventh round of the 2021 draft. At Duke, Loperfido started all 170 games he appeared in during his time with the Blue Devils. In his four years at Duke, Loperfido posted a .317 career batting average, collecting 201 hits, 37 doubles, nine triples, 18 home runs, and tallying 96 RBI. He drew 85 walks and held a slugging percentage of .488, adding an on-base percentage of .419. In the field, Loperfido posted a career fielding percentage of .992

Last season, he won the Astros’ Minor League Player of the Year award after slashing .278/.370/.510 with 55 extra-base hits across three levels of affiliated ball. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him as Houston’s sixth-best prospect before the season started.

The Astros are still led by the same core, which has helped them win two World Series: Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Alex Bregman. However, the rest of the lineup needs a spark.

Already ten games below .500 and six games back in the American League West, the Astros can’t rely on Jose Abreu much longer as he’s become one of the worst offensive players in the league to start the season.

The game starts Tuesday at 7:10 CT / 8:10 ET at Minute Maid Park and can be seen on MLB.TV.