Easter (B)eggs showed no sign of cracking

Dustin Beggs was surprised how little his nerves acted up in his Triple-A debut. His performance echoed his sentiment, as he weaved in and out of trouble like a confident veteran in his Baby Cakes debut on Easter Sunday against the Omaha Storm Chasers.
"I wasn't really as nervous as I thought I was going to be," Beggs said. "You tell yourself it's the same plate, same game. The only thing that changes is the people defensively and the people offensively. I just kept telling myself that yesterday, and it worked out for me."
Called up to fill in for an injured Joe Gunkel, Beggs threw seven shutout innings, securing his first win at the Triple-A level. He retired 15 of the last 17 Storm Chasers he faced, including two strikeouts in his final inning. He punched out seven total, against a lineup that strikes out the least in the Pacific Coast League.
Beggs threw first pitch strikes against 16 of the 27 hitters he faced, which he said gave him an edge.
"If you get your first pitch strikes across, it makes it a lot easier to do what you want to do and follow the game plan you've talked about."
While Beggs found a lot of success in the late innings, in the early going it seemed improbable his start would last more than a few innings. Of his seven hits allowed, six came in the first three innings. He had to work out of an early jam that saw Cheslor Cuthbert, Erick Mejia and Bubba Starling bloop back-to-back-to-back singles into left field to lead off the second.
Remaining composed and not letting the pressure of his debut get to him, Beggs induced a weak pop up to third, struck out catcher Nick Dini, who came into the game hitting .440, and got a routine ground ball to second to escape the jam.
"If they were hitting the ball really hard and hitting triples and doubles, then I would change something. But I knew what I was doing was working because I was getting soft contact. So I told myself to stay with that approach and trust [catcher Bryan Holaday] that we were going to get through it."
The Storm Chasers began the third with two straight singles as well. But, a caught stealing and two strikeouts later, Beggs had escaped two jams in three Triple-A innings completely unscathed.
The rest came comparatively easy, and the 25-year-old righty from the University of Kentucky made his first mark in the PCL. To make the day even more special, it also happened to be Beggs's mother's birthday.
"I'm not sure where they're at right now, actually. They travel a lot. But I know they were watching on the app."
Sunday was Beggs's eighth quality start in his last nine starts, dating back to last year. The only start that didn't make the qualifications was his 2019 season debut, which was cut short after just one out due to rain. So even though Beggs was brought to Triple-A as an injury replacement, his on-field performance warranted the promotion, and more outings like Sunday's will cause more heads to turn.