Former University of Maine and current Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña hit his first homerun in the big leagues on Friday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
Peña hammered the first pitch he saw from Los Angeles reliever Mike Mayers over the fence in left field for a solo homerun to leadoff the seventh. He got a second at bat in the inning and almost hit his second homer when he doubled off the top of the fence in left. He recorded the long ball in his seventh career MLB at bat, after picking up his first career hit (a single) in the second inning. The 2018 third round draft pick of Houston played in 182 career minor league games in the Astros system before making the big club this season. He hit the homerun as his parents were being interviewed during the broadcast. The 24 year old native of the Dominican Republic hit .303 in three seasons at UMaine (2016-2018) collecting 195 hits with 12 homeruns and 75 RBI. Peña fell just a triple short of a cycle in just his second career game, as Houston blew out Los Angeles 13-6 to go to 2-0 in the early season.
