Mark Steven Portugal (born October 30, 1962) is a former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who played in the major leagues from 1985 to 1999.

Career

Portugal attended Norwalk High School in

Norwalk, California Norwalk is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 105,549 at the 2010 census and an estimated 103,949 in 2019. It is the 58th most densely-populated city in California. Founded in the late 19th century, Nor ...

. He was signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1980. In 1984, he went 14–7 for the

Orlando Twins Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

of the Southern League"Mark Portugal Minor League Statistics & History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-1. and made his major league debut the following season. Portugal spent the rest of the decade in either AAA or the majors. In 1988, he was traded to the Houston Astros. In 1989, he went 7–1 with a 2.75

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

for them and won a spot in the starting rotation. He had his best season in 1993, when he won 18 games, led the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

in winning percentage, and finished sixth in the Cy Young Award voting. Portugal signed with the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

as a free agent in 1994. Typically a .200 hitter, he led all regular starting pitchers with a .354 batting average in 1994 and won the

Silver Slugger Award The Silver Slugger Award has been awarded annually since 1980 to the best offensive player at each position in both the American League and the National League, as determined by the coaches and managers of Major League Baseball. These voters co ...

. The following season, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. Portugal played for several teams over the next few years and retired in 2000.

References

External links

Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portugal, Mark 1962 births Living people Baseball players from Los Angeles Boston Red Sox players Cincinnati Reds players Elizabethton Twins players Houston Astros players Major League Baseball pitchers Minnesota Twins players Orlando Twins players People from Norwalk, California Philadelphia Phillies players Portland Beavers players San Francisco Giants players Silver Slugger Award winners Tigres de Aragua players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Toledo Mud Hens players Tucson Toros players Visalia Oaks players Wisconsin Rapids Twins players

Career

See also

References

External links