Salomón Torres Ramirez (born March 11, 1972) is a Dominican former professional baseball player. He began his career in 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 Yor ...

, and also played for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos (french: link=no, Les Expos de Montréal) were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in t ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

, and

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

Career

San Francisco Giants

Torres is best known for starting the last game of the 1993 season for the Giants, when he gave up three runs over innings to the arch-rival

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

. The Giants, winners of 103 games that season, finished in second place behind the 104-win

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

, at that time in the

National League West The National League West is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. This division was formed for the 1969 season when the National League expanded to 12 teams by adding the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos. For purpose of keeping a re ...

division. Though he was then in his first month as a Major Leaguer, some Giants fans blamed Torres for ruining a promising season and apparently never forgave him; those fans continued to heckle him when he returned to San Francisco as an opposing player. Said Torres: "They come to the park and they pay my salary, so they have the right to heckle me. If that's going to make them feel better and get over what happened in 1993, OK. But it's time to move on.... I don't think I was treated fairly by some of my teammates. And I still don't think I'm being treated fairly by the fans."

Mariners and Expos and first retirement

The Giants traded Torres to the

in mid-1995 for

Shawn Estes Aaron Shawn Estes (born February 18, 1973) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. High school Estes attended Douglas High School in Minden, Nevada. As a senior in 1991, he was named Gatorade's Nevada State Baseball Player of the Year and fin ...

and

Wilson Delgado Wilson Delgado Durán (born July 15, 1972 in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic) is a former professional baseball player who played shortstop in the major leagues from -. Career Delgado was originally signed in 1992 by the Seattle Mariners, but ...

. After two years with the Mariners, he was claimed off waivers by the

in mid-1997. After ending the season with a 9.82

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, Torres retired and returned to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

to coach for the Expos' Dominican Summer League team.

Comeback with Pirates

In , Torres decided to make a comeback, and spent the year playing in the Dominican Winter League and in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. He signed with the

in January , spending most of the year with the Triple-A team in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

before being called up in September. He split the season between starting and relief work before being moved to the

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if t ...

full-time in . On April 20, 2003, Torres hit Chicago Cubs right fielder

Sammy Sosa Samuel Peralta Sosa (born November 12, 1968) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and C ...

in the head with an errant fastball that shattered his helmet. He served as the Pirates setup reliever in , before closer Mike González was injured. That year, his 94 pitching appearances led the major leagues and tied the Pirates record held by

Kent Tekulve Kenton Charles Tekulve ( ; born March 5, 1947), nicknamed "Teke", is an American former professional baseball right-handed relief pitcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also played f ...

. González was traded to the Atlanta Braves before the start of the season, making Torres the Pirates' top choice for closer entering the 2007 season. After blowing four saves for the Pirates, he was demoted from the closer role and replaced with

Matt Capps Matthew Dicus Capps (born September 3, 1983) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He is a 2002 graduate of Alexander High School in Douglasville, Georgia, where he lettered in football, basketball, cross-country and base ...

Milwaukee Brewers

Torres was traded to the

on December 7, 2007, for Kevin Roberts and Marino Salas. After beginning the season as a middle reliever, Torres was moved into the closer's role when

Éric Gagné Éric Serge Gagné (; born January 7, 1976) is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher who played 10 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Los Angeles Dodgers. After signing with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1995 ...

was put on the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

, a role Torres kept for the rest of the year. Torres struggled mightily towards the end of the season, however. On September 18, Torres blew a 4-run lead to the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

, giving up 4 runs with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 9th. He posted an

over 8.00 in the month of September. His season, though, was relatively solid: 28 saves in 35 chances, 51

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

in 80 innings of work, an ERA of 3.41, and a record of 7-5. During his time in Milwaukee, he introduced a new strike-out pitch in which he dropped down to a side-arm delivery. During the middle of the 2008 season, Torres stated in an interview that he wasn't sure about his future in baseball, and on November 11 Torres told Brewers GM

Doug Melvin Robert Douglas Melvin (born August 8, 1952) is a Canadian front-office executive in Major League Baseball (MLB) who previously served as the general manager of the Texas Rangers (1995–2001) and Milwaukee Brewers (2002–2015). He is currently a ...

that he was retiring from the game.

Personal life

Torres is a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

. He is married to Belkis Denia Donato and has two daughters and a son; Ashley (20), Allison (18), and Jordan (13).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Salomon 1972 births Living people Clinton Giants players Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Canada Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in South Korea Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States Dominican Republic Jehovah's Witnesses Gulf Coast Pirates players Indianapolis Indians players KBO League pitchers Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Milwaukee Brewers players Montreal Expos players Nashville Sounds players Ottawa Lynx players Sportspeople from San Pedro de Macorís Phoenix Firebirds players Pittsburgh Pirates players Samsung Lions players San Francisco Giants players Seattle Mariners players Shreveport Captains players Tacoma Rainiers players World Baseball Classic players of the Dominican Republic 2006 World Baseball Classic players