page_title: Jay Bruce
section_title: 2008 season
hierarchical_section_title: Jay Bruce / Professional career / Cincinnati Reds / 2008 season
caption_attribution_description: Description Jay Bruce preparing to take batting practice before playing the Phillies. Date06/02/2008SourceI created this work entirely by myself.AuthorBlevine37 (talk) 19:33, 10 June 2008 . . Blevine37 . . 1,331×1,367 (1.27 MB) Jay Bruce preparing to take batting practice before playing the Phillies.
context_page_description: Jay Bruce is an American professional baseball corner outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. He previously played for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, and Seattle Mariners. The Reds drafted Bruce in the first round, 12th overall pick, of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft; he made his MLB debut in 2008. Bruce has been named an All-Star three times during his career, and has won the Silver Slugger Award twice.
context_section_description: Bruce was invited to the Reds' 2008 spring training. He hit .262 in his first spring training. On March 20, he was reassigned to the team's minor league camp, and started the season at Louisville, where he batted .364 with 10 home runs and 13 stolen bases in 49 games before he was promoted.  Entering the season he was rated by Baseball America as the top prospect in the Reds organization, and by both MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus as the top prospect in baseball, and by ESPN as the second-best prospect in baseball, as Baseball America rated him the best hitting prospect in the International League.
  On May 27, 2008, Bruce got the call to join the Reds. He made his major league debut that day against right-handed pitcher Ian Snell of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bruce started in center field, batting 3-for-3 with two singles and one double. He drove in two runs, scored twice, walked twice, and stole a base. In his second game, on May 28, also against Pittsburgh, he added a double, another stolen base, and two more walks. Bruce became the first Major League player since 1977 to reach base in his first six plate appearances.
  On May 30, Bruce went 4-for-5 in a 3–2, 11-inning win over the Atlanta Braves. Bruce doubled in the tying run and scored the winning run in the 11th inning, after leading off the inning with a single. On May 31, Bruce launched his first Major League home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, to give the Reds a walk-off win. One day later, on June 1, he went 2-for-3 with a home run, a single, two RBIs, and a base on balls. Bruce had a 1.000 slugging percentage after his first six games; the only major league player since 1969 to achieve a higher slugging percentage for his first six games was Mike Jacobs in 2005.
  On June 2, Bruce hit the third home run of his career while going 2-for-4 in Philadelphia against the Phillies' Kyle Kendrick. In his first full week in the majors, he batted .577 (15-for-26) with three home runs, three doubles, and nine singles in addition to six bases on balls. He also scored 12 runs and batted in seven more runs. The Reds had a winning percentage of .714 (5–2) during his first week. Before Bruce was called up to the majors, they had a winning percentage of .451 (23–28), and had lost five of seven games. Bruce had a 12-game hitting streak during July.
  To open August, after nearly half of a month without a home run, Bruce hit home runs in back-to-back games against the Washington Nationals. Two games later, Bruce hit his 10th home run of the season and his third of the month against the Milwaukee Brewers. In the final game of the Brewers' series, Bruce hit his 11th home run of the season. Following the trades of veteran outfielders Ken Griffey, Jr. and Adam Dunn, Bruce hit his 12th home run of the season in a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
  For the season, he batted .254/.314/.453 with 21 home runs and 52 RBIs in 413 at bats. On defense, in 2008 he tied for the lead among all major league outfielders in errors, with 11. He was the 6th-youngest player in the NL. He was named to the Baseball America Major League All-Rookie Team and the TOPPS Major League Rookie All-Star Team. He came in fourth among rookies in voting for the National League's Jackie Robinson Award.
caption: Bruce with the Reds
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