Two East Texans Pitching Against Each Other Tonight

A pretty cool event is taking place tonight in Major League Baseball. Maybe it’s not a huge deal to most of the rest of the sports world, but for us here in East Texas, it is! Two East Texans will face each other on the mound tonight. Josh Tomlin from Whitehouse and Philip Humber from Carthage will face off as Tomlin’s Cleveland Indians and Humber’s Chicago White Sox meet at 7:10 p.m. at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago.

Josh Tomlin attended Whitehouse High School, Angelina College and Texas Tech University. He was drafted by Padres in the 11th round of the 2005 MLB draft, but did not sign. He was drafted again by the Cleveland Indians in the 19th round in the 2006 draft, and did sign.

Philip Humber attended Carthage High School and then moved on to play college ball for the Rice Owls. The Mets selected Humber as the third overall selection in the 2004 MLB draft. He was traded to the Twins and later spent a year with the Royals and then briefly the Oakland Athletics organization before being claimed on waivers by the White Sox in 2011.

Humber is riding high after throwing only the 20th perfect game in major league history April 21 in a 4-0 win over Seattle.

Tomlin comes in to tonight’s game after a disappointing loss to the Royals on April 26, when he gave up four runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings.