Soak it in, Robert Gasser. That was a Brewers major-league debut for the ages.

It wasn't all that long ago, all things considered, that Robert Gasser was the most diminutive player on his northern California travel ball team, the Sierra Valley Storm, struggling in his early efforts as a pitcher.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Gasser’s coach at Oak Ridge High School considered cutting him from the varsity team during tryouts his junior year.

It wasn’t all that long ago Gasser was getting shelled as a freshman at the University of New Mexico, a tough but necessary challenge that handed him the rude awakening he ultimately needed by forcing him to go pitch the following year at junior college.

On Friday night on the mound at American Family Field, though, as Gasser, poised and in complete control, made his major-league debut, those hardships felt like they were lifetimes ago as the left-hander twirled his way to six innings that formed the night of his life on the biggest stage of his life.

Making his first start in the big leagues, the 24-year-old spun six shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals while allowing only two hits, no walks and striking out four. In doing so, he became the fifth pitcher in Brewers history to throw at least six scoreless innings in his MLB debut and just the second to allow three or fewer base runners in six-plus frames.

A five-run fifth by Gasser's offense turned the game into a blowout, ultimately won by Milwaukee, 11-2. It gave Gasser not only a first victory but also allowed him to soak in every second of the rest of the evening once manager Pat Murphy shook his hand after the sixth inning.

A toothless, ear-to-ear grin on Gasser's face while standing on the top step of the dugout said it all.

“It was awesome. Especially ending on strikeout, it was everything I could’ve dreamed of,” Gasser said. “Playing in front of that many people and probably the biggest game of my life so far, it was awesome.”

Robert Gasser was in control from his very first pitch

From the very moment Gasser first toed the third-base side of the rubber Friday, he did so with conviction and confidence. Even though he ascended to the heights of a top prospect in the minors, he’s been battle-tested.

“It wasn’t easy for Rob for a while,” said Gasser’s former coach, Ryan Rodriguez. “You look at him now and assume he’s always been the best player on his team, but there were a lot of years there where that wasn’t always the case. He had to work for this. He just continued to get better, learn about his game and as he developed and got more serious about the game you saw him start to take off.”

Gasser took off from the jump Friday. Starting with an eight-pitch, perfect first inning that included his first career strikeout on a sweeper to Lars Nootbaar, Gasser had the exterior appearance of a wily veteran.

“When he was out there, he didn’t see names on the back of jerseys as a lot of guys would,” outfielder Sal Frelick said. “That’s just how he goes about his business.”

Gasser’s foot was fully on the pedal the rest of the way.

A nifty double play turned by second baseman Brice Turang helped him get through the second inning, then he made some big pitches to strand a runner on second in the third. From there, the Cardinals were hitless over the final three frames, which Gasser punctuated by striking out Nootbaar for a third time with a sweeper.

“Two different fastballs, good sweeper,” Nootbaar said. “I thought he did a good job of mixing it well. Kind of had different shapes on that sweeper today, and I thought he didn’t miss too many times, so I thought he did a good job.”

Robert Gasser had to wait a long time for his chance in the big leagues

Gasser’s debut was a long time in the making, and not even specifically because of the ups and downs he’s dealt with years ago. He sat on the doorstep of the majors for a long time, certainly much longer than most highly-regarded prospects wait, and made 33 starts at Class AAA. Gasser finished the 2022 season at Nashville after being acquired by Milwaukee from San Diego as the headliner in the Josh Hader trade, spent all of 2023 there while earning Brewers co-minor league pitcher of the year honors and then made three more starts in AAA while recovering from a bout with bone spurs that shelved him to start this season.

“I think Gas came with a little chip on his shoulder,” Murphy said. “Like, ‘I should’ve been here last  year, in my mind, and they made me wait.’ Maybe that’s something we can think about sometimes. Maybe we need to make some guys wait. Gas is a talked-about guy as a minor leaguer. It’s great to see when they get here that they pay their dues and they got a little edge to them.”

For a pitcher with a surname that lends itself to being nicknamed “Gas,” it is the sweeper that is Gasser’s best pitch. Against the Cardinals, it was unhittable. He threw it whenever, wherever and to whomever. Gasser generated seven of his 10 total whiffs on the night with the sweeper and 44% of the 36 that he threw were either a called or swinging strike.

To top off his outing on the swinging strikeout of Nootbaar, Gasser hurled a sweeper with a remarkable 20 inches of horizontal movement to render the Cardinals outfielder helpless.

“That sweeper kind of had a little bit more movement than the guys were anticipating,” Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said. “That first time through a lot of guys came in kind of saying the same thing. The movement was good. It was a little funky, and gave us a tough time.”

Gasser threw 17 consecutive strikes without a ball across six different hitters to end the game. Just when you thought he might be tiring – he hadn’t gone five innings into a game since his final Nashville outing last year – he found more. And he did it without throwing arguably his second-best pitch, his cutter, a single time as he never shook off catcher William Contreras once.

“The plan really was to go out there and challenge hitters,” Gasser said. “It wasn’t to punch a bunch of guys out or to be perfect or try to be perfect. It was just throw it down the middle and see what happened.”

As Gasser walked off the mound following his last punchout of Nootbaar, he slammed his glove with his left hand and stared up into the crowd, soaking it all in. He was pumped up and so were his teammates.

“I was ready to run through a wall for that kid,” Frelick said. “I think that’s just our culture and everyone else felt the same way.”

It’s a debut Gasser won’t be forgetting anytime soon. The same goes for the 25,000-plus that were in the park.

“I thought he did a really, really good job,” outfielder Christian Yelich said. “That was pretty impressive, how he just went out there and executed what he wanted to do. It seemed like he had his emotions under control, was able to do what he wanted. It’s huge for him. Really happy.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Robert Gasser delivers memorable MLB debut as Brewers beat Cardinals