Aussie international star Curtis Mead enjoys MLB career game
Australian National Team slugger and former Australian Baseball League (ABL) star Curtis Mead played a career game for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB), going 3-for-4 with a home run, three RBIs and a stolen base against the St.Louis Cardinals on April 7.
Mead broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning, launching a go-ahead solo home run to give Washington a 3-2 lead.
He backed it up an inning later with a two-out RBI single, extending the Nationals’ advantage to 5-3 and providing crucial insurance.
The Cardinals, however, won the game in 10 innings, 7-6.
Mead started his professional career in 2018 after signing with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played two Rookie League seasons before the Phillies traded him to the Tampa Bay Rays. After the cancellation of the 2020 Minor League Baseball (MiLB) season, Mead played 46 games at the Low-A level in 2021 and was promoted to the High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods. He finished the season at the Triple-A level.
After starting the 2022 season at Double-A , Mead was promoted to the Triple-A Durham Bulls after 56 games. In the off-season, he made the 40-man roster.
He started the 2023 season at Triple-A and made his MLB debut on August 4 against the Detroit Tigers, becoming the 38th Australian in the Big League. He singled in his first at-bat and went on to play 24 MLB games.
Mead played 38 MLB games in 2024 and 49 in 2025 before the Rays traded him to the Chicago White Sox on July 31. He played 41 games for them, but the White Sox traded him to the Washington Nationals before the start of the 2026 season. He has played six games for the Nationals, four at first base, one at third base and one as the designated hitter, going 5-for-15 with a home run and three RBIs.
The 25-year-old is currently the only Australian player on MLB rosters. He represented his country for the first time in 2020, when he competed in a pair of friendlies against Korea. He got the first hit of the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Cover photo credit: MLB Photos via Getty Images