Congratulations to Mike Mussina on winning his 20th game yesterday, pitching six shutout innings and giving up only three hits in a 6-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Moose won 20 games for the first time this season, going 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA, his lowest ERA since 2001. It took Mussina 18 big league seasons to get this done and in doing so he becomes the oldest pitcher in MLB history to win 20 games for the first time at 39 years old, passing Jamie Moyer's old record of 38 years old set back in 2001.
Moose was superb all season long, but there was some doubt as to if he could actually win 20 games this year because he needed three wins in his final three starts to get the milestone, and he did it. Not only did Moose get those three wins, he did it in style pitching 16 innings in those three starts and giving up only one run. His previous high for wins came in 1995 and 1996, when he won 19 games each year for Baltimore. Mussina went 0-2 in his last four starts in 1996, leaving his final one with a 2-1 lead after eight innings only to watch Armando Benitez allow a tying homer, and Mets fans that should sound familiar, to Toronto's Ed Sprague in the ninth.
Give props to Mussina because everyone, including myself, thought the tank was running on empty after Mussina's horrid 2007 season in which he went 11-10 with a 5.15 ERA (the highest ERA of his career). However, Moose went out and reinvented the way he pitched, incorporating a two-seam fastball, which in turn saved his career. So here's to you Moose, you deserve this!
No comments:
Post a Comment