Remembering Mets History (1975) Seaver Wins His 20th Game & Sets Record With Eight Straight 200 K Seasons
Roy McMillan had taken over the club on August 6th after Yogi Berra had been fired. Since then, the Mets were 16-9 & had gained four games in the standings.
On this Labor Day matinee, the Mets hosted Danny Murtaugh's Pirates at Shea Stadium in front of 45,991 fans.
This was the first home game since August 17, two weeks ago.
MLB Record Breaker: Tom Seaver would strike out ten Pirates, making him the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 200 or more batters for eight straight seasons.
On this day, Tom Seaver was spectacular, as he pitched the complete game four hit shutout. He gave up just one walk while striking out ten. It was the second game in a row he struck out ten batters & went into double figures in K's three times on the season.
Through the first four innings, Seaver had notched just four strike outs. Then from the 6th inning on, he would collect six more strike outs.
In the home 1st, the Mets gave Seaver some run support quickly. Rookie, Mike Vail hit his first career HR, putting the Mets up 1-0.
Joe Torre then drove home Staub with a base hit, completing the Mets 3-0 win.
The Mets were trying to stop a two-game losing streak, after having won five straight on a long 14 game west coast road trip that included a three-game stop in Houston.
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| Roy McMillan |
The Pirates sent New York native, John Candeleria (7-4) to go up against the 1975 Years Cy Young Award winner; Tom Seaver (19-7). Seaver was going for his 20th victory of the season & going after an MLB feat that had never been done before.
MLB Record Breaker: Tom Seaver would strike out ten Pirates, making him the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 200 or more batters for eight straight seasons.
Through the first four innings, Seaver had notched just four strike outs. Then from the 6th inning on, he would collect six more strike outs.
Seaver had three innings where he struck out two batters. In the 4th inning he struck out Ed Kirkpatrick & Dave Parker. In the 7th after a leadoff single by Dave Parker, Seaver got Richie Hebner to ground out to second, then struck out Manny Sanguillen & pinch hitter Bob Robertson. In the 8th it was Bill Robinson & Ed Kirkpatrick both striking out.
Trivia: Mike Vail was the 1975 International Player of the Year, playing at AAA Tidewater. He was called up playing his first game on August 18th. On August 25th he began what was up to this point an eight-game hit streak, No one knew it at the time, but that streak would continue & tie a modern-day record for rookies at 23-games, ending on September 13th.
Seaver had to hold the one run lead, later in the home 6th, Felix Millan led off with a single and scored on Rusty Staub's double.
Trivia: It was Staub's 91st RBI. That season Staub became the first Met in the clubs 13-year history to drive in 100 runs. It would be another ten years before Darryl Strawberry became the second Met to do it.
Trivia: This victory put Seaver at the twenty-win mark for the fourth time in his career (up to that point). Seaver would win the Player of the Week Award this week, his second time winning the award that season. Earlier in June he had won the Pitcher of the Month award.
In 1975, Seaver would end up leading the league in victories (22-9). He would once again lead the league in strikeouts with 243. It was the fourth time he topped the National League in strike outs (1970-1971, 1973 & 1975. He would do it one more time in 1976.
He also posted the 3rd best ERA in the league at 2.38. He pitched 15 complete games (3rd in the NL) & tossed five shut outs (4th in the NL). These numbers won Tom Terrific his Third Cy Young Award (1969-1973-1975).
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