Welcome to another edition of Throwback Thursday here at The Daily Stache where we take a look back at different moments in Mets history so that we have something posted on a Thursday.
For this edition we celebrate a moment in baseball history that was achieved 21 years ago tomorrow by former Mets pitcher Anthony Young.
It was on June 27th, 1993 that Young set the Major League record for longest losing streak, losing his 24th consecutive decision in a 5-3 Mets loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Young was a 38th round draft pick out of the University of Houston in the 1987 draft and made his MLB debut with the Mets in 1991
After starting the 1992 season 2-0 which brought his brief career record to 4-5, Young began a streak that would see him go over a full calendar year without a win.
Starting with a no-decision against the Phillies on April 24th, 1992, Young would pitch in 79 games, start 18 of them and lose 27 of those games without getting one win.
With him tying the record of 23 straight losses by Cliff Curtis, who did it while pitching for the Boston Doves (aka the Boston Braves) franchise in 1910-1911, Young faced off against the Cardinals at Shea Stadium, trying to avoid breaking the mark nobody ever wants to set.
The Mets got off to a good enough start for Young as they scored two runs in the first inning off Cardinals starter and current MLB Network analyst Joe Magrane which included a solo home run from Eddie Murray.
The lead would last until the top of the fourth inning when the Cardinals scored three runs off of Young, highlighted by a two run single by left fielder Rod Brewer.
The Cards would pad their lead in the sixth when Tom Pagnozzi and the pitcher Magrane hit back to back RBI singles that made it 5-2 and put Young on the path to history.
The would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth when a Todd Hundley single plated Darrin Jackson. Young pitched the seventh, getting the Cards in order before being pinch hit for in the bottom half of the inning.
The Mets would have Murray up as the tying run in the 8th inning after Bobby Bonilla led off with a single but Murray grounded into a double play ending that brief threat. Lee Smith pitched the ninth inning for the Cards and nailed down the save and Young’s place in the record books.
Young would lose his next three decisions that year before getting a win in pretty dramatic fashion, which will be shown later in this post.
His stats during what turned out to be and still is a MLB record 27 game losing streak are below. The amazing thing you might notice is that in one of those games he pitched a complete game. It was a rain shortened 3-1 loss to the Giants where the game was called after five innings. (click on the picture to enlarge it)
The streak would finally end on July 28th, 1993 against the Florida Marlins. After pitching in a tie game in the top of the 9th inning and allowing the Marlins to take a 4-3 lead the Mets would rally.
The rally ended like this…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-AteiOx3tc[/youtube]
The ending of such an epic losing streak almost had to end in such dramatic fashion. The future Hall of Famer Murray getting his fourth hit of the night to bail Young out of what would have been his 28th straight decision with a loss.
Young would eventually move on to pitch for the Cubs and Astros before calling it a career. The win that broke his streak would be the last one he got for the Mets but he did win 10 games after that in Chicago and Houston.
Young finished his Mets career with a 5-35 record which included a 3.82 ERA with 31 starts and 15 saves in 101 games pitched for the franchise.
Anthony Young did not have any kind of great, good or even OK major league baseball career but for now and maybe for a long long time to come, will have his name in the record books.
And it was 21 years ago tomorrow that he finally reached that record book with a record he would probably rather forget.
