Bartolo Colon, Steven Matz, Zack Wheeler, Orlando Hernandez, Livan Hernandez, Dock Ellis, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Pat Misch all have one thing in common from their days with the Mets.
One complete game shutout.
Misch – a soft-tossing left-hander that finished with a career 4.80 ERA – threw one of the most improbable games in Mets history on September 27, 2009.
The competitive part of the 2009 season had long-been gone for the 67-89 Mets as they played the 83-73 Marlins at Land Shark Park in late September. Misch was making just his sixth start of the season and gave up eight runs in 1 1/3 innings against the Braves in his previous start.
Catcher Josh Thole gave the Mets a 1-0 lead with a second inning sac fly that scored Jeff Francoeur. The free-swinging Frenchy pushed the Mets lead to 3-0 in the third inning with a two-run homer, his 14th blast of the season.
Misch wasn’t dominating the Marlins lineup that included Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, and Jorge Cantu by any means, in fact, he had allowed eight baserunners in the first four innings.
Glove-first second baseman Anderson Hernandez stretched the Mets lead to 4-0 with a solo homer in the top of the fifth inning, the last homer of his big league career.
The Mets offense had given Misch all the runs he needed as the crafty lefty would retire the last 13 batters he faced. His biggest help defensively came in the seventh inning when Francoeur robbed Chris Coghlan of a home run in right field.
Misch had done it, his first (and only) major league complete game shutout.
Misch and his complete game shutout certainly qualify as random and obscure parts of Mets history, and his final line did too:
9 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K
He became the first pitcher since Jaime Cocanower in 1985, to pitch a complete game shutout while allowing eight hits and walking more batters than he struck out.
Misch would finish the 2009 season with a respectable 4.12 ERA in 59 innings for the Mets and he was solid again in 2010 with a 3.82 ERA over 37 2/3 innings. He would allow eight runs in seven innings during the 2011 season and then left via free agency. That 2011 season would be his last taste of the big leagues.
It wasn’t until four years ago on this date, that Misch would pitch the game of his life in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. The lefty had started and won Game 1 of the series, started Game 4, and came back to start the series deciding Game 7. All Misch did was throw a no-hitter, the first one in Taiwan Series history.
Part 1 Random Mets: Single-Game Pitchers
