Matt Young

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203+13 innings, with a 3.27 earned run average in 33 games (32 starts), good enough to rank in the top ten for ERA that season. [2] He represented the Mariners in the 1983 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, where he pitched a scoreless eighth inning facing Johnny Bench, Darrell Evans and Pedro Guerrero. [3]

Young, however, struggled to replicate that success, underwent "Tommy John surgery" and was traded twice, from the Mariners to the Los Angeles Dodgers, then to the Oakland Athletics in a three-team trade with the New York Mets, appearing in a game in relief during the 1989 American League Championship Series. [2] Eventually, Young hit free agency, and signed a three-year, $6.35 million contract with the Boston Red Sox on December 4, 1990. [4]

Young pitched for the Red Sox for two seasons before being released days before the start of the 1993 season. [2] He became part of baseball history during his tenure with the Red Sox. On April 12, 1992, Young faced the Cleveland Indians in the first game of a doubleheader, allowed two runs on seven walks and an error by shortstop Luis Rivera [5] en route to the fourth no-hitter by a losing pitcher. On that day, Roger Clemens pitched a two-hit shutout in the second game of the doubleheader, giving Young and Clemens the Major League Baseball record for the fewest hits (2) allowed in a doubleheader. While Young sent the ball to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, Major League Baseball, in a rule created prior to the season, did not recognize the performance as a true no-hitter, as Young, playing for the losing team on the road, only pitched eight innings in his complete game loss. [6] According to Seymour Siwoff, who was on Baseball's Committee for Statistical Accuracy, the feat could not be listed with the "pure" no-hitters because "Young didn't get the chance to go out and pitch the ninth...who knows what would have happened if he did." [7] Had the no-hitter been officially recognized, it would have been the first no-hitter by a Boston pitcher since Dave Morehead did so in 1965, also against the Indians, [8] and was the fifteenth time, at that point, that a Red Sox pitcher had completed a game without allowing a hit. [9]

Young was released by the Red Sox in 1993, appeared in 22 games for the Indians in 1993, and finally spent a month with the Syracuse Chiefs, a minor league team in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, before being released a final time in September 1993. [2]

See also

References

  1. "2nd Round of the 1980 MLB June Amateur Draft". Baseball-Reference.com . Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Matt Young". Baseball-Reference.com . Sports Reference . Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  3. "1983 All-Star Game Box Score, July 6". Baseball-Reference.com . July 6, 1983. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  4. "Red Sox Sign Pitcher Young for $6.3 Million". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press. December 4, 1990. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  5. "Boxscore of Matt Young No-Hitter". Baseball Almanac . Retrieved May 7, 2005.
  6. Shaughnessy, Dan, "No-win situation is no hit with Young", The Boston Globe , April 19, 1992.
  7. Giuliotti, Joe. "All's not lost for Matt's no no-hitter." Boston Herald, April 14, 1992.
  8. Shaughnessy, Dan, "No hits? No win? No surprise Young again pitches well enough to lose." The Boston Globe , April 13, 1992.
  9. Ballou, Bill, "Sox split pitcher-perfect day: Young a rare double loser." Telegram & Gazette , April 13, 1992.
Matt Young
Matt Young Seattle Mariners.jpg
Pitcher
Born: (1958-08-09) August 9, 1958 (age 66)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Batted: Left
Threw: Left
MLB debut
April 6, 1983, for the Seattle Mariners
Last MLB appearance
August 6, 1993, for the Cleveland Indians