Cram All You Want, You'll Still Lose With The Mets

Every once in a while, I'll find a statistic or story about a Mets player that's so far out there, I have to share it.  Similarly, on occasion I'll think of a title for a blog post that will go over everyone's head until they actually read the piece.  And sometimes those two worlds collide.  Today is one of those days.

About a month and a half ago, I wrote a piece on Anthony Young, the Mets pitcher who set a major league record by losing 27 consecutive decisions.  However, the Mets didn't lose every game he appeared in during his losing streak.  From the time his skein began on May 6, 1992 until he recorded his 27th straight loss on July 24, 1993, Young appeared in 77 games, making 17 starts and appearing in relief 60 times.  The Mets actually won 25 of those 77 games, but Young did not receive credit for a victory in any of those contests.

This morning, I woke up with Young on my mind and decided to do some research on which Mets player appeared in the most games without ever celebrating a victory after any of those affairs.  Well, thanks to the good folks who run the Baseball Musings Day-By-Day Database, I have my answer.  Now excuse me while I "cram" this information into your brain.

The name is Cram.  Jerry Cram.

Entering the 2015 season, a total of 62 players have appeared in at least one game for the Mets without ever going out for a winning hot dog and soda afterwards.  Of those 62 players, more than half of them (37) appeared in no more than three games for the team - all losses, of course.  But only four of those 62 players found their way into a game's boxscore at least 11 times.  And of those four, the Met who appeared in the most losses without ever seeing a win did so 14 times.  The unfortunate player's name was Jerry Cram.

Jerry Cram made his major league debut for the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969, appearing in five games.  The Royals actually won two of those games, probably spoiling Cram for life.  He didn't appear in another major league game until 1974, a year after he had been traded to the Mets.

Cram pitched beautifully for the Mets in two seasons with the team, posting a 2.30 ERA in 14 relief appearances, tossing 27⅓ innings in those outings.  His greatest effort came on September 11, 1974, when he pitched eight shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals.  Cram entered the game in the 17th inning and pitched through the 24th frame, scattering seven hits and two walks.  He also went 1-for-3 at the plate, collecting the only hit of his career in the 18th inning.

Once Cram was taken out of the game for pinch-hitter Rusty Staub in the bottom of the 24th, the Cardinals took advantage, as speedy center fielder Bake McBride led off the top of the 25th inning with a single, then came all the way around to score on an errant pickoff throw by reliever Hank Webb, who was making his first appearance of the season for the Mets.  Webb's battery mate, Ron Hodges, was charged with the team's second error on the play, as he was unable to hold on to the throw by first baseman John Milner, allowing McBride to score the go-ahead run.

The Mets lost the game in 25 innings, which to this day remains the longest game in National League history that did not end in a tie.  (Brooklyn and Boston played a 26-inning affair in 1920 that ended in a 1-1 tie.)  The game was also Cram's fifth appearance for the Mets in 1974, with all of them ending in losses.  Cram appeared in five more games that month following his eight-inning relief effort and never celebrated a victory with his teammates.  The Mets went 0-10 in Cram's ten appearances in 1974.

Cram didn't appear in as many games during his second season with the Mets in 1975, making just four relief appearances for the team in April and May.  Once again, the Mets failed to win any of those games.  In fact, in all 14 of his games during his two-year tour of duty in Flushing, Cram never pitched with the lead.  Three times he entered a game with the score tied - the Mets eventually lost each game - and 11 times he came into a game with the Mets trailing.  They were trailing at the end of those games as well.

Three pitchers in Mets history appeared in exactly 11 games with nary a happy recap to show for it.  Jerry Hinsley made two starts and seven relief appearances for the Mets in 1964, then came out of the bullpen twice in 1967.  The only constant in Hinsley's career was that he only pitched in games the Mets lost.  Hinsley was a teammate of Joe Grzenda in 1967.  Like Hinsley, Grzenda was also used exclusively in relief during the 1967 campaign, making 11 appearances.  Each of those contests ended with the other team shaking hands after the game.  Finally, we have Collin McHugh, who made five starts and appeared in relief six times for the Mets between 2012 and 2013.

Collin McHugh fell short of Cram's mark.

McHugh pitched seven shutout innings in his major league debut, becoming the second Met to strike out as many as nine batters in his first big league start (Matt Harvey set the record with 11 strikeouts a month before McHugh.)  But unlike Harvey's effort in his debut, McHugh didn't earn a win in his, as no Mets hitter was able to cross the plate while McHugh - or any other Mets pitcher - was in the game.  That was as close as McHugh came to appearing in a Mets victory, as his next ten appearances in a Mets uniform resulted in ten losses for the team.  Now pitching for the Houston Astros, McHugh has left the losing behind, as he won 11 games in 2014 and posted a stellar 2.73 ERA in 25 starts.  Although the Astros finished 22 games under .500 in 2014, they posted a winning record (13-12) in McHugh's starts.

Hinsley, Grzenda and McHugh never appeared in a game won by the Mets, but at least they weren't as unlucky as Jerry Cram.  He and his teammates all experienced the agony of defeat in each of Cram's 14 appearances in a Mets uniform.  And for those of you curious about what happened to Cram after he pitched his final game for the Mets in 1975, well, he went back to Kansas City to pitch for a much-improved Royals team in 1976.  Kansas City won its division in 1976, finishing the year with a 90-72 record.  Cram appeared in four games for the A.L. West champions.  What happened in those games?  The Royals lost them all, meaning Cram never got to experience a victory in a game he pitched after the 1969 season.

Anthony Young lost 27 straight decisions, but at least his teams won 25 times when he took the mound during his 14-month streak of individual futility.  Jerry Cram probably wished he could have had Young's good fortune as a Met.
 

Shaun Marcum's Season Is Done, Which Puts Him In An Exclusive Club

According to various sources, including Ed Coleman and Adam Rubin, Shaun Marcum's season is over.  Marcum has been diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which occurs when blood vessels or nerves between the collarbone and ribs become compressed.  This, in turn, can cause shoulder pain and a numbing of the fingers.

Marcum's final numbers were not exactly what the Mets hoped for when they took a chance on him this past offseason.  After combining to go 54-32 with a 3.67 ERA over his last five seasons, including a 7-4 mark and 3.70 ERA last year when he was a member of the Brewers, Marcum was 1-10 with a 5.29 ERA for the Mets.

That 1-10 mark puts Marcum in a rare club, one that he never expected to join.  Marcum is just the fourth pitcher in Mets history to finish a season with 10 or more losses while winning exactly once.

In 1962, Bob L. Miller lost his first 12 decisions before winning his final start.  His 1-12 record was almost duplicated three years later by Tom Parsons, who went 1-10 for the Mets in 1965.  Nearly three decades passed before the Mets had another pitcher with double-digit losses and a single win.  In 1993, Anthony Young lost his first 13 decisions of the season, just one year after losing his final 14 decisions.  Young finally earned a win on July 28, 1993, when a walk-off victory saved him from what would have become his 28th consecutive loss.  Young's sole victory was followed by three more defeats, giving him the worst one-win season in Mets history, at 1-16.

Bob L. Miller (1962):  1-12
Tom Parsons (1965):  1-10
Anthony Young (1993):  1-16
Shaun Marcum (2013):  1-10



By suffering a season-ending injury, Shaun Marcum's 1-10 record in 2013 is now etched in stone.  He has joined Miller, Parsons and Young to become one-win wonders.  The quartet have the only one-win, double-digit loss seasons in franchise history, with Marcum becoming only the second pitcher in nearly half a century to accomplish the feat.

Losing and the Mets have gone hand-in-hand for most of the franchise's existence.  Even pitchers who won with great frequency before coming to New York aren't immune to the losing bug.  Just ask Shaun Marcum.

Shaun Marcum's Winless Brethren

When the Mets signed Shaun Marcum to a one-year deal prior to the 2013 season, they thought they were getting a bargain.  After all, Marcum was one of the few pitchers in baseball with over 100 career starts who had a winning percentage over .600.  (At 57-36, Marcum had a .613 winning percentage in 149 starts.)

But Marcum has done everything but win for the Mets.  He's lost as a starting pitcher.  He's lost in relief.  He's lost after pitching seven shutout innings in a game that lasted longer than two games (the 20-inning loss to the Miami Marlins on June 8).  Through his first 11 appearances (9 starts) as a Met, Shaun Marcum is 0-9.  At least the Mets won his two no-decisions, so he has that to hang his hat on.  But that's not enough to keep him off an exclusive list.

Shaun Marcum is now the third pitcher in franchise history to begin a season with nine consecutive defeats.  Prior to this season, the only two hurlers to start a season with a goose egg in the win column and a nine under the "L" were Bob L. Miller in 1962 and Anthony Young in 1993.

Bob L. Miller started the Mets' inaugural campaign by losing his first 12 decisions.  After appearing in 32 games for the Mets in 1962 with nary a victory to show for his efforts (20 starts, 12 appearances in relief), Miller finally earned his first victory of the season in the Mets' last win of the year, beating the Cubs in a complete-game effort on September 29.  Miller defeated Cubs' starter Dick Ellsworth, handing Ellsworth his 20th loss on the season.  In doing so, Ellsworth became only the sixth Cubs pitcher to lose 20 games in the modern era of baseball (since 1900).

Miller left the Mets after the 1962 season and pitched for five first-place teams and three pennant-winners.  He won World Series rings as a member of the 1965 Dodgers and 1971 Pirates before coming back to pitch for the Mets in 1973 (his sixth first-place team and fourth pennant-winner) and 1974, where he fared slightly better than he did in 1962.  This time, Miller won two games in his second go-round in New York.

Anthony Young started the 1993 campaign with an 0-13 mark.  This came on the heels of a 2-14 record in 1992 in which he lost his final 14 decisions.  (Yes, that means Anthony Young began the 1992 season with a 2-0 record.)  Young was actually pretty decent during his 27-game losing streak.  He saved 16 games in between the two dozen-plus losses and had an extended period of dominance during a two-month stretch out of the bullpen.  From July 7 to August 28, 1992, Young made 20 appearances in relief for the Mets, allowing no runs in 23⅔ innings.  He also saved nine games, holding opposing hitters to a .154 batting average and no extra-base hits.  Basically, on the worst team money could buy, Young was a good buy.  He just couldn't buy a win.

On July 24, 1993, Young lost his 27th consecutive decision.  The loss dropped his record on the year to 0-13, making the hard-luck pitcher to first hurler in team history to begin a season with an 0-13 mark.  Four days after knocking Bob L. Miller out of the record books, Young was in line to lose his 28th straight after allowing an unearned run in the ninth inning to give the expansion Florida Marlins a 4-3 lead.  But run-scoring hits by Ryan Thompson and Eddie Murray not only took Young off the hook for the loss, it gave him his first win in 15 months.  It would also be his final win in a Mets uniform, as Young was traded to the Cubs prior to the start of the 1994 campaign.  He did, however, lose three more games as a Met before his trade to Chicago.

With losses in his first nine decisions, Shaun Marcum has turned the Miller and Young duo into a trio.  Surely, Marcum will notch a victory at some point this season.  But if he doesn't, he'll be the only Met to have a winless season with as many as nine losses.  In fact, there have been very few pitchers in Mets history with as many as four losses in a season that featured no victories.  And only two hurlers in club annals have ever completed a winless season with as many as five losses.  Those unlucky souls are:

• John Franco (1998):  0-8
• Oliver Perez (2010):  0-5
• Sherman Jones (1962):  0-4
• Phil Hennigan (1973):  0-4
• Rick Aguilera (1988):  0-4
• Jason Jacome (1995):  0-4
• Donne Wall (2001):  0-4
• Jose Lima (2006):  0-4
• Jenrry Mejia (2010): 0-4
• Pat Misch (2010):  0-4
• Collin McHugh (2012):  0-4

As denoted in the list above, no Met pitcher has ever finished a season with no wins and more than eight losses.  Should Shaun Marcum not receive credit for a victory in 2013, he would become the losingest winless pitcher in franchise history.  But even if he wins one game, he stands to join a very exclusive list - albeit not one to be proud of.

Since the franchise came into existence over half a century ago, only three pitchers have ever lost nine games or more in a season in which they emerged victorious just once.  If you've been paying attention to the rest of this piece, two of the three names should look quite familiar.

• Anthony Young (1993):  1-16
• Bob L. Miller (1962):  1-12
• Tom Parsons (1965):  1-10

(In case you were wondering, Tom Parsons lost his first four decisions for the Mets in 1965 before earning his sole victory of the season in a complete game shutout over the Cubs on July 5.  He never pitched again in the major leagues after the 1965 campaign even though he was only 25 at the time of his final appearance.  He toiled in the minor leagues in the Astros and Red Sox organizations for four years before leaving baseball for good following the 1969 season, the same year the Mets won a World Series championship without him.)

"D'oh!  I'm getting compared to Anthony Young!" (Photo by Paul J. Bereswill)

Shaun Marcum was signed by the Mets prior to the 2013 season in a move that was expected to bring a veteran arm into an otherwise young starting rotation.  But Marcum has been beaten to the victory column by every one of those young rotation members.  Even Zack Wheeler, who has made all of one start in the major leagues, earned a victory before Marcum.

Anthony Young.  Bob L. Miller.  Tom Parsons.  Shaun Marcum.  It's not a list of players Marcum expected to be associated with this late in the season.  And if Marcum doesn't earn a win at some point this season, John Franco might be popping the champagne cork at the end of the year.  It's too bad the champagne won't be for something to be proud of.