On September 7th, 1973, New York Mets starting pitcher Jerry Koosman who had a streak of 31.2 consecutive scoreless innings had it snapped when a run crossed the plate in the bottom of the third inning in the team’s 4-2 victory in Montreal. At the time it was a Mets record. Koosman’s record of not allowing any runs would last for 39 years before it was surpassed by knuckleballer R. A. Dickey in 2012.

Anytime I can feature a New York Met here, I will. That Jerry Koosman also played for my local Twins a couple of seasons makes it even more likely that I will. That is the nature of fandom after all.

Looking at Koosman’s Baseball Reference page, we see that he had some very good seasons in his 19-year career.

• 1976 he won 21 games
• 1979 he won 20 games
• 1968 he pitched 17 complete games with 7 shut-outs
• 1969 he pitcher 16 complete games with 6 shut-outs

The highlight of Koosman’s career is the 1969 World Series, where he won 2 games, throwing 17-2/3 innings and giving up just 4 runs.

He remains the winningest left-handed pitcher in New York Mets history. The Mets honored Kooseman when they retired his jersey in 2021. Here is Koosman’s New York Mets Hall of Fame plaque: