June 8, 1990: Toronto’s Tom Gilles earns first and only career win on two pitches

The Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Milwaukee for a four-game weekend series at County Stadium on a high note.

A so-so 3-3 homestand for the Blue Jays had still allowed them to pull clear of the slumping Brewers to claim second place in the American League East, where they trailed the leading Boston Red Sox by 1½ games. The Brewers were two games back.

The previous day, Blue Jays batters wrecked Minnesota pitching by smashing three homers and eight doubles at SkyDome for an easy 10-3 victory.

Toronto bats remained hot on the road.

Milwaukee manager Tom Trebelhorn sent out 6-foot-5 right-hander Mark Knudson (3-3) to pitch for the Brewers.

He struck out leadoff batter Junior Félix on a called third strike. He then walked Tony Fernández, who was thrown out trying to steal. Kelly Gruber singled to left and then George Bell hit his 11th homer of the season. The half-inning ended on Fred McGriff’s swinging strikeout.

John Cerutti, a 6-foot-2 lefty, got the start for the Jays. His record was 2-5, and he had not lasted through the sixth inning of his previous start, which was against the Brewers at SkyDome.

Cerutti cruised through the top of the Brewers order, giving up just a walk until he faced number 8 batter Bill Spiers with one out in the third. The Milwaukee shortstop singled to right field, then Paul Molitor got a bunt single to third baseman Gruber. A walk to Gary Sheffield loaded the bases. Robin Yount was called out on strikes for the second out.

Cerutti’s hopes of getting out of the inning unscathed were ended by designated hitter Dave Parker, who ripped a double to left, scoring two to tie the game. With runners on second and third, though, Rob Deer went down swinging.

The score remained tied until the top of the sixth, when a homer by Gruber, Bell’s single to center, a wild pitch by Knudson, and a single by McGriff scoring Bell gave the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead, all the action coming with two outs.

Toronto manager Cito Gaston called Duane Ward from the bullpen for the bottom of the seventh. Cerutti had gone six complete innings, surrendering two earned runs on four hits. He walked four and struck out four. Ward was expected to carry the Jays to the ninth inning, when he would give way to closer Tom Henke, known as The Terminator.

As it turned out, Ward didn’t last the inning. He gave up, in succession: a single to pinch-hitter B.J. Surhoff (who would stay in the game as catcher); a single by Spiers, which moved Surhoff to third; a sacrifice fly by Molitor, scoring Surhoff; a Sheffield single, which moved Spiers to third; a sacrifice fly by Yount, scoring Spiers; an intentional walk to the dangerous Parker; and Deer’s single to left, which scored Sheffield and put Parker in scoring position. Glenn Braggs was up next.

By then, Gaston had seen enough. Ward was pulled in favor of newcomer Tom Gilles. The 27-year-old rookie right-hander had started the week with the Syracuse (New York) Chiefs, Toronto’s Triple-A farm team.

Five days earlier, on Monday, Gilles pitched against the Blue Jays in an exhibition game at Syracuse.1 Management must have liked what they saw, as he was called up on Thursday.

That day, he made his major-league debut against the Minnesota Twins before 49,845 fans at SkyDome. (Incidentally, the crowd was equal to about half of the population of his hometown of Peoria, Illinois.)

“We were up 10-2 and they put me in the last inning to get my feet wet,” he said later. “We were playing the Twins and the first two guys I faced got hits, but I broke both of their bats. So I had second and third and nobody out.

“Then I struck out Al Newman. They next guy grounds out to short [with a run scoring], the next guy flies out, and I was out of the inning. I threw 12 pitches, 10 of them strikes.”2

On his second day of work in a Blue Jays uniform, he would throw only two pitches.

Braggs ignored the first offering he faced from Gilles, a called strike on the outside corner to the right-handed batter.

He swung at the second pitch. It bounced high off the dirt just in front of the plate and then bounced off the grass before Gilles, who had waved off catcher Greg Myers, gloved the ball halfway to home plate, spinning to throw to McGriff at first to end the inning.3

Trebelhorn went to his bullpen in the top of the eighth. Knudson had given up six hits, two of them homers, but left with a 5-4 lead. He was replaced by Chuck Crim. The reliever gave up a leadoff double to Felix, who advanced to third on Fernandez’s groundout. Gruber was walked intentionally, which backfired when Bell hit his second homer of the game and 12th of the season to score three.

“I was just trying to get a ground ball,” Crim said. “I threw him a sinker down and in. To tell you the truth, I threw it where I wanted to. Obviously, it wasn’t the right pitch to throw.”4

For the eighth, Gaston called on Henke, who had a one-two-three inning.

In the top of the ninth, the Jays added four more runs on four singles and an error by the Milwaukee shortstop.

Henke got out of the ninth without surrendering any runs.

The Blue Jays won the next two games, as well, by 7-3 and 13-5, before the Brewers won 4-1 on Monday.

The game is of note because Gilles secured his first major-league win with just two pitches.

It would also be his last.

Days later, he was returned to the minors to make way for a fifth outfielder, Ken Williams, picked up on waivers from Detroit. The Blue Jays, who carried 11 pitchers on that road trip, replaced a hurler with a position player. Despite the demotion, Gaston had words of praise for Gilles: “This last road trip has given us a chance to do this. Our starters have been going longer. I like Gilles. I think he’s going to be okay.”5

As it turned out, Gilles’ major-league career was at an end.

His victory was the only decision in a two-game, 14-pitch major-league career.

Gaston’s prediction did not come true. Gilles never returned to the majors and was out of Organized Baseball at the end of the following season. He attempted a comeback in independent baseball in 1994 that lasted only five games.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the game account at Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIL/MIL199006080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1990/B06080MIL1990.htm

Notes

1 Tom Slater, “Jays Shuffle Pitching Corps,” Toronto Star, June 7, 1990: E3.

2 Dave Reynolds, “GPSHOF: Tom Gilles Still Savors His Most Memorable Cup of Coffee,” Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star, March 24, 2018, www.pjstar.com/story/sports/2018/03/24/gpshof-tom-gilles-still-savors/12913119007/.

3 Game Video, Toronto Blue Jays at Milwaukee Brewers, June 8, 1990, Facebook.com (posted at Tom Gilles: The Road to Success Facebook page, April 29, 2020), 1:02, accessed December 31, 2022, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035569916347.

4 Brad Fadulto, “Brewer Pen Fails Again,” Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), June 9, 1990: 19.

5 Larry Millson, “Williams Has No Illusions About Role with Blue Jays,” Toronto Globe and Mail, June 20, 1990: C14.