September 18, 1972: Mets’ Jon Matlack beats Pirates, Nelson Briles 1-0 for second time

On September 18, 1972, New York Mets rookie Jon Matlack took the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Nelson Briles for the second time. The two pitchers had first faced each other in the first game of a July 27 doubleheader at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. Matlack won that game, 1-0, allowing four hits in 10 innings, with Briles going the distance in the loss. The Pirates’ right-hander gave up nine hits through nine innings before the Mets scored on two 10th-inning hits and a sacrifice fly.

The defending World Series champion Pirates, seeking their third straight National League East Division title, led the second-place Chicago Cubs by 12 games when they arrived in New York for a four-game series. Pittsburgh had held sole possession of first place since July 2, and the Pirates’ magic number for clinching the division was three, with more than two weeks to go in the season.

Even losing three consecutive games to the St. Louis Cardinals was cause for little more than mild admonishment from Pirates manager Bill Virdon. “This game isn’t really that easy. I think some people on this club found that out,” Virdon said when asked about the Cardinals series.1

Pirates owner John Galbreath was in attendance when the teams took the field at Shea Stadium for the series opener on September 18. His race horse Roberto, named after Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente,2 was racing at Belmont Park. Roberto’s jockey, Braulio Baeza, wanted to meet Clemente, and Galbreath took Baeza to the game to grant his wish.

New York returned home after being swept by the Cubs. Manager Gil Hodges had died on April 2, just days before the strike-delayed season. The Yogi Berra-led Mets were in first place by six games on May 21 but had fallen into third since then, 15½ games behind the Pirates.3 New York had allowed 33 runs in the three-game sweep in Chicago, with ace starter Tom Seaver getting knocked out in the third inning of an 18-5 loss in the middle game of the series.

Matlack, the Mets’ first-round pick in the June 1967 amateur draft, had a 12-9 record and a 2.38 ERA. After his 1-0 win against Briles, the 22-year-old left-hander had gone 2-4 in his next nine starts with a 3.02 ERA. New York had failed to score runs in many of Matlack’s losses,4 leading him to say, “It seems every time I pitch well I either lose or I don’t get the decision.”5

Leadoff batter Rennie Stennett singled in the top of the first, but he failed to get any farther. Al Oliver popped out to shortstop Bud Harrelson. Clemente struck out, and Manny Sanguillén’s groundout to third ended the frame.

Briles had been traded to the Pirates before the 1971 season.6 He started one game for the Pirates in the postseason, a two-hit shutout of the Baltimore Orioles in Game Five of the 1971 World Series. In his eighth big-league season, the 28-year-old Briles entered the game with a 14-7 record and a 3.35 ERA.

Wayne Garrett led off the Mets’ half of the first with a single. After Ken Boswell popped up to shortstop and rookie left fielder John Milner flied out to center field, Rusty Staub came to bat. The Mets right fielder, acquired in an April 5 trade with the Montreal Expos, had not played in two months. Staub was hit on the wrist in a game against the Atlanta Braves on June 3. He kept playing, but when he continued to have pain, the Mets sent him for x-rays in July. They showed Staub had broken the hamate bone in his wrist, which required surgery.7

Staub singled to left, sending Garrett to third. But Briles struck out Cleon Jones to keep New York from scoring.

Matlack walked batters in the second and third, but Pittsburgh couldn’t take advantage. The Pirates got their second hit in the fourth when Richie Hebner singled with two outs but it went for naught when Matlack got first baseman Bob Robertson, playing for the injured Willie Stargell,8 to ground out to third. Matlack then retired the next six Pirates in order.

Pittsburgh left fielder Richie Zisk,9 who had been called up on September 9, led off with a single in the seventh. But once again the Pirates couldn’t take advantage of a baserunner. Matlack sent down the next three batters on a groundout, a strikeout, and a fly ball.

The Pirates had another scoring opportunity in the ninth. With two outs, Richie Hebner and Robertson singled. But Matlack got Gene Alley to hit an easy pop to second baseman Ted Martinez to maintain his shutout.

Briles matched Matlack through the first eight innings. After the two singles in the first, he walked batters in the second and third innings and gave up another single to Garrett in the third, but the Mets failed to score each time.

New York had another chance in the sixth when Garrett and Boswell started the inning with singles. But Milner flied out to center field and Staub grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the threat. New York had baserunners in the seventh and eighth but failed to score. Harrelson’s fly ball ended the seventh and two strikeouts and another fly ball brought the eighth to an end.

With the game still scoreless, Briles “suddenly weakened in the ninth,” reported the New York Times.10 Staub led off with a single up the middle. Jones laid down a sacrifice bunt along the first-base line to move Staub to second. Briles walked Ed Kranepool intentionally.

Duffy Dyer then singled to left field. Zisk fielded the ball but bobbled it as he tried to throw it home.11 Staub was running on the play. He rounded third and slid around catcher Sanguillén’s tag for the winning run. “Staub made his triumphant return after two months,” wrote the New York Daily News’ Red Foley.12

“I wanted to get it on one bounce,” said Zisk. “But I couldn’t get there quick enough. I got it on the in-between [second] bounce. But that’s no excuse.” Virdon, a well-regarded center fielder with the Pirates in the 1950s and 1960s, said Zisk “had a tough chance. He made a good play coming up with the ball.”13

“What’s a fella gotta do? That is a question Nellie Briles might have asked himself 100 times last night. Or 1,000,” said the Pittsburgh Press.14 The loss was doubly painful since it was his second 1-0 loss to the Mets in 1972 – both losses coming in New York’s last at-bat. It also left Briles, who had spent the first six seasons of his career with the Cardinals, with a 4-8 career record against the Mets.

The Mets failed to support Matlack with runs once again but he was still glad to get his 13th win. “I just hope I feel this way the rest of the season,” said Matlack. “Maybe I can salvage something.” When asked how he felt about beating Briles again, Matlack said, “I don’t know if I can sympathize with Briles. Not with all that power behind him.”15

The New York Daily News said “the fact the Bucs couldn’t get a man beyond first undoubtedly militated against their chances as the Met lefty made good pitches when the occasion demanded.”16

Matlack finished with a 15-10 record and 2.32 ERA. He pitched another complete-game win on September 23. After the Mets failed to score any runs for him again, he took the loss against the Pirates on September 30, a game in which he allowed the 3,000th and final hit of Clemente’s career. He pitched into the ninth in his final game of the season, on October 4, with the Mets scoring three runs to help him earn the win. Matlack received the NL Rookie of the Year Award.17

The September 18 loss was the fourth in a row for Pittsburgh, which was outscored 20-8 in those games. The Pirates won two out of the next three games against New York, clinching the division with a 6-2 win in the series finale on September 21. Pittsburgh finished 1972 leading the NL in batting average (.271), doubles (254), and triples (47), and coming in second in RBIs (654).

The Mets went 10-6 down the stretch to finish 13½ games behind the Pirates in the NL East.

Briles lost his final three regular-season games in 1972. The Pirates failed to score in two of the losses, including another 1-0 defeat to the Mets on September 29, a two-hit shutout for Seaver’s 20th win of the season.18 Briles finished the season with a 14-11 record and a 3.08 ERA. He started the third game of the National League Championship Series, going six innings in the Pirates’ 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds.19 The Reds denied the Pirates a repeat pennant by winning the NLCS in 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 used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for the box score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN197209180.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1972/B09180NYN1972.htm

Notes

1 Charley Feeney, “Playing Games,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 19, 1972: 21.

2 Clemente was playing in his 2,422nd game to move into 20th place in major-league history, tying him with Luke Appling.

3 The players went on strike over several issues involving pension and arbitration issues. Eighty-six games were canceled at the beginning of the season and MLB decided that those games would not be made up, resulting in teams playing different numbers of games during the season.

4 The Mets scored between zero and two runs in 14 of Matlack’s 32 starts that season.

5 Bob Smizik, “Loss to Mets Tough on Briles,” Pittsburgh Press, September 19, 1972: 34.

6 The St. Louis Cardinals traded Briles and Vic Davalillo to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Matty Alou and George Brunet on January 29, 1971.

7 Sam Goldpaper, “Staub Has Cast, West a Raise, Best a Rest,” New York Times, July 22, 1972: 20.

8 Stargell had suffered severe headaches, according to the Pittsburgh newspapers. He played again on September 20 but then missed four more games as the headaches persisted. He returned to the lineup on September 26.

9 Zisk had played seven games in a September call-up in 1971 after playing for the Triple-A Charleston Charlies. He returned to Charleston again in 1972. Zisk was called up for five games in July and again in September. He made the Pirates roster in 1973 and became their regular left fielder, coming in 9th in the Rookie of the Year voting.

10 “Mets With Staub Top Pirates in 9th on Hit by Dyer, 1-0,” New York Times, June 19, 1972: 67.

11 Berra made Dyer the regular catcher early in the 1972 season. Dyer gave the team more of a threat with the long ball. He ended up starting in 94 games with Jerry Grote, the Mets regular catcher for the past six seasons, playing in just 64 games. Grote was battling an elbow injury and had surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow in late September.

12 Red Foley, “Mets Stall Pirates, 1-0, Staub, 2 Hits,” New York Daily News, September 19, 1972: 88.

13 Virdon played for 12 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates as an outfielder, primarily in center field. He earned a Gold Glove Award in 1962 and finished with a .982 fieldling percentage.

14 Smizik, “Loss to Mets Tough on Briles.”

15 “Loss to Mets Tough on Briles.” Briles was on the winning side of a 1-0 win on August 22, 1972, when he almost had a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants.

16 “Mets Stall Pirates, 1-0, Staub, 2 Hits.”

17 Matlack beat out catcher Dave Rader of the San Francisco Giants and left fielder John Milner of the Mets.

18 Briles lost 1-0 after pitching a complete game one other time in his career. He lost to the Oakland A’s on September 11, 1976, when he was with Texas.

19 Briles played 14 seasons in the major leagues with five teams. He made it to the postseason four times, with the Cardinals in 1967 and 1968 and with the Pirates in 1971 and 1972. His start against the Reds was the last postseason game of his career.