Celebrate '68: Ten Wins In A Row For Gibson!

            On July 21, 1968, Bob Gibson locked down his 10th straight win by leading the way to a 2-0 victory over the Mets during the first game of a doubleheader at Busch. The shutout was Gibson’s seventh of the season and his 16th complete game of the campaign.

            Rookie pitcher Jim McAndrew made his major league debut against Gibson that day and he earned the first loss of his career as well. As you can tell by the 2-0 final score, he did not pitch all that badly. He held the Cardinals off the board until the sixth inning when Bobby Tolan who was giving Orlando Cepeda a break at first hit an inside the park home run. McAndrew worked his way through the inning thereafter, but Gibson had the run he needed as the Mets could not solve him on that day.

            Tolan added a little insurance with a ribbie in the eighth, hitting a double off reliever Bill Connors, which scored Lou Brock before Gibson went back to work in the ninth. Gibson came into that inning having struck out 13 men. He would not grab another K in the inning, and nearly ran into trouble when Ed Charles and Art Shamsky picked up one out back-to-back singles. However, Gibson retired Jerry Grote and Ed Kranepool with a popfly and a groundout to secure the win.

            McAndrew pitched during seven different seasons in the majors, primarily for the Mets, and during that time he posted a 37-53 record. While some may look at that as a failure by major league standards, the fact is he made it to the major leagues, and that is something only a handful of men get to do. He also has had a story to tell throughout his life: he began his career in the “year of the pitcher” and faced the best of all of them during his debut in St. Louis, matched up against Bob Gibson.

Gibson’s final line was nine innings pitched, seven hits allowed, no walks, and 13 strikeouts. McAndrew went six innings, allowed six hits, was charged with one earned run, and struck out five. Gibby’s ERA dropped from 1.06 to 1.01 while his record extended to 13-5 and the story of the dominant run to 1.12 continued in the days to come.

Check out the box score here: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN196807211.shtml

Sources included: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The St. Joseph Gazette, and the Schenectady Gazette, and Baseballreference.com