I grew up in the Toronto area; in 1985, I was ten years old, and was rapidly developing a fascination with all things related to baseball. It helped that the home team, the Blue Jays, won an exciting pennant race with the Yankees and went to the playoffs for the first time.

I still have an old yearbook from that year, that I read dozens of times that winter. It contains the final results of every game from that year (not complete boxscores, unfortunately, though Retrosheet has filled that void). One game that always fascinated me was from April 24, in Toronto; the Jays beat the Royals (whom they would later face in the ALCS that year). The winning pitcher was Luis Leal; the loser was Bret Saberhagen.

I was reminded of that box score earlier this year, when the Roy Halladay was beaten by Sergio Mitre. Halladay is/was having a magnificent season, at least until his leg was broken by a line drive. Mitre is a young pitcher with the Cubs who has been pretty awful to this point in his career, though he beat the Doc 2-0, and a week later threw a shutout against the Marlins. Since then, he's gone back to being awful. But it got me thinking about the Leal game, and other unlikely victories throughout the years.

(Note: this is an article that was started several weeks ago, was postponed and then never really completed, but I had fun looking stuff up so I'll post what I've got. Since then, something even more improbable has happened: the Jays lost a matchup of Roy Halladay vs "Way Back" John Wasdin. That was the game in which Doc had his shin cracked, and the bullpen... it wasn't so good).

Getting back to the Leal game...

The result wasn't that surprising at the time. Leal was a veteran who had won 13 games the previous year; Saberhagen was 20 years old, in his second season. The Jays put ten runs on the board and won 10-2. Leal pitched great in his next start and won again; after that, his career went downhill fast. He got hammered in his next few starts; he won one more game before he was cut by the Jays in June, and never pitched in the majors again. Saberhagen won 20 games, the Cy Young and the World Series MVP that season.

In his other Cy Young season in 1989, Saberhagen was again victimized by a veteran (and another member of the 1985 Jays) in his final season. Doyle Alexander had an ugly 6-18 record with the Tigers in 1989, but beat Saberhagen twice. The first time, a May 19 matchup, Alexander didn't get the decision; the game between Detroit and Kansas City was scoreless until the bottom of the 9th when Lou Whitaker hit a walk-off home run against Saberhagen. They met again on September 4; the Tigers won 5-1. Saberhagen dropped to 17-6, but won his last six decisions; Alexander improved to 6-16. but had recorded his last major league victory.

Entering his start against the Blue Jays on September 20, 1978, Ron Guidry had a 22-2 record for the Yankees. The Jays lost 102 games that season; Guidry's opponent was Mike Willis, a relief pitcher who had worked in 42 games out of the bullpen and was making his first start of the year. Willis pitched in the majors for five years, all with Toronto, and had a career record of 7-21. This season he was 3-7 with 7 saves and a 4.59 ERA.

Willis' first start of the year was a sensation; he threw a complete game against the defending World Champions, who were engaged in a desperate pennant race with the Red Sox. Willis gave up just one run on six hits; Guidry lasted just 1 2/3 innings, giving up five runs. Two runs scored in the first inning, thanks to two singles and a sacrifice bunt attempt that Guidry threw away. In the second inning, Guidry gave up two singles and a triple to Bob Bailor before hitting the showers.

The game was the first of a doubleheader; the Yankees won the second game, while Guidry would rebound to win his last three starts. The Yankees tied the Red Sox for the division lead and eventually won the World Series.

In his first truly great season, Sandy Koufax was 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA for the Dodgers in 1963. Koufax was 16-3 with a 1.75 ERA on July 25 when he faced the Pirates. He had nasty stuff, striking out 12 batters in six innings. But he also made some mistakes; the worst was a three-run home run to Roberto Clemente in the third inning.

Pirates starter Joe Gibbon, in the midst of a 5-12 season, threw four shutout innings despite four walks and three hits. In the 5th inning his luck turned south, as another walk and two more hits resulted in two runs. Rookie Tommie Sisk came in to pitch; he got a double play and the third out, then finished the game with five no-hit innings to secure the win and Koufax' fourth loss of the season.

Incredibly, almost the exact same thing happened two years later. Entering his start on September 1, 1965, Koufax was 21-6. His opponent was Tommie Sisk, now in his third year; Sisk had spent most of the season in the bullpen, but then was given a chance at starting and was making his sixth start of the year.

The Dodgers jumped to a 2-0 lead, but the Pirates tied the games with single runs in the 5th and 6th. Sisk threw five innings, and then was replaced by, sure enough, Joe Gibbon. Gibbon shut down the Dodgers on three hits for the next six innings, as the game remained tied. Koufax threw a scoreless 10th, then came out to start the bottom of the 11th; Willie Stargell walked with two outs, and scored on a double by Jim Pagliaroni.

Roger Clemens rocketed to stardom with his 24-4 season in 1986. He began the year 14-0, before he lost on July 2 to Toronto starter Jimmy Key. He then lost his next start to Oakland's Dave Stewart - not a great surprise, perhaps, except that Stewart was making only his second start in an Oakland uniform after he had been acquired from the Phillies. Stewart's victory over Clemens ended an ugly personal streak of 12 consecutive losses.

For his third loss of the season, Clemens was defeated by another midseason pickup - Jose deLeon, who was making his second start of the year for the White Sox. DeLeon was a promising young pitcher who had posted an infamous 2-19 record with the Pirates in 1985; he began the next season 1-3 with a 8.27 ERA when Pittsburgh lost patience and traded him.

DeLeon beat Clemens on July 30 by a 7-2 score. Five days later, on August 4, deLeon beat Clemens again, this time 1-0. The only run against Clemens came in the 8th inning, after an error by Wade Boggs and another error by Clemens while fielding a sac bunt attempt. Clemens didn't lose again that season until the playoffs.

In 1931, Lefty Grove posted a remarkable 31-4 record, and tied the American League record with 16 consecutive victories. He had a chance to break Rube Marquard's major league record of 19 straight wins, but on August 23 ran into Dick Coffman and the St. Louis Browns. The Browns were a bad team that lost 91 games; Coffman was 24 years old and had been banished to the bullpen after losing 18 games in 1930. He made a return to the rotation in early August, throwing a shutout in his first start and winning his next two, then asking his manager for the opportunity to take his turn early and face Grove.

Grove pitched a good game, giving up just one run over nine innings. But Coffman was better, throwing a three-hit shutout. Coffman ended up having a decent season, then bounced between the bullpen and the rotation in limited roles for the rest of his career.

Before the 1934 season, Dizzy Dean predicted that he and his brother Paul would win over 40 games for the Cardinals. Dizzy, at age 24, had never won more than 20 in a season, while Paul had never thrown a pitch in the big leagues.

But entering a June series against the Phillies, Dizzy was 8-2 while Paul was a sensational 8-0. On June 16, the Phillies beat Dizzy 8-3; the winner was George Darrow, a rookie was 2-6 that year and then never pitched in the majors afterwards. The next day, in a first game of a doubleheader, Paul won his 9th game, while in the second game Dizzy won his 9th game pitching in relief.

Paul faded after his hot start, finishing the year at 19-11. Dizzy ended the season with a 30-7 record; he started only 33 games that year but appeared in 17 more in relief.

Looking ahead to this weekend... Pedro Martinez vs. D.J. Houlton appears to be the biggest mismatch. Pedro is in the running for another Cy Young Award, as is Roger Clemens, who faces Ryan Drese and the fading Nationals tonight. I guess we'll see how they fare.