Bronx, NY: On Thursday May 2, Noah “Thor” Syndergaard did one of the rarest feats for a pitcher in baseball, he won his own game by hitting a home run and providing the only offence and pitched a perfect shutout to beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0.
Immediately after the game and the next day just about every sports channel and sports commentator mentioned Syndergaard’s spectacular achievement. Let’s face it, pitchers are not known for being hitters, especially homerun hitters. Well, that’s the case for most pitchers, but Syndergaard’s nickname is not “Thor” for no reason. It was the sixth homer of Syndergaard’s career, moving him into a tie with Tom Seaver for second on the Mets’ all-time home run list for pitchers. Syndergaard deserves all the praise, as that was an incredible achievement.
However, we in Latino Sports take exception to the fact that when all the so-called experts talk about this great pitchers feat and they mention all the others they seem to leave one out, Juan Pizarro a Boricua who pitched for the Chicago Cubs. Juan pitched a jewel of a game on June 6th 1971 against NY Mets and Tom Seaver (who had won seven in a row at that point). The game was tied at no runs a-piece, as Seaver and Pizarro were both pitching excellent shutout out games. However, in the eighth inning Pizarro hit a home run and held the Mets scoreless to win the game.
So, let’s give credit where credit is due and recognize all of the other seven pitchers who have made history and not forget that a Puerto Rican, from Santurce, Puerto Rico was one of them.
The previous 7 pitchers to have hit a home run to win their own complete game.
