On April 14, the Rangers beat the Orioles 6-3 to win their sixth game of the year and move to 6-5 on the young season. Young, apparently, being the operative word.

*****

SOMEWHERE, ANTHONY YOUNG IS SAYING, “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.”
Originally published April 15, 2016.

From May 6, 1992, to July 24, 1993, Mets pitcher Anthony Young lost twenty-seven consecutive decisions.

Twenty-seven in a row.

It was said at the time that one has to be a pretty good pitcher to lose that many decisions in a row, meaning, if he was awful he wouldn’t have been given all those chances. But he wasn’t awful. He was just unlucky.

Really unlucky.

In that time he was 0-14 as a starter, with thirteen quality starts, then 0-13 as a reliever. The Mets went 4-23 in that span.

Really really unlucky.

He had a very respectable career ERA of 3.89 and a very forgettable winning percentage of .238.

I bring this up because last night Tom Wilhelmsen threw two pitches and earned a win in the Rangers 6-3 victory over Baltimore.

It seemed so effortless.

Cole Hamels pitched brilliantly but had some of that experiment defense behind him and left the game with one out in the sixth, trailing 3-1, with runners on first and third.

Wilhelmsen came in and, with just two pitches, coaxed an inning-ending double play and the Rangers came back with five runs in the bottom of the sixth in unlikely fashion.

Mitch Moreland got a bad swing double, then Ian Desmond hit a weak ground ball to second that the Orioles second baseman didn’t know what to do with, and, just like that, the Rangers were in business.

And,  just like that, Tom Wilhelmsen was the winning pitcher.

Baseball is a mean, cruel, soul crushing, unfair, wonderful, beautiful, redemptive sport that makes no sense most of the time.

Ask Tom Wilhelmsen.

Better yet, ask Anthony Young.