Remembering Mets History (1973) Jon Matlack Tosses His First Career One Hitter

Tuesday July 10th, 1973: A crowd of 19,942 fans came out to see Yogi Berra's last place Mets (36-46) take on Leo Durocher's fourth place Houston Astros (47-44) at Shea Stadium.

Leo the Lip Trivia: After 24 seasons of managing, this was to be Leo Durocher's last season as he was to retire at the end of the year. It had just been 19 years since he took the 1954 New York Giants to a World Series sweep over the Cleveland Indians.

Durocher first managed the Brooklyn Dodgers (1939-1948) winning one pennant. Then he switched over to the rival New York Giants (1949 -1955) raising a lot of eyebrows & having to earn respect from the one-time enemy team, as well as their fans.  That he did by winning two pennants & the 1954 World Series.

 Leo then did MLB on NBC & was an NBC executive. In 1961 he returned to the Dodgers as a coach for four seasons. Leo moved on to the Chicago Cubs (1966-1972) with three second place finishes, including a major first place collapse in 1969 to the Amazing Mets. Lastly Leo went to the Houston Astros (1972-1973). Overall, he went 738-565.

Tonight's pitching matchup was certainly a good one, the Mets' John Matlack (6-10) went up against Houston's Jerry Reuss (11-5).  Matlack had given up one earned run in his last two starts over 15 innings.

For Houston, starter Jerry Ruess would go the distance for his team, allowing just one run on six hits. He did walk five batters & one of them turned out to be costly.

The Mets Jon Matlack started the game by striking out former Mets World Series hero, Tommie Agee, he then got two ground ball outs. Matlack began setting down the first six batters over the first two innings. 

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Rusty Staub drew the leadoff walk, then he advanced to second on a ground out by Cleon Jones. With two outs, catcher Duffy Dyer drove a single up the middle scoring Staub with what turned out to be, the only run of the game.

In the top of the 3rd inning, Matlack got all three outs on ground balls. 

Matlack retired the first 15 batters he faced & would take a perfect game into the 6th inning. Up to that point he had eight ground ball outs, four fly outs, three-line outs & two strike outs. 

In the top of the 6th, Tommy Helms led off with a double to left field. The perfect game & the no hitter were now both erased. Matlack was clinging to the 1-0 lead. 

Matlack got himself together, got another ground ball out from catcher Skip Jutze. He then struck out Jerry Reuss &Tommie Agee for the second time to end the inning.

In the top of the 7th, Matlack walked "the toy cannon" Jimmy Wynn. Wynn tried to steal, but Mets catcher Duffy Dyer threw him out at second. Bob Watson flew out for the third out. 

In the top of the 8th, Matlack walked his second batter, as he gave a free pass to "the Red
Rooster" Doug Rader. Matlack then got Tommy Helms, who had the Astros only hit in the game, to ground into a double play, ending that inning.

In the top of the 9th Matlack seemed more dominating, as he struck out the side, getting Skip Jutze, pinch hitter Ray Busse & Tommie Agee for the third time in the game for the final out. 

Jon's 1st One Hitter: Matlack, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, earned the complete game, one hit shutout, win to get to 7-10 with a 3.36 ERA. Matlack struck out seven batters & walked two.

It was the first one hitter of his young career.  This was the tenth one hit game by a Mets pitcher in franchise history.

From August through the end of the regular season, Matlack went 7-2. He finished at 14-16 with 205 strike outs (3rd in the NL) & a 3.20 ERA. He was outstanding in the 1973 post season as well.