« Nice Report Card | Main | Starved And Then Stomped Upon »
September 6, 2005
Money Pitcher
It has been 15 seasons since the last 20-game winner was seen in these parts. At age 22, Ramon Martinez reached 20 wins for the Dodgers in 1990. With his 18th victory on Sunday, the Angels' Bartolo Colon edged closer to becoming the first LA/CA/Anaheim pitcher to achieve the magic number since Bill Singer did the trick way back in 1973. With a possible 5 starts remaining, Colon needs one victory to join Nolan Ryan, Frank Tanana and Mark Langston as the only Angel pitchers to win as many as 19 games in a season, Langston being the last to hit the mark in 1991. And Colon's back-to-back 18-win seasons add up to the best two-year win total for an Angels starter since Chuck Finley won 18 games in both 1990 and 1991.
Since last season's all-star break, Colon has amassed a record of 30 wins against 10 losses. After a 12-4 post-all-star break record in 2004, Colon has gone 7 and 1 following the 2005 midseason classic, and he has established himself as the man to beat in the race for the American League Cy Young Award. The legendary Dean Chance is the only Angels pitcher to have ever won the Cy Young Award, a feat he accomplished in 1964 when only one award was given to the man voted best pitcher in both leagues.
Posted by Andrew Torres at 7:42 AM
