Andy Rincon’s major league career consisted of just 20 appearances. John Smoltz is currently at 718 and counting.
Yet Rincon set a St. Louis Cardinals record at the tender age of 21 that Smoltz, with twice as many years on his body at 42, could tie his next time out.
Called up in September, 1980, Rincon spun a complete-game win on just one run at Wrigley Field in his MLB debut. The right-hander quickly picked up two more victories, going eight innings and allowing only one run each time before yielding six runs in six starts in his fourth and final start as the 1980 season concluded.
In doing so, Rincon became the only Cardinals hurler since at least 1954 to allow one run or less in his first three appearances of five or more innings in duration.
With a six-inning, one-run performance Friday on top of his five-inning shutout debut last Sunday, Smoltz has joined six other then-new Cardinals with a pair of such games.
Making this list did not guarantee baseball immortality, however. In fact, some like Rincon are downright obscure. Bigger names like Jerry Reuss (1969) and Kyle Lohse (2008) also appear.
As the day Smoltz is approaching, several were at what would be their career’s end, including Sal “The Barber” Maglie (1958), Alex Kellner (1959) and Glen Hobbie (1964), all of whom made their reputations elsewhere before finishing out their MLB years with the Cardinals.
With Smoltz wanting to pitch again in 2010, time will tell whether or not he will follow the other three in ending his career with St. Louis. But with one more stellar start, he can join long-since forgotten Andy Rincon with the best first three appearances of any new Cardinals hurler in at least the last 55 years.
Games pitching five or more innings, allowing one run or less to start Cardinals career (1954-2009)
| StreakStart | Streak End | Games | W | L | GS | CG | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Andy Rincon | 9/15/1980 | 9/26/1980 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 25 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 1.08 |
| Kyle Lohse | 4/1/2008 | 4/6/2008 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Jerry Reuss | 9/27/1969 | 6/22/1970 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0.56 |
| Glen Hobbie | 6/5/1964 | 6/10/1964 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 16.1 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 1.10 |
| Alex Kellner | 4/25/1959 | 4/30/1959 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0.75 |
| Sal Maglie | 6/22/1958 | 6/28/1958 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1.13 |
| Jim Brosnan | 5/25/1958 | 5/30/1958 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1.20 |
| John Smoltz | 8/23/2009 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0.00 | |
| 8/28/2009* | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1.50 | ||
| * current streak | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 0.82 |
Bonus coverage
Smoltz has also tied four other then-new Cardinals with the record of six or more strikeouts in a pitcher’s first two games with the team.
Since at least 1954, no Cardinals hurler has fanned six or more in each of his first three outings. Smoltz will get his chance this coming Thursday afternoon, facing Milwaukee to close out the current homestand.
Games striking out six or more to start Cardinals career (1954-2009)
| StreakStart | Streak End | Games | IP | SO | |
| John Smoltz | 8/23/2009 | 8/28/2009* | 2 | 11 | 15 |
| Kip Wells | 4/3/2007 | 4/8/2007 | 2 | 13 | 14 |
| Chuck Finley | 7/21/2002 | 7/26/2002 | 2 | 12 | 15 |
| Joe Magrane | 4/25/1987 | 5/1/1987 | 2 | 14 | 13 |
| Sonny Siebert | 4/6/1974 | 4/12/1974 | 2 | 15 | 13 |
| * current streak |
Thanks to regular contributor Tom Orf for providing the data tables.
Nice to see mention of some bygone names. Jim Brosnan wrote one of the great books about baseball, the Long Season. I have not read it myself, but should. Its about the 1959 season when Brosnan toiled for the Cards and then another team. It was a much gentler version of Ball Four, written for the Eisenhower years. Brosnan’s peak year for innings pitched was 1958, his first season with the Cards, 165 IP. Arguably this was his longest season.
I did not recall that we had Sonny Siebert for a season, 1974. Looking up the transaction, I see we surrendered Jose Cruz (Senior)’s brother, Tommy, to acquire Siebert, age 37 when he toiled for the Redbirds.
Andy Rincon signed out of high school in June 1977, 5th rounder. By 1980, he was in rotation, for AA Little Rock. The Cards must have been short of arms, so vaulted Rincon to the ML rotation for 4 starts in 1980. This would be like putting Lance Lynn in rotation for the remainder of this season.
The next year, Rincon threw 30 innings in the minors, so may have had a short season owing to injuries. He also threw 5 fine starts in St Louis.
The WS year of 1982 found Rincon mostly working at AAA, getting the minor league finishing that he lacked. He threw 40 forgettable ML innings too.
And with that, his ML opportunities were past. 1984 was his last full minor league season. Done about age 25.
Skip Schumaker 2b
Brendan Ryan ss
Albert Pujols 1b
Matt Holliday lf
Ryan Ludwick rf
Colby Rasmus cf
Mark DeRosa 3b
Jason LaRue c
Mitch Boggs p
I don’t like Tony’s pitcher bats 8th, but I also don’t like to see DeRosa isolated from the heart. Wouldn’t this be a good time to use Colby 9th and DeRosa 6th?
Tony has said he likes the pitcher 8th thing when we can be expected to have trouble scoring runs. So I agree it would seem to be called for, although Matt just smoked one as we speak.
Andy Rincon was a highly regarded young pitcher that debuted at the end of the 1980 season and started out the 1981 season in the rotation and was hurt on a ball hit off his pitching arm by Phil Garner of the Pirates that, for all intents and purposes, ended his chances at a major league career. He was working on a 3-hit shutout in the eighth inning of a game on May 9 and that was his last major league appearance that year. We really had some bad luck in those days with good-looking young pitchers getting hurt.
Sal Maglie made one of his ten appearances as the Cardinal starter in the second game of the August 15, 1958 doubleheader at the LA Coliseum that was my baptism to major league baseball. He allowed five runs in four innings and my clearest memory is of him kneeling in the grass near the mound while tying his shoelaces.
Jim Brosnan also wrote “Pennant Race” and I would recommend both of his books. Brosnan started game one of the Sunday August 17 DH that weekend and beat Sandy Koufax.
That was a really weird series because the Cards and Dodgers played two on Friday night and two on Sunday with an off day on Saturday due to the LA Times Charity exhibition football game between the Rams and Redskins. I begged my dad to take me to that game, unsuccessfully, (he went to the football game with my older cousin) and I was also unsuccessful in trying to persuade him to take us back for the Sunday DH. We had a four hour drive home.
I’d love to see a “where are they now” on Andy Rincon.
Rincon’s place in Cardinals history remains safe…