One Pitch, One Out, One Win for Ed Mujica in Citifield Debut

Above you are looking at the winning pitcher in the first regular season game ever played at the New York Mets home, Citifield. I was not there and it will bug me forever. I was at the first game ever at Shea Stadium, and I cut junior high school classes to get the Number 7 train to Willets Point in order to be there. Of course, I was 14 at the time. Now I am pushing 60, and I was in United States District Court instead, representing a gentleman charged with trafficking in marijuana. So adulthood goes.

Enough about me. As the announcers were discussing who would get the first hit at the new park, leadoff hitter Jody Gerut became the first guy ever to hit a home run in a brand new stadium in the first at bat at that park. That will become a trivia question forever. On the third pitch of the game, Gerut hit the ball out off Mike Pelfrey, who clearly should not have been starting. That honor should have gone to Johan Santana, who should have been held back a day and not started the day before in Florida. But the Mets do not have a flair for the dramatic. Flushing is not Broadway.

Meanwhile, in Tampa, the Rays opened their home season at an old park crushing the Yankees about 19-5, so bad the Yankees finished the game with first baseman Nick Swisher pitching. And he did okay, even picking up a strikeout. Edward Mujica did not get a strikeout in Citi Field. Ed Mujica will though be forever remembered as the first winning pitcher at Citi Field.

He did not work hard to get it, this refugee from the Cleveland Indians. He game into the game in the bottom of the fifth, with the score tied 5-5. He threw one pitch, got a fly out, and was pinch hit for in the top of the sixth when the Padres went ahead to stay ahead and win the game.

For Mujica, it was a short nite. One pitch. One out. One win. Not bad. Fantasy players though probably do not have Mujica on their team. They are moaning the starting staff did not chalk up the V. I remember Tom Niedenfeur came into a game for the Dodgers in the 80's and picked Ozzie Smith off. LA scored in the bottom half of the inning and he got the win without ever throwing a pitch to home plate. It happens.

You throw a gem and the guy who comes in to save it gets the win. Happened to the Marlins the other day. Annibal Sanchez leaves the game after pitching a six inning shutout. Lindstrom blows the save, gets the win. Someday Mujica will cost someone a win. Today he got it. With one pitch.