Ryan Wins: Strikes Out 13 Angels, Gets No. 301

Only Nolan Ryan can go where no man has gone before, strike out 13 hitters with an unprecedented mix of savvy and speed, bring the other team’s home crowd to its feet in the bottom of the ninth--and still consider the night a disappointment.

Sure, Nolan Ryan became the oldest man ever to strike out 300 batters in a single major league season--he finished with 301--during Texas’ 2-0 victory over the Angels Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium.

But for 7 1/3 innings, Ryan, three months shy of his 43rd birthday, had been perfect.

Twenty-two Angels had stepped in against Ryan, all meeting the same fate, before Brian Downing, the only member of the 1989 Angels to have played with Ryan during his Anaheim years, lined a crisp single into the gap in right-center field.

Dante Bichette immediately followed with a single to left, and an inning later, Mark McLemore also singled to turn Ryan’s hope into merely another three-hit shutout.

Disheartened but not dismayed, Ryan collected himself and poured his remaining energies into the quest still within reach--a 300-strikeout season. This might have been nothing new for Ryan--he reeled off five of them in his first six seasons with the Angels--but it was definitely new for baseball.

Before Saturday, Mickey Lolich, at age 31, was the oldest pitcher to have struck out 300 batters in a single season, which he did in 1971. Eighteen years later, a 42-year-old Ryan was bidding to eclipse that standard, but he entered his final start of the season a dozen strikeouts shy of 300.

After singles by Downing and Bichette in the bottom of the eighth inning, Ryan was at 297.

By the time he closed out the eighth, Ryan was at 299, coming back to strike out Jack Howell and pinch-hitter Jim Eppard.

On to the bottom of the ninth, in which Ryan, buoyed by a crowd of 34,910 that had temporarily switched allegiance, squared off against Dick Schofield, the Angels’ shortstop.

Schofield fouled the first pitch back to the screen. Count: 0 and 1.

Schofield then took a curveball high. 1 and 1.

Next, a checked swing on an outside fastball. 1 and 2.

Finally, one more kick by Ryan and one more fastball on the outside corner. Schofield leaned toward it and looked at it, but could do nothing more.

Home plate umpire Rocky Roe threw his fist in the air, and there it was.

Nolan Ryan, 42 going on 300.

Ryan, in his 22nd big league season, got No. 301 when struck out Devon White for the second out of the ninth. And how rare a feat is 300 strikeouts? Consider:

--Only one other pitcher was able to do it during the 1980s. In 1986, Houston’s Mike Scott struck out 306.

--Only two other pitchers were able to do it since Ryan’s previous 300-season, which came in 1977 when he was a callow California Angel of 29. Along with Scott, Houston’s J.R. Richard did it--twice--in 1978 and 1979.

--Only 11 pitchers in the history of major league baseball have ever been able to do it.

Ryan is the only pitcher to have done it more than three times.

“This just kind of caps off my season,” said Ryan, who finished the year with a 16-10 record and a 3.20 earned-run average. “This year surpassed all my expectations.

“To pitch consistently all year, to strikeout 300 and to win 16 games . . . I really didn’t anticipate this.”

Particularly with Ryan, at long last, beginning to act his age. In his previous seven starts, Ryan had gone 1-4, laboring through the late summer heat with an ERA of 3.76 in those games.

“The last month or so, I didn’t have as much life in my arm as I had the first five months,” he said.

But the opportunity to pitch against the Angels one more time apparently brought about a revival.

Ryan retired the side seven times in succession Saturday night, and only one of his pitches was hit hard. That one, Ryan caught--a sharp line drive up the middle in the fifth inning off the bat of Wally Joyner.

Ryan struck out the side in the sixth inning and had a pair of strikeouts in both the third and fourth innings. He extended his bid into the eighth, opening that inning by retiring Joyner on a fly ball to center.

Next up: Downing, Ryan’s old Angel batterymate. Ryan had won this evening’s first two encounters, getting Downing to foul out and fly out, but the third and most critical confrontation ended after one pitch.

“I was trying to work him up and in,” Ryan said, “but I didn’t get the ball in as much as I wanted. Brian made an adjustment and I think it reflects on the quality of hitter he is.

“He went up there just trying to put the ball in play, just trying to hit it up the middle, and I gave him too much of the plate.”

Downing’s single marked the fifth time this season Ryan had taken a no-hitter into the eighth inning, only to be denied every time.

But at least on this occasion, there was another plum still to be had.

“After losing the no-hitter, I started thinking about the 300,” Ryan said. “I was that close and I wanted to get it.

“Letting the no-hitter get away was disappointing, but getting the shutout and getting 300 strikeouts still makes it a special night.”

Told he was the oldest man ever to strike out 300, Ryan laughed.

“I’m starting to do a lot of these age things,” he said.

So why is it that the hitters, and not Ryan, are the ones who always look 42?

Angel Notes

Nolan Ryan still hasn’t said whether he’s going to come back for a final season in 1990--he has scheduled a Monday news conference in Arlington, Tex., to announce his plans for next year--but a close friend reports that Ryan will again be on the mound for the Rangers next summer. Jimmie Reese, the Angel conditioning coach who turns 84 today, lunched with Ryan Saturday afternoon and claims, “I’m sure he’ll be back. He intimated as much to me. He’s not far from 300 wins (Ryan has 289) and, you know, you can’t overlook the financial end of it. A million dollars a year is not exactly hay. He told me, ‘The Rangers got (a contractual) option on me and they’re going to use it.’ ” . . . Add Reese: Ryan not only named his second-born child Reese, but he has also entrusted the Angel coach with two of his most prized mementoes. “He gave me the ball he used to get his 5,000th strikeout and the ball he used in his fifth no-hitter,” Reese said. “Everybody wants them, but I tell them, ‘See ya later.” . . . The Rangers made a pitching change for today’s season finale. Mike Jeffcoat (9-6) will start for Texas, in place of Charlie Hough (10-13), against Kirk McCaskill (15-10).

NOLAN RYAN’S 300-STRIKEOUT SEASONS Nolan Ryan, with 13 strikeouts against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium Saturday night, went past the 300 mark for the sixth time in his career. Here are the seasons that Ryan has struck out 300 or more batters.

YEAR TEAM IP SO 1972 Angels 284 329 1973 Angels 326 383 1974 Angels 333 367 1976 Angels 284 327 1977 Angels 299 341 1989 Texas 239 301