It took 18 starts, but Tony Gonsolin finally took a loss in 2022 last night against the Washington Nationals.
While he still turned in a solid performance, throwing six innings and giving up four runs, the Los Angeles Dodgers up-and-coming ace ultimately took his first loss.
The Nationals won by a final of 4-1 and Gonsolin finally came back down to Earth a little bit.
He had struggled in a start against the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Dodgers bats bailed him out with a late comeback at Busch Stadium.
This time, he didn’t have such luck.
Stats By STATS tweeted that last night was the first time in the modern era that a starter who had started off 11-0 took his first loss against the team with the worst record in all of baseball.
Tonight is the first time in the modern era that an 11-0 or better pitcher (Tony Gonsolin) lost to a team that came into the day with the worst record in MLB (@Nationals).
— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) July 26, 2022
Gonsolin Makes Unfortunate History
While Gonsolin pitched well, this is not history you want to be part of.
You never want to take your first loss against a bad team, let alone be the first pitcher in the modern era to start off 11-0 before taking your first loss against a bad team.
But it happens to even the best pitchers.
Gonsolin did pitch a mostly good ballgame, but the offense couldn’t pick him up as the Dodgers dropped the first game of their three-game set with the Nationals.
Gonsolin’s ERA went up to 2.26 on the year, which is still very impressive, but might have taken him out of the conversation for the National League Cy Young Award at the moment.
We’ll see if he can bounce back into the race with a couple of good starts here soon.
For now, Sandy Alcantara is leading the race for the Cy Young, but Gonsolin should not be overlooked.
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