September 14, 1968

Denny McLain gives up four runs in nine innings, raising his ERA for the season to 2.01.  The Detroit Tigers trail 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth but rally for two runs, winning the game and giving McLain his 30^th victory.  McLain finished the year 31-6, posting the first 30-win season since Dizzy Dean went 30-7 in 1934.  It was also the last.

McLain had 37 decisions in 1968; in the last twenty years, only one pitcher has started as many as 37 games (Greg Maddux, 1991).  In the forty-one years since McLain won 31, only two pitchers have topped 25 wins in a season, none since 1990.   McLain threw 28 complete games and 336 innings that season at age 24; it was a brutal workload, one that did not bode well for his pitching future.  He won 24 games in 1969, then went 17-34 in the remainder of a career that flamed out quickly for a variety of reasons.