Bartolo Colon Draws First Walk of His Career

New York Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon has been in the major leagues since 1997. The 43 year old right hander won the Cy Young Award as a member of the Los Angeles Angels in 2005, when he was 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA. He has 228 big league victories with eight different clubs in his career. He’s spent more time in the American League than the National, so he hasn’t batted a whole lot of times for as long a career as he’s had, but when he stepped to the plate in the fourth inning of the August 15th Mets-Arizona Diamondbacks game, it was the 282nd plate appearance of his career.

Then Colon did something he’s never done before in his big league career. He took a 3-2 pitch from Arizona lefthander Robbie Ray for ball four. And with that, the longest streak of plate appearances in major league history without a base on balls ended at 282.

Colon has a career batting average of 0.89 with one homer (which he hit earlier this season) and 11 RBIs. Besides the homer, he has three doubles among his 23 hits. His on base percentage is .099 and his OPS is .212. Of course, Colon doesn’t claim to be hitter, and it was for guys like him that the designated hitter rule was created, at least where it exists in the American League. While he isn’t much of a threat at the plate, Colon is still a serviceable pitcher. Despite taking the loss in the game, won by Arizona 10-6, Colon is 10-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 2016.