On Monday night Bryse Wilson made his major league debut, a 1-0 win over the Pirates.  He reminded BJers of two different pitchers: Jaret Wright and Pat Jarvis.  1966 was the 25-year-old Jarvis’ rookie year.  The Little Bulldog, as Milo Hamilton called him, didn’t come up until early August (new manager Billy Hitchcock asked Richmond coach Bill Adair if he had any fresh arms… Adair recommended Jarvis; things were simpler then) so I’ll focus today on his second start which led to his first MLB win: August 17th in the Astrodome.

Jarvis gave up only a single and a walk through the first five innings.  Dave Giusti matched him giving up an isolated triple and a single.  But the Braves got to Giusti in the 6th, scoring 5 runs: the big blow was a bases-loaded double by Rico Carty which, combined with an error by center fielder Ron Davis (the Ron Davis who wasn’t Ike’s dad), plated 3.

Jarvis gave up three straight two-out hits in the bottom of the sixth (the last to Joe Morgan) to score one and end his day.  Closer Clay Carroll finished the game from there; 3 1/3 innings is what closers were supposed to do.  Final score: 6-1.  Interesting fact: all three Astros outfielders made errors in this game which led to unearned runs.  The other two errors were from Lee Maye and Rusty Staub.

Jarvis had a great August and September: 6-2, 1 homer allowed in 62.1 innings, 0.930 WHIP, and was then a mainstay of the Braves pitching staff for the next 6 years.  Bryse Wilson could do a lot worse than being the second incarnation of Pat Jarvis (13.7 WAR with the Braves ).  Other tidbits of Jarvis’ baseball career: he was the first guy Nolan Ryan struck out, and he gave up Ernie Banks’ 500th homer.  In politics, well, I’ll obey Mac’s rule and stick to baseball.  Those interested in off-the-field activities can consult either the Internet or the Dekalb County Hall of Records.

And now for August 2018.  RAJ led off with a homer.  Julio was perfect through 4, but a walk led to a run in the 5th.  Somewhat inexplicably (to me, but I’m not Clint Hurdle… never have been) starting pitcher Trevor Williams was pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 6th.  That brought Keone Kela in to pitch, who shares initials with Kenshin Kawakami. He did fine.  But then the 8th saw Kyle Crick (who would also share initials with Kenshin Kawakami if his last name were spelled differently) confuse the left-handed batters’ box with the plate and load the bases with no outs.  Freddie broke the tie with a sac fly.

Brach walked the leadoff hitter and left him stranded at third in the 8th.  Venters pitched the 9th: 6-3, K, near-homer, 1-3.  (The near-homer was a home run, I think, in every other park in existence.)

I took this picture in May and have held it until I recapped a winning effort by Julio. As much as I would like it to be at the intersection of the Rue de Teheran and the Boulevard Gausman, which would make me incredibly prescient, it is in fact at the intersection of the Rue de Teheran and Boulevard Haussmann.  He has now pitched well enough to have a street named after him.  Win a couple of World Series games and they’ll rename West Paces Ferry after him.

Paris loves Julio.