DETROIT — Mickey Lolich, who earned three complete-game wins for the Detroit Tigers in the 1968 World Series, the last Major League Baseball pitcher to accomplish that feat, died Wednesday. He was 85.<\/p>\n
The Tigers said Lolich’s wife told them he died after a short stay in hospice care. An exact cause of death was not provided.<\/p>\n
Denny McLain was the star of Detroit\u2019s pitching staff in 1968, winning 31 regular-season games. Lolich, however, was the Most Valuable Player of the Series, with a 1.67 ERA and a Game 7 victory on the road over Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
Bill Freehan threw off his catcher\u2019s mask and caught a foul popup by Tim McCarver for the final out. Lolich jumped into Freehan\u2019s arms \u2014 an iconic image of Detroit\u2019s championship season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always somebody else,\u201d Lolich told the Detroit Free Press<\/a> in 2018, \u201cbut my day had finally come.\u201d<\/p>\n He is No. 23 in career strikeouts with 2,832, ahead of many others who, unlike Lolich, are in the Hall of Fame, and fifth among all lefties, according to baseball-reference.com.<\/p>\n Lolich was an unlikely hero in 1968. During a reunion of the World Series team, he recalled how manager Mayo Smith had sent him to the bullpen for much of August. Lolich returned to the Tigers’ starting rotation and went 6-1 in the final weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cI was having a few problems, but I had been a starting pitcher ever since 1964,\u201d said Lolich, who was upset about the bullpen move. \u201cI remember telling him, \u2018If we win this thing this year it\u2019s going to be because of me.\u2019 But I was only talking about the season. I wasn\u2019t talking about the World Series.<\/p>\n \u201cI got my revenge back in the World Series,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Lolich pitched Game 7 after only two days of rest. He figured he would get a Corvette from General Motors for being the Series MVP but had to settle for a Dodge Charger GT because Chrysler was the sponsor in 1968.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing against Chargers, nothing at all,\u201d Lolich said in his book, \u201cJoy in Tigertown.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s just that I already had two of them in my driveway.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Lolich, only two pitchers have won three games in a single World Series: Arizona\u2019s Randy Johnson in 2001 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025. But they pitched fewer innings and got their third victories in relief.<\/p>\n Lolich had a record of 220-192, including the postseason, over a 16-year career, all but three with Detroit. He left baseball for a bit after playing for the New York Mets in 1976 but returned with San Diego in 1978-79.<\/p>\n The left-hander was 25-14 in 1971, striking out 308 batters over 376 innings and finishing second in AL Cy Young Award voting. He followed that up with a 22-14 record and 250 strikeouts in 1972.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Tigers expressed condolences to Lolich’s family and said his legacy \u201cwill forever be cherished.\u201d<\/p>\n After his baseball career, Lolich, a native of Portland, Oregon, was in the doughnut business in the Detroit suburbs, making and selling them for 18 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI doubt any other ballplayer has ever made that transition \u2014 from the diamond to doughnuts. But I did,\u201d he wrote in his book.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this report. Follow Ed White at http:\/\/twitter.com\/edwritez<\/a> ___<\/p>\n