When the Phillies jettisoned Von Hayes to the California Angels in 1991, their return was two-fold--outfielder (and future GM) Ruben Amaro Jr., and young pitcher Kyle Abbott, who was slotted into the starting rotation behind Curt Schilling and Terry Mulholland for the 1992 season. However, Kyle's season got off to a start that could generously be described as "inauspicious." His first start went all right, as he let up only three runs and struck out seven over seven innings. But the Phils only scored two runs for him, and lost the game 3-2. Poor run support would be a common theme for Abbott for the next few months, as the Phils scored more than three runs for him only once before the month of July. Abbott's record suffered to near-historic levels, as on July 6th, 1992, he took the mound with a merely subpar ERA of 5.61, but a staggeringly bad record of 0-10.
Unfortunately, Abbott's quest for win #1 would have to wait for another start, as the Phillies once again gave him just two runs' worth of support, on a Stan Javier groundout and a Jeff Grotewold solo shot, the latter after Abbott had already left the game. Kyle gave up only three runs on six hits and a walk, but got hung with yet another L nonetheless, dropping him to 0-11 for the year. Frank Fitzpatrick of the Philadelphia Inquirer was starting to lose his sympathy for the young lefty. "It is now beyond explanations of bad innings, bad luck and bad support," wrote Fitzpatrick. "It is at the point where the only remaining question about Kyle Abbott is this: Could he possibly be as bad as his record?"
Kyle would eventually get his first win of the season on July 18th, when the Phils finally gave him all the runs they'd been saving up for him in a 14-3 rout of the Dodgers, but that was the only one he would get that season. Two more losses later, he was dropped from the starting lineup to the bullpen, and finished the season with a miserable 1-14 record. Unsurprisingly, Abbott was released the next year, but the Phillies took another chance on him two years later, where without starting a single game, he still racked up more wins than he did than in his 19 starts in 1992--an entire pair of them, in fact.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/07/to...
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