Horacio Piña

Horacio Piña
Pitcher
Born: (1945-03-12) March 12, 1945 Matamoros, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 14, 1968 for the Cleveland Indians
Last MLB appearance
October 1, 1978 for the Philadelphia Phillies
Career statistics
Win–loss record	23-23
Earned run average	3.25
Strikeouts	278
Teams
Cleveland Indians (1968-1969) Washington Senators (1970-1971) Texas Rangers (1972) Oakland Athletics (1973) Chicago Cubs (1974) California Angels (1974) Philadelphia Phillies (1978)

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Piña and the second or maternal family name is García.

Horacio Piña García [pee'-nyah] (born March 12, 1945 in Matamoros, Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico) is a former relief pitcher who played in Major League Baseball between 1968 and 1978. Piña also played professionally in Mexico for several years. He batted and threw right-handed. Pina, a submarine pitcher who was known to fall off the mound after each pitch.

Piña reached the major leagues in 1968 with the Cleveland Indians, spending two years with them before moving to the Washington Senators (1970-1971), Texas Rangers (1972), Oakland Athletics (1973), Chicago Cubs (1974), California Angels (1974) and Philadelphia Phillies (1978). His most productive season came in 1972 with the last-place Rangers, when he posted career-numbers in saves (15), strikeouts (60) and games pitched (60). Traded to the Athletics before the 1973 season for Mike Epstein, he responded with a 6–3 mark, eight saves and career-highs in ERA (2.76) and innings (88.0), helping them to clinch the ALCS and the World Series Championship. In an eight-season career, Piña posted a 23–23 record with a 3.25 ERA and 38 saves in 314 games. In three post-season games he had a perfect 0.00 ERA in five innings.

As a pitcher in the Mexican League, Piña threw a no-hitter in 1975, posted a 21–4 record with a 1.94 ERA and pitched a perfect game in 1978, and gained induction in the Salón de la Fama del Béisbol de México in 1988.

See also

• Players from Mexico in MLB

Sources

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Baseball Library
• Salón de la Fama del Béisbol de México (Spanish)
• The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia – Gary Gillette, Peter Gammons, Pete Palmer. Publisher: Sterling Publishing, 2005. Format: Paperback, 1824pp. Language: English. ISBN 1-4027-4771-3