Darrell Wayne Sutherland (born November 14, 1941 is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

right-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

, who played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

and

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

, from to and .

Early life

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

alumni, Sutherland is the brother of MLB

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

Gary Sutherland Gary Lynn Sutherland (born September 27, 1944), nicknamed "Sudsy", is an American former professional baseball middle infielder. He played college baseball at the University of Southern California and later played 13 seasons in Major League Baseb ...

and son of minor league pitcher Ralph Sutherland. Despite being tall, Sutherland was relatively lanky, weighing only .

Baseball career

Signed by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

on June 12, 1963, Sutherland was selected by the Mets in a first-year waiver pick on April 6, 1964. He made his big league debut on June 28 of that year, facing the

Milwaukee Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bost ...

. Although Sutherland started the game, he lasted only one-third of an

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

, giving up five runs, on three

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, and two walks. In total, Sutherland appeared in 10 games in his rookie season, making four starts. He went 0–3, with a 7.76

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA), walking 12, and

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

only nine in 26 innings of work. In 1965, in what turned out to be his career-year, Sutherland was used almost entirely as a

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather d ...

. He appeared in 18 games (2 of them starts). Sutherland posted an impressive 3–1 record, with a 2.81 ERA, 17 walks, and only 16 strikeouts, in 48 innings pitched. In 1966, Sutherland slumped, posting a 4.87 ERA, allowing 60 hits, 25 walks, 23 strikeouts, in 44 innings. Despite that, he posted a perfect 2–0 record. Sutherland spent all of 1967 in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

. On November 28, 1967, he was selected by the Indians in the minor league draft. Sutherland made three appearances for the 1968 Indians, posting an 8.10 ERA, with four walks, and two strikeouts, in 3 innings of work. Sutherland played his final MLB game on April 19. Sutherland’s big league career stat line includes going 5–4, in 62 games (six starts), never striking out more in a season than he walked. In 122 innings pitched, Sutherland walked 58 batters, and struck out only 50. For a pitcher, he was a fairly solid

hitter In baseball, batting is the act of facing the opposing pitcher and trying to produce offense for one's team. A batter or hitter is a person whose turn it is to face the pitcher. The three main goals of batters are to become a baserunner, to driv ...

, posting a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .238. Sutherland apparently made a much better reliever in his career than starter — he won all five of his career games while in relief. all four of Sutherland’s losses came as a starter.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, Darrell Living people 1941 births Major League Baseball pitchers New York Mets players Cleveland Indians players Baseball players from Glendale, California Bakersfield Bears players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Portland Beavers players Jacksonville Suns players Waterbury Indians players Stanford Cardinal baseball players Glendale High School (Glendale, California) alumni