NEW YORK (KMOX) - Monday's game between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets will be a rare matchup with Adam Wainwright and Rich Hill on the mound for their respective teams. Although it won't be the oldest matchup of starting pitchers in baseball history, it's pretty close.
Wainwright, 40, and Hill, 41, are currently the oldest pitchers in baseball.
Theirs is the first matchup of starting pitchers who are both at least 40 since the Mets’ Bartolo Colon and Blue Jays’ R.A. Dickey on June 18, 2015, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. But they'd both have to play a few more years to get the record.
That distinction belongs to the Angels’ Don Sutton and Indians’ Phil Niekro, who were a combined 90 years, 135 days old when they pitched against each other on Jun 8, 1987.
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Monday's game an old-school rivalry (Cardinals fans called them the "pond scum" Mets), it's an important game in the NL Wild Card race (Cardinals 1 game back, Mets 3 games back) and Hill has a special name for the matchup:
"AARP day," Hill said, reports Tim Healey of Newsday. "Get ready."
Between the two, Wainwright owns the edge in about every statistical category, postseason success and annual awards. The younger pitcher also is having a year that will earn him home Cy Young votes. Hill is 6-6 with a 3.82 ERA and the Mets have lost four of his last five starts.
But the two were also once spring training teammates with St. Louis. In 2010, St. Louis signed Hill to a minor-league deal and was sent to Triple-A. Later that season he was with the Boston Red Sox.
First pitch of Monday's game in New York is set for 6:10 p.m. CT and you can hear it on KMOX, KMOX.com* or the Audacy App*.
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*stream limited to St. Louis listening area
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