Ramon de los Santos, baseball player, Died at 66

  Sports

Ramon (Genero) de los Santos was born on January 19, 1949, and died on November 29, 2015.

He was a Dominican Major League Baseball relief pitcher.

The left-hander signed as a free agent with the Houston Astros on April 9, 1972 and played for them in 1974.

Ramon was called up to Houston on August 1974, after a season dominating hitters in the Double-A Southern League.

Pitching in 42 games for the Columbus Astros, Ramón struck out 73 batters in 76 innings and allowed only 11 earned runs. He was 7–4 with an ERA of 1.30.

On August 21, 1974, Ramon made his major league debut in relief against the New York Mets at the Astrodome.

Ramon retired the first batter he faced, right fielder Rusty Staub, then struck out, first baseman John Milner to end the 6th inning.

In 2.2 innings that night, he gave up two hits, three walks, and two unearned runs, and the Astros lost, 10–2. They had made five errors during the game.

Ramon won his first and only big league game one week later at Shea Stadium.

He retired Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson, the last hitter in the bottom of the 9th, and then teammate Cliff Johnson hit a home run in the top of the 10th to win the game, 3–2.

Season and career totals in 12 games include a 1–1 record and 5 games finished.

In 12.1 innings pitched, he gave up 3 earned runs for an ERA of 2.19.

In 1975, Ramon pitched in both Triple-A and Double-A, and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals organization after the season (December 9), but never again appeared in a major league game.

Ramon passed away at age 66 in November 2015.