Garland put up some decent numbers during the 1974 season, appearing in 20 games and posting a 5-5 record with a very nice 2.97 ERA over 91 innings of work.
Two years later in 1976 he would become the latest in the Baltimore 20-win club of the decade, going 20-7 with a brilliant 2.67 ERA and four shutouts for Earl Weaver and the O’s, joining other pitchers like Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally and Pat Dobson and others with those 20 victories.
SADLY for the Cleveland Indians, they jumped at the chance to sign him during baseball’s first season of large-scale free agency, and gave him a 10-year contract for $2.3 million, but he was never able to repeat that 1976 season.
As a matter of fact Garland BEST season as a Cleveland Indian would arguably be his first, in 1977 when he posted a 13-19 record, leading the American League in losses, along with a 3.60 ERA over 38 starts and 282.2 innings pitched.
He would never reach double-digits in wins again, retiring after the 1981 season with a 55-66 career record along with a 3.89 ERA and 450 strikeouts over 190 games, 121 of them starts, with seven shutouts and six saves.
