Incredibly, just the day after Maloney’s 13-K no-hit gem, Wilson matched him with 13 K’s of his own on his way to a no-hitter against a Reds team that had Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez in the line-up.
Wilson did walk six batters, but he easily overpowered the Reds’ line-up that day, improving his record to 2-3 and lowering his ERA to 3.46 on the young season.
For Wilson it was his second career no-hitter, with the first coming in 1967 against the Atlanta Braves, with Hank Aaron being the final out.
Wilson would go on to have arguably his best season in the Big Leagues in 1969, finishing up with a record of 16-12 with an ERA at 4.00 with 235 strikeouts over 34 starts.
He’d match those 16 wins a couple of years later, his high-water mark for a season, with another 15 wins the following year, with ERA’s under 3.00 each time.
A bright star on the Houston Astros team, tragically, on January 5th of 1975 he passed away under mysterious circumstances in his home of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car, which also took the life of his 5-year-old son who was sleeping upstairs above the garage. Wilson was only 29-years-old.
