Ned Garver, the only pitcher in American League history to win at least 20 games in a season for a ball club that lost at least 100 times, achieving the feat for the 1951 St. Louis Browns, died on Sunday in Bryan, Ohio. He was 91.

His death was confirmed by his son Don.

“The crowd didn’t dare boo us,” Garver once said of his nearly five seasons with the lowly Browns before sparse crowds at Sportsman’s Park, which they shared with the popular Cardinals. “The players had them outnumbered.”

Garver posted a 20-12 record in 1951 with a last-place team that finished at 52-102.

He also batted .305 and hit a home run to break a tie game with the Chicago White Sox on the season’s final day, when he recorded his 20th victory.

He was runner-up for the A.L.’s Most Valuable Player Award. He lost to Yogi Berra, whose pennant-winning Yankees finished 46 games in front of those Browns.