Friars Get On Winning Track – Keep Redbirds Reeling

KOD9, Week 8 – 1992 San Diego Padres vs 1956 St. Louis Cardinals

The 1992 Padres made some big noise in this four game set with their Midwestern counterpart, taking three of four games from the slumping Cardinals. Included in the thrashing was an incredible 21 run, 28 hit performance by the Padres to open the series, prompting Cardinal manager Bike Mike to comment that it was “…the most ridiculous game I’ve even been involved in”.

Mysteriously, the Cardinals have suddenly taken a big turn for the worse after a strong start. Manager Bike is at a loss for his club’s demise. Here’s a brief summary of the Redbirds after 12 games, and as they currently stand at the 25 game mark:

After 12 games: 8-4 W-L record, 45 runs, 37 opponent runs, .239 BA, 2.49 ERA

Current: 11-14 W-L, 89 runs, 138 opponent runs, .237 BA, 5.05 ERA

Last 13 games: 3-10 W-L, 44 runs, 101 opponent runs

The difference in pitching between the first 12 games and last 13 is alarming. They are scoring under 4 runs per game, and giving up close to 8.

The question is, is this team really as bad as it’s played these last 13, or is it a combination of playing tougher teams and the breaks evening out. It’s hard to imagine that even playing better teams and not getting the breaks could cause such a drastic difference.

On to the series. Here’s a recap:

Game One at San Diego, St. Louis 3, San Diego 21

No, this was not the Rams and Chargers playing, although it was quite a bloodbath. MVP and Triple Crown candidate Gary Sheffield led the Padres 28 hit attack with a 4 for 4, 2 homer, 6 RBI game. The thrashing was so bad, that no less than four Cardinal pitchers had season ERA over 20 after this game was in the books. None of the 6 Cardinal pitchers used could stem the tide, save for perhaps Don Liddle’s scoreless 8^th.

This game was practically over after one batter, when Tony Gwynn took Harvey Haddix deep. After that it went HBP-HR-HR. Haddix had faced four batters, and given up four runs and three homers. After three innings it was already 14-0 and both teams began to make wholesale changes. 39 different players were used and the game took almost 4 hours to complete.

Game Two at San Diego, St. Louis 0, San Diego 7

  It was more of the same in game two, although to their credit the Cardinals surrendered only one touchdown instead of three.

Again the Padres dominated, out-hitting the Cardinals 14-4, and again Sheffield and McGriff went deep. St. Louis area native Andy Benes tossed a nifty complete game shutout for the home squad.

Game Three at St. Louis, San Diego 0, St. Louis 4

The Cardinals came home bruised and battered, sending their most consistent starter Tom Poholsky to the hill to face Greg Harris. Poholsky cooled the hot Friar bats off to such a degree, he almost no-hit them. He surrendered a lone hit in 8 innings of shutout ball, before Larry Jackson came on to finish it up in the ninth.

The game was scoreless until the Cardinal fifth, when Whitey Lockman lead off with a single, and after a fly out was bunted over to second. The Padres then walked Red Schoendienst intentionally to get to young Don Blasingame, who foiled the strategy with an RBI double.

The Cardinals tacked on three insurance runs in the eighth, with Rocky Nelson’s two-run pinch-hit double the big blow.

Game Four at St. Louis, San Diego 4, St. Louis 2

In the kind of game the Cardinals were winning early, the Padres  came from behind plating a run in the eighth and two in the ninth to overcome a slim 2-1 deficit and take the series finale.

Both starters, Frank Seminara for San Diego and Murry Dickson for St. Louis, were effective as the Padres had the game’s lone run through six innings when Fred McGriff singled home Gary Sheffield in the Padre third.

The Cardinals took the lead in the 7^th, putting two runs over against Padre reliever Mike Maddux with the aid of a Sheffield error, and another pinch-hit by Rocky Nelson.

The Padres came right back to tie it in the eighth off the usually reliable Lindy McDaniel, but these days no one is reliable that wears the Birds on the Bat. McGriff doubled to lead off the inning, but McDaniel bore down and got the next two before surrendering the two-out tying single to Jerald Clark.

The west coasters then sealed the deal in the ninth, scoring two on a pinch hit single by Velazquez and Tony Gwynn’s second series homer.

--submitted by “Bike-Mike” Roberts--