Monday, April 7, 2014

Game of the Day (4/6/84)

Padres 3, Cubs 2. Scott Sanderson started for the Cubs; he was a starting pitcher for nearly his entire 19-year major league career, yet somehow only threw 200 innings in a season 4 times. If my eyeballing of Baseball-Reference's pitching stats is correct, he is the only pitcher to make at least 400 career starts (407, 120th-most all time) and have that few 200-inning campaigns. (John Burkett, Kevin Millwood, and Tim Wakefield all had 5 200-inning seasons.) This is a feat characteristic of someone good enough to keep making it into starting rotations, but not necessarily good enough to stay there for the entire year.

Even that's an improvement on Padre starter Tim Lollar, who made it into considerably fewer starting rotations over his (much shorter) career.

The Cubs picked up a quick run against Lollar when Gary Woods led off with a single, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a two-out double by Ron Cey. San Diego tied the game in the bottom of the second on consecutive singles by Kevin McReynolds, Garry Templeton, and Lollar himself. Chicago had a chance in the top of the third when Ryne Sandberg walked and Gary Matthews singled, but Sandberg was thrown out trying for third on the single, extinguishing the rally.

Lollar worked around a base on balls to Jody Davis in the fourth, and his teammates gave him his first lead in the bottom of the inning when McReynolds singled and Templeton doubled him home. Lollar then worked perfect fifth and sixth innings, while Sanderson allowed singles to Tony Gwynn in the fifth and Terry Kennedy in the sixth, but didn't allow either runner to score.

The top of the seventh started with a Davis single (and a Bob Dernier pinch running appearance in Davis's place), and Lollar then hit Buckner with a pitch. Tom Veryzer sacrificed the runners over and pinch hitter Henry Cotto drew a base-loading walk, prompting Lollar's removal from the game. Craig Lefferts entered and coaxed a 6-4-3 double play from Woods to preserve the 2-1 lead. Dickie Noles (now pitching to backup catcher Steve Lake) hurled perfect seventh and eighth innings for the Cubs, and Luis DeLeon worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the Padres.

Keith Moreland opened the top of the ninth with a single, prompting DeLeon's replacement by Sid Monge. Monge retired Leon Durham (who was hitting for Lake) and Buckner, leaving Chicago one out from defeat. Larry Bowa pinch hit for Veryzer and doubled, moving the tying run to third, Cotto was intentionally walked to load the bases, and pinch hitter Richie Hebner then drew an (obviously) unintentional walk to tie the game. That brought Sandberg to the plate, and with go-ahead runs at every base, the eventual MVP winner struck out to end the inning.

Lee Smith replaced Noles, and with both of their primary catchers out of the game, the Cubs moved Moreland behind the plate and inserted Mel Hall in right field. Smith retired McReynolds, but allowed a single to Templeton. Champ Summers hit for Monge and smacked a double, bringing Templeton around from first with the winning run.

Templeton ended the day going 3/3 with a run and an RBI, and participated in all three of the Padres' scoring innings. So for one day, at least, the Ozzie Smith trade looks like slightly less of a disaster.

Speaking of disaster: Padres 3, Cubs 2 was not a score that would be repeated in any of the other games the teams played this year. That doesn't mean it wasn't an omen of doom.

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