162-0: Imagine a Cubs Perfect Season: A Game-by-Game Anaylsis of the Greatest Wins in Cubs History

Dedication

To Jo-Anna, Megan, and Matt McGrath. The first team, always. And to Jim McGrath, his family’s Mr. Cub. —Dan McGrath

To the families and closest friends of the recently departed Ron Santo and Phil Cavarretta, two Cub greats who also received the opportunity to finish their playing careers with the White Sox, whose fans cheered them as if each man had always been one of their own. —Bob Vanderberg

Contents

Introduction

April

May

June

July

August

September/October

Postseason

About the Authors

References

Introduction

The late-‘90s TV series Chicago Hope was about a quirky, well-meaning, struggling Chicago hospital, not a Chicago National League ballclub, even though the team fits the same description.

The Chicago Cubs have been dealing in hope for more than a century—as the 2011 season dawned, it had been 102 years since their last World Series championship and 65 years since their last Series appearance. Teams that didn’t even exist when the Cubs were losing to Detroit in the 1945 Fall Classic—Florida’s Marlins, Toronto’s Blue Jays, even New York’s hated Mets, for gosh sakes—have won multiple Series titles since the Cubs last competed for one. Twelve U.S. Presidents have occupied the White House, and man has walked on the moon.

The late, great Chicago columnist Mike Royko, as the defiant embodiment of the term long-suffering Cub fan, once sought to rationalize his frustration with a rather charitable observation: Any team can have a bad century. Too true—and the Cubs are working on a second one.

Yet through decades of failure—frequently hopeless, abject failure, interspersed with the occasional 1969-style near-miss that was even more painful to endure—Cub fans have been among the most unswervingly loyal and irrepressibly optimistic people in sports. Next year is just around the corner. And it’s bound to be better.

It rarely is, and yet a Cub fan keeps coming back for more. It’s partly the nostalgic charm of Wrigley Field, it’s partly the old-school allure of day baseball. But it’s largely because the Cubs, for all their myriad flaws, often present a beguiling, endearing cast of characters—only a Cub (Jose Cardenal) could miss a game because his eyelid was stuck open.

And only the Cubs could trade a swift, dynamic, Hall of Fame-bound outfielder for a broken-down, used-up pitcher who would win a total of seven games for them. Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio. Forty-four years later, it’s still enough to make a grown fan cry.

The eight-team National League in which the Cubs prevailed in 1945 has doubled in size, and a quarter of the teams are eligible for two rounds of playoffs that didn’t exist when the Cubs last won the pennant. They have been playoff participants six times in those 65 years, but five times they failed to win a series and three times they failed to win a game.

In fact, the losses have far outnumbered the wins in most Cubs seasons. But because of their relative rarity, the victories tend to stand out more, and many of them are as cherished as family heirlooms. Wouldn’t it be fun, then, to comb through Cubs history and pick a win that truly stood out on each date of a typical season? That’s the premise of this book—162-0: A Perfect Cubs Season. Think about it—a perfect Cubs season? Totally fanciful, sure, but lots of fun.

Some of the choices were obvious: 72 years after it took place, Gabby Hartnett’s Homer in the Gloamin’ remains one of the most significant moments in baseball history. Based on eyewitness accounts, a lot more than 5,264 people were in the stands at Wrigley Field on that May day in 1970 when the great Ernie Banks took Pat Jarvis deep for his 500th career home run. Similarly, 15,758 was the paid crowd for Kerry Wood’s magnificent 20-strikeout game against the Houston Astros in May of 1998, but Wood says he has met at least 25,000 people who claim to have been there.

Before Banks there was Hack Wilson, and after him came Sammy Sosa. Not a similarity among them, save for their crowd-pleasing ability to hit long home runs. Frank Ernaga did it a time or two, and so did Bob Speake and Art Schult and Julio Zuleta.

Ryne Sandberg launched an MVP season and a Hall of Fame career with two game-tying home runs off Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter in June of 1984; mention the Sandberg Game to any Cub fan and he or she knows exactly what you mean, down to the last detail.

Adolfo Phillips had a day like that once. So did Lee Walls, and Hank Sauer, the Mayor of Wrigley Field.

A game-winning grand slam off Don Nottebart 23 years earlier might not have had the same pizzazz as Sandberg connecting off Sutter, but it gave Al Heist a place in Cubs lore. Dick Drott is in there, too, along with Art Ceccarelli, Leo Burke, Moose Moryn and Willie Smith.

The Cubs have been notorious for breaking hearts over the years—there’s no getting around it. But they also have dispensed some thrills, no question. We hope you will enjoy reliving some of them in these pages.

April

Mr. Cub Ernie Banks hit his 300th home run in April 1962. He completed his two-time MVP career with 512 homers.

April 8, 1969

Cubs 7, Phillies 6

The Willie Smith Game Gave Cubs Hope

It’s fitting that one of the most memorable seasons in Cubs history would begin with one of the most memorable games.

The Willie Smith Game. It’s the only description needed. And in Philadelphia it might be remembered as the Don Money Game if fate hadn’t intervened in the person of Smith, a cheerful, amiable pitcher-turned-outfielder who also sang professionally during a fairly obscure baseball career that featured one unforgettable moment.

The 1969 season was the Cubs’ fourth under firebrand manager Leo Durocher. They had improved in each of the previous three campaigns after ruefully living up to Durocher’s takeover pronouncement that this is not an eighth-place team by finishing 10th in 1966.

Even before it started, the 1969 season was historic. Expansion added two teams to each major league—Montreal and San Diego in the National, Kansas City and Seattle in the American—and four six-team divisions were created to facilitate scheduling and emphasize geographical rivalries. The schedule remained at 162 games, with the division champions then meeting in two best-of-five playoff series to determine each league’s World Series representative.

The Cubs were assigned to the National League East, one of the toughest divisions with the two-time pennant-winning Cardinals, the hard-hitting Pirates and on-the-rise young clubs in New York and Philadelphia. But the Cubs were a confident team when they took the field for the April 8 season opener against the Phillies, and a standing-room crowd of 40,796 at Wrigley Field shared in that optimism.

Ernie Banks was still Mr. Cub, still a productive, dangerous hitter at 38. All-Stars Billy Williams, 30, and Ron Santo, 29, added more thunder to the middle of an imposing batting order. Young veterans Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger joined Santo and Banks in the league’s best infield. Randy Hundley was a rock behind the plate and deft handler of a pitching staff that featured Ferguson Jenkins, Ken Holtzman and Bill Hands in a strong rotation.

Cubs manager Leo Durocher’s hunch led to an Opening Day walk-off home run. It was the first taste of the wild summer ahead.

The bench, the bullpen and rookie Don Young in center field were the team’s only question marks, but nobody wanted to hear a discouraging word on Opening Day. The call to Play Ball! produced spine-tingling anticipation.

A single, a sacrifice, his own error and Deron Johnson’s RBI single put Jenkins in a 1–0 hole in the first inning, but Banks got him out of it when he powered a three-run homer into the left-field bleachers off Chris Short in the bottom of the first.

It remained a 3–1 game when Banks faced Short with Williams on first and one out in the bottom of the third. Banks took the veteran lefty deep again for a 5–1 lead as Wrigley rocked.

Jenkins had a propensity for giving up solo homers throughout his career, so no one flinched when the rookie Money tagged him for one leading off the seventh inning, cutting the Cubs’ lead to 5–2. Jenkins settled down and was three outs away from a complete-game victory when Johnny Callison and Cookie Rojas opened the ninth inning with singles. That brought Money to the plate, and the 22-year-old shortstop was money once again, slamming a three-run homer off Jenkins that tied the game 5–5 and turned the raucous crowd deathly quiet.

Barry Lersch, in his major league debut, had shut the Cubs down on two hits over four innings in relief, and Phillies manager Bob Skinner demonstrated his faith in the rookie right-hander by letting him bat in the 11th, after an RBI double by that man Money had given the Phils a 6–5 lead. Money was 3-for-5 with 10 total bases and five RBIs for the day.

Lersch stayed in the game and got Banks on a fly to right leading off the 11th, then gave up a single to Hundley. With Jim Hickman due up, Durocher played one of the hunches for which he was famous. Hickman was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, and Durocher didn’t like his chances against the hard-throwing Lersch in the gathering dusk. So he went to his bench for the left-handed-hitting Smith, a former pitcher who’d been converted into an outfielder while playing for the Angels because of how well he swung the bat.

Smith, 30, had one thing in mind as he stepped to the plate with darkness falling. And when Lersch threw him a 1–1 fastball, he produced it, sending a high drive into the right-field bleachers. The two-run, game-winning, pinch-hit homer touched off pandemonium at Wrigley Field. Hundley fairly danced around the bases in front of Smith. Jack Brickhouse’s call on television—Willie Smith!!! Willie Smith!!!—was simple but eloquent, one of the most memorable in Brickhouse’s Hall of Fame career. Throughout Chicago there was a sense that this could be the start of something big.

The feeling lasted throughout the summer as the Cubs played championship-caliber baseball, drew record crowds to Wrigley Field and turned their Bleacher Bum followers into cult figures. The end of their World Series drought—then a modest 24 years—seemed to be in sight.

But it was not to be. Their lack of depth exposed the Cubs as a tired team over the season’s final six weeks. Meanwhile, the Mets caught fire behind a dominant young pitching staff. They not only overhauled the Cubs to win the NL East, they swept the Atlanta Braves in the first National League Championship Series and stunned the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in a five-game World Series, earning a place in baseball lore as the Miracle Mets.

History is less kind to the Cubs. Their 92–70 record and second-place finish is viewed as an epic collapse, and there’s no denying it was a dispiriting letdown, mostly because of the day-to-day thrills and high-wire excitement that preceded it. But no one who experienced that 1969 season will ever forget it, least of all Willie Smith.

He died of a heart attack in his hometown of Anniston, Ala., in 2006. He was 66. He had modest numbers: a .248 career batting average, 46 home runs, 211 RBIs … and one moment that will live forever in Cubs history.

Willie Smith!!!

At a Glance

WP: Regan (1–0)

HR: Banks 2 (1, 2), Smith 1

Key stat: Banks and the Phillies’ Don Money combined for 10 RBIs.

April 9, 1982

Cubs 5, Mets 0

The New Tradition Arrives with Green

As a major league pitcher, Dallas Green had modest talent but a fierce competitive drive. As a novice major league manager he railed against the complacency and sense of entitlement he found in the Philadelphia clubhouse, then cracked the whip and drove the Philllies to the 1980 World Series championship.

Anybody who expected business as usual at Wrigley Field after Tribune Co. bought the Cubs and installed Green as general manager before the 1982 season was in for a surprise. Green gagged at the lovable losers image that permeated the place—Even the vendors had a hang-dog, defeatist attitude, he observed—and vowed that the new tradition he was implementing would be all about winning.

Cubs fans had heard that before, of course, but Green took a jackhammer to the Cubs’ roster to prove he was serious about changing the culture. First baseman Bill Buckner, left fielder Steve Henderson and center fielder Ty Waller were the only starters from the ’81 season finale who were in the lineup for the ’82 home opener, and Waller had moved from third base to accommodate rookie Ryne Sandberg.

With a curious crowd of 26,712 looking on, manager Lee Elia’s Cubs kicked off the home portion of the new tradition by invoking a big name from their past. Ferguson Jenkins, 39, who’d been brought back as a free agent the previous winter, pitched 6 ²/³ innings of scoreless, five-hit ball, combining with Lee Smith to shut out the Mets. Buckner hit a two-run homer off Mike Scott in the fourth inning. The other big contributors were Philadelphia émigrés who accompanied Green to Chicago: shortstop Larry Bowa went 2-for-4 and scored three runs, and catcher Keith Moreland was 2-for-4 with a two-run single in the eighth inning.

The Cubs lost the next two games and six of their next seven, finishing April with a 7–14 record en route to a 73–89, fifth-place showing.

But change would be a constant during the Green regime, and it would frequently be change for the better. Sandberg (now at second base), Leon Durham (now at first) and Bowa would be the only holdovers from the ’82 home-opener lineup who took the field in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24, 1984, when the Cubs beat the Pirates behind Rick Sutcliffe to clinch the NL East title and reach the postseason for the first time since 1945.

At a Glance

WP: Jenkins (1–0)

S: Smith (1)

HR: Buckner (1)

Key stat: Jenkins won his

148th game as a Cub.

April 10, 1970

Cubs 2, Expos 1

Game-Winner Is Callison Deal’s First Dividend

The 31-year-old left-handed batter stepped into the box. There were two outs, he had made no hits this Friday afternoon in Montreal’s Parc Jarry and his new team, the Cubs, appeared to be on the verge of beginning the season 0–3. He himself had not fared all that well thus far, having collected one hit in 10 at-bats.

This is not what general manager John Holland and manager Leo Durocher had anticipated the previous Nov. 17, when they traded pitcher Dick Selma, a 12-game winner in ’69, and 19-year-old outfield prospect Oscar Gamble to the Phillies for the veteran outfielder—a mainstay in Philadelphia for a decade, a three-time National League All-Star and the Midsummer Classic’s MVP in 1964, when his three-run walk-off homer had stunned the American League.

The batter was Johnny Callison, pride of the Chicago White Sox farm system in 1958, when he too was 19, the year he hit 29 homers and batted .283 at Triple-A Indianapolis and was so impressive in a September call-up that the Sox named him their Opening Day left fielder for 1959. An ill-advised trade had sent him to Philly for third baseman Gene Freese in December 1959, and Callison soon established himself as a Phillies hero.

On the day the Cubs landed him, Durocher had declared: Callison has the best arm in the league outside of Roberto Clemente. He not only adds to a solid defense, he also gives us another big bat in the lineup.

The big bat had been silent, but that was about to change. The host Expos had led 1–0 since the fifth inning, when a two-out RBI single by Marv Staehle—like Callison a onetime White Sox rookie hopeful—had given Joe Sparma the lead over Bill Hands. Glenn Beckert opened the ninth with a walk, but when Billy Williams rapped into a double play, the Cubs were staring at 0–3.

But then Ron Santo singled to left, and now Callison was the batter. Sparma, a former Ohio State quarterback, went into the stretch and delivered. Callison swung and the ball sailed over the right-field fence for a 2–1 lead. A few minutes later, after Ted Abernathy had retired Adolfo Phillips, Bob Bailey and Bobby Wine, the Cubs had their first triumph of 1970. Callison was hitting .313 by May 1, and the Cubs were 13–5 and in first place.

At a Glance

WP: Aguirre (1–0)

SV: Abernathy (1)

HR: Callison (1)

Key stat: Callison’s home run was the 190th of his career. He finished with 226.

April 11, 1955

Cubs 7, Reds 5

‘Toothpick’ Sam Jones’ Debut One to Remember

As befitting his status as the ace of the Cubs’ pitching staff, Bob Rush was given the Opening Day start for the 1955 season. The assignment took Rush and the Cubs to Cincinnati, where the Reds played the traditional season opener a day earlier than everybody else in recognition of their status as baseball’s first professional team.

It was a rough outing for the veteran right-hander—the hard-hitting Reds touched up Rush for four runs and 10 hits in just 3 ²/³ innings. But one man’s struggle is another man’s opportunity. Sam Jones, acquired from Cleveland the previous winter, took over in the fourth inning and earned his first Cubs win in his debut with five innings of two-hit relief pitching as the Cubs beat the Reds 7–5 before 32,195 fans at Crosley Field.

Dee Fondy doubled home Ernie Banks and Ransom Jackson in the second inning, and after Harry Chiti’s double scored Fondy, Rush had a 3–0 lead. In the third, Joe Nuxhall took over for embattled Reds starter Art Fowler, and Gene Baker greeted the Old Left-Hander with a home run for a 4–0 Cubs lead.

The Reds got half of it back on Ted Kluszewski’s two-run homer in the third, but not to worry: Fondy singled to right and Chiti homered to left to put the Cubs up 6–2 in the top of the fourth.

Rush, though, couldn’t finish the bottom of the fourth. Wally Post singled to center and pinch-hitter Hobie Landrith doubled to right. After Johnny Temple’s RBI groundout and Gus Bell’s RBI single scored two runs, Jones replaced Rush and retired the dangerous Kluszewski on a grounder to first.

The lanky right-hander known as Toothpick for the ever-present toothpick he kept in his mouth, even while pitching, would keep the Reds quiet until the ninth, when Bell’s double and a pair of two-out walks loaded the bases. Hal Jeffcoat relieved Jones. Jeffcoat hit Ed Bailey with a pitch to force in a run but retired Post on a grounder to preserve the 7–5 victory and a 1–0 start to a 72–81, sixth-place season.

The 2-for-4, three-RBI day was an encouraging start for Chiti, a catcher who was never known as a robust hitter during 10 major league seasons. Jones, meanwhile, would make history of a more dramatic sort one month later when he became the first African-American pitcher to throw a major league no-hitter.

At a Glance

WP: Jones (1–0)

S: Jeffcoat (1)

HR: Baker (1), Chiti (1)

Key stat: Chiti’s 3 RBIs were half of his April total.

April 12, 1922

Cubs 7, Reds 3

The Hall of Fame Battery

No one suspected it—no one could have, as the Baseball Hall of Fame wouldn’t open for another 14 years—but the Cubs trotted out a Hall of Fame battery to face the Reds in the 1922 season opener on April 12 at Cincinnati’s Redland Field.

And it’s not likely anyone suspected Cubs catcher Charles Leo Gabby Hartnett was Cooperstown-bound after the 21-year-old went 0-for-2 in his major league debut, a 7–3 Cubs victory.

The pitcher, however, was another story. Sturdy right-hander Grover Cleveland Pete Alexander was an established star with a 190–88 career record and a 2.18 ERA when the Cubs obtained him from the Philadelphia Phillies for the unforgettable Pickles Dillhoefer, Mike Prendergast and $55,000 on Dec. 11, 1917.

Alexander was beginning his fifth season with the Cubs when he faced the Reds this day. If he didn’t exhibit Hall of Fame stuff, he got the job done with a complete-game seven-hitter and helped himself with an RBI double.

The Cubs staked Alexander to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Hack Miller’s RBI single and Marty Krug’s fielder’s-choice grounder. The Reds got on the board in their half of the second when Babe Pinelli singled home Sam Bohne, but the Cubs got the run back in the sixth when John Kelleher singled, stole second and scored on Bernie Friberg’s single.

Alexander’s run-scoring double and RBI singles by Kelleher and Jigger Statz were the big hits as they broke open the game with a four-run seventh, chasing losing pitcher Eppa Rixey.

Catcher Gabby Hartnett made his debut with the Cubs in 1922 and enjoyed a Hall of Fame career.

The Cubs would finish 80–74 and in fifth place. Alexander, 35, would go 16-13 with a 3.63 ERA and 20 complete games, a far heavier workload than Hartnett’s. Backing up catcher Bob O’Farrell, the rookie hit just .194 with no homers and four RBIs in 31 games, a quiet beginning to a distinguished career. Over 20 big league seasons, Hartnett would hit .297 with 236 homers and 1,179 RBIs. Along the way, he earned a reputation for his stellar defense and excellent handling of pitchers. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1955, still the only Cubs catcher so honored.

Alexander, 373–208 lifetime and a three-time 30-game winner, entered the Hall in 1938.

At a Glance

WP: Alexander (1–0)

Key stat: Hall of Famer Hartnett was the only Cub to go hitless.

April 13, 1976

Cubs 5, Mets 4

Monday Delivery

Perhaps it was optimism born of a 2–1 start to the season in St. Louis.

Perhaps it was the belief that a young Cubs nucleus would continue to develop and lift the team into contention.

Or perhaps it was anti-Mets passion that had been virulent in Chicago since the sorry end to the ’69 season.

Whatever the reason, 44,818 fans jammed Wrigley Field for the Cubs’ 1976 home opener. They were treated to a 5–4 victory over the despised New Yorkers in which Jerry Morales, Manny Trillo and Rick Monday were the hitting stars and Paul Reuschel stole some of the pitching thunder from his more accomplished brother, Rick.

Craig Swan was the Mets’ starter, and the Cubs got to him in the first inning when Bill Madlock singled with two outs and Morales followed with a long home run to left.

But the Mets countered with three runs in the fourth, chasing Rick Reuschel. Felix Millan doubled, Jerry Grote was hit by a pitch and Bud Harrelson singled for the first Mets run. Wayne Garrett’s fielder’s-choice grounder tied the game, and the Mets went ahead 3–2 on John Milner’s RBI double, finishing Rick Reuschel, who surrendered six hits and three walks in 3 ²/³ shaky innings. Paul Reuschel, the elder of the Reuschel brothers from Camp Point, Ill., took over and worked 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

The Cubs still trailed 3–2 in the sixth inning when Swan hit Madlock with a pitch and Morales cracked his second homer of the game into the bleachers in left-center. The 4–3 score stood until the eighth, when Milner defied a lefty-lefty pitching matchup and tied the game with a home run to right off reliever Darold Knowles. An error, a walk and an infield single then loaded the bases, but Mike Garman retired Millan on a liner to center, preserving the tie.

With one out in the Cubs’ ninth, Trillo legged out a triple to right-center off reliever Skip Lockwood. The Mets walked pinch-hitters Champ Summers and Tarzan Joe Wallis to set up a force at any base. Pinch-hitter Tim Hosley was retired for the second out, but Monday came through with a game-winning single to center, sending the huge crowd home happy.

Only 9,307 were on hand the following day as the Cubs got to 4–1 by beating the Mets 6–5. Three games over .500 would prove to be the high-water mark of a season in which they’d finish 75-87 and in fourth place in the NL East. Their lack of firepower was the culprit—the Cubs hit just .251 as a team and averaged 3.8 runs a game, a recipe for disaster in Wrigley Field.

There were bright spots: Madlock won his second straight batting title with a .339 average and drove in a team-high 84 runs. Monday slugged a career-best 32 homers and scored 107 runs.

The season’s most encouraging development would come a month after the home opener. In May, with their bullpen depleted, the Cubs summoned reliever Bruce Sutter from the minors. The 23-year-old master of the baffling split-finger pitch went 6–3 with a 2.70 ERA and 10 saves in 52 games, a sign of the great things to come.

Jerry Morales

Julio Ruben Jerry Morales was a solid player for the Cubs during some mid-1970s mediocrity. Acquired from San Diego for second-base fixture Glenn Beckert, the Puerto Rico-born Morales was a capable fielder at all three outfield positions from 1974 through 1977. A right-handed hitter, he held his bat distinctively high and had some pop for a slightly built 5-foot-10, 160-pounder, batting .276 with 54 home runs and 309 RBIs in his first four seasons with the Cubs.

Morales made the All-Star team in 1977 and was hit in the knee by a Sparky Lyle pitch in his only at-bat. Traded to St. Louis that winter, he bounced from the Cardinals to the Tigers to the Mets before returning to the Cubs as a free agent in 1981. Lifetime, he was a .259 hitter with 95 homers and 570 RBIs.

April 14, 1978

Cubs 5, Pirates 4

Larry Biittner’s Moment

Woodie Fryman? Dave Rader? There were not a lot of buzz-creating new faces with the Cubs in 1978, but Chicago fans were nonetheless eager for a look at second-year manager Herman Franks’ creation. A crowd of 45,777, then a record for a home opener, turned out to see the Cubs and the Pirates on Friday, April 14. They were treated to a bravura performance by some unlikely heroes.

Fryman, a well-traveled 38-year-old left-hander obtained in an off-season trade for pitcher Bill Bonham, got the start and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Dave Parker ended his dreams of Chicago glory with a two-out double.

Larry Biittner—that’s two ‘i’s’, two ‘t’s’ if you’re spelling at home—broke a 4-4 tie with a ninth-inning home run off Jim Bibby, winning the game with a walk-off homer long before the term was fashionable.

The Cubs broke through in the first inning against Bucs starter Jerry Reuss when ex-Pirate Gene Clines reached on Rennie Stennett’s fielding error and scored on Bill Buckner’s double. Buckner took third on a wild pitch, but Reuss left him there, striking out Bobby Murcer and Dave Kingman to end the inning.

In the second, Reuss hit Manny Trillo with a pitch and Heity Cruz singled to center. Rader forced Cruz and Fryman struck out, but Ivan DeJesus and Clines delivered two-out RBI singles, putting the Cubs up 3–0.

Fryman, meanwhile, was keeping the hard- hitting Pirates off balance with slow breaking stuff, but they finally solved him in the sixth. Parker’s two-out double ended the no-hit suspense, and Bill Robinson followed with a triple. After Jim Fregosi walked, Stennett singled home Robinson and Phil Garner singled home Fregosi, tying the game at 3–3.

There matters stood until the eighth, when star-crossed reliever Donnie Moore took over for Fryman and Willie Stargell pinch-hit for Fregosi. The Hall of Fame slugger lofted a home run into the right-field bleachers, giving the Pirates a 4–3 lead that lasted only until the bottom of the