When P.J. Walters earned his first big-league victory for the Cardinals at San Diego on May 27, it reminded me of listening on KMOX in the 1970s to a couple of other Cardinals pitchers, Eric Rasmussen and John Fulgham, do the same.
I researched it this week and found that Walters is the fourth Cardinals pitcher to get his first major-league win at San Diego against the Padres. Here’s a look at the other three:
_ July 21, 1975, Cardinals 4, Padres 0, at San Diego. Harry Rasmussen, a right-hander, made his big-league debut for the Cardinals and pitched a complete-game shutout (Rasmussen legally changed his first name from Harry to Eric about two years later).
Rasmussen yielded seven hits and a walk, and struck out seven. Two Hall of Famers, Dave Winfield and Willie McCovey, were in the lineup for San Diego. Winfield went 0-for-4 and McCovey went 1-for-3.
_ June 19, 1979, Cardinals 7, Padres 2, at San Diego. John Fulgham, a right-hander, made his big-league debut for the Cardinals and pitched a complete game.
Both Padres runs were unearned. Fulgham allowed eight hits and a walk, and struck out six. Dave Winfield went 1-for-4; another Hall of Famer, Ozzie Smith, was 0-for-3.
A fun twist: the Padres starter and losing pitcher was … Eric Rasmussen.
_ August 31, 1979, Cardinals 8, Padres 7, 15 innings, at San Diego. Dan O’Brien, a right-hander, pitched two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win. It was his first and only big-league victory.
After Jerry Mumphrey singled and scored on a double by Keith Hernandez in the top of the 15th, O’Brien retired Ozzie Smith, Gene Tenace and Dave Winfield in order in the bottom half of the inning.
The Cardinals catcher in all three of those games: Ted “Simba” Simmons.
Here are links to boxscores of those games, courtesy of retrosheet.org:
July 21, 1975, Cardinals 4, Padres 0
June 19, 1979, Cardinals 7, Padres 2
August 31, 1979, Cardinals 8, Padres 7
RetroSimba 
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