RetroSimba

(Updated April 29, 2020)

Nolan Ryan and Danny Frisella, two pitchers Joe Torre hit well in his career, combined to stop the Cardinals third baseman’s April hitting streak.

Torre hit safely in each of the Cardinals’ first 22 games of the 1971 season.

Torre’s streak gave him a .386 batting average entering a game against the Mets on April 29, 1971, in St. Louis.

Batting fourth, Torre went 0-for-3 with a walk against Ryan and Frisella. “In a way, I’m relieved,” Torre told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Cardinals’ club record for most consecutive games hitting safely is 33 by Rogers Hornsby in 1922.

Ryan and Frisella, both right-handers, were unlikely candidates to end Torre’s streak. For his career, Torre hit .318 (7-for-22) against Ryan and .500 (7-for-14) against Frisella.

Facing Ryan in the first inning with two runners on base and one out, Torre rapped into a 6-4-3 double play.

In the fourth, Ryan got Torre on a pop-up to shortstop Bud Harrelson.

Torre led off the sixth with a walk, one of eight Ryan issued in the game.

Frisella, who relieved in the seventh, struck out Torre leading off the eighth.

“At least it was another Italian who stopped me,” Torre told the Post-Dispatch.

The Mets won, 7-0, as Ryan and Frisella combined to limit the Cardinals to three hits. Boxscore

With the streak broken, Torre experienced a brief skid, going hitless in four of five games (1-for-15) and seeing his batting average drop to .340.

He went on to lead the National League in batting that season with a .363 average and 230 hits.

Ken Boyer, hitting coach for the 1971 Cardinals, cited Torre’s “short stride, quick stroke and great stength” for his success. Another Cardinals coach, George Kissell, told The Sporting News that Torre was able to focus on hitting when the Cardinals settled on him as their third baseman.

“For the first time since he joined the club (in 1969), he was able to have a closed mind about playing one position,” Kissell said. “Before, he had to be thinking about first base and catching as well as third base.”