RetroSimba

(Updated April 17, 2022)

John Tudor earned wins in each of his first four starts for the 1990 Cardinals.

Tudor, who pitched for the Cardinals from 1985 until an August 1988 trade to the Dodgers, was reacquired by St. Louis as a free agent in December 1989. After having elbow, shoulder and knee surgeries following the 1988 season, Tudor was limited to 14.1 innings in six games for the Dodgers in 1989.

The Athletics, managed by Tony La Russa, were among the teams that expressed interest in signing the free agent, but Tudor chose St. Louis, in part, because “I considered it coming home … This is where I’ve been successful in the past, and this is where I felt I could be successful again,” he told The Sporting News.

Tudor, 36, opened the 1990 season as a starter in a Cardinals rotation with Joe Magrane, Bryn Smith, Jose DeLeon and Greg Mathews.

A look at Tudor’s first four wins:

_ April 13, 1990, Cardinals 11, Phillies 0, at Philadelphia: Using changeups away and fastballs in, Tudor retired the first six in a row and limited the Phillies to three hits over six innings. Bob Tewksbury pitched the final three innings for the save. Boxscore

_ April 18, 1990, Cardinals 3, Pirates 0, at Pittsburgh: Going seven innings, Tudor stretched to 13 his scoreless innings streak to open the season. Barry Bonds, batting leadoff, went 0-for-3 against Tudor. Boxscore

_ April 23, 1990, Cardinals 7, Pirates 4, at St. Louis: Jeff King hit a two-run double in the first inning, but Tudor recovered and held Pittsburgh to three runs and five hits over eight innings. Boxscore

_ April 28, 1990, Cardinals 5, Giants 0, at San Francisco: Tudor limited the Giants to five hits in seven scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 0.96. Boxscore

“He’s so precise with his pitching,” said Cardinals center fielder Willie McGee. “It’s always just enough on the outside where you can’t get a good piece of it.”

Tudor told Cardinals Magazine, “I was always confident in the fact that I could throw strikes. I could make them put the ball in play, and if I could make them put the ball in play, we had a pretty darn good defense here that really helped out in some tough situations.”

In 25 appearances, Tudor finished 12-4 with a 2.40 ERA for a last-place 1990 Cardinals team.

“Most people figured he had been through too much to come back,” wrote columnist Bob Hertzel, “but Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals’ manager, knew the doctors had operated on Tudor’s knee, shoulder and elbow, not his heart.”