RetroSimba

When Chris Carpenter gave up 13 hits to the Cubs in seven innings and won on May 10, 2011, he matched a feat that hadn’t been accomplished by a St. Louis pitcher in 31 years, but it wasn’t close to being a Cardinals record.

Two of the best pitchers in Cardinals history _ Dizzy Dean and Mort Cooper _ each yielded 19 hits in a game, and won.

Carpenter earned his first win of the 2011 season when the Cardinals snapped a 4-4 tie with two runs in the eighth to beat the Cubs, 6-4, at Wrigley Field. All of the Cubs’ hits were singles. Chicago stranded 12 baserunners.

“It’s not like they were smashing balls all over the ballpark,” Carpenter told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

Not since Bob Forsch scattered 13 hits in nine innings of an 8-5 Cardinals victory over the Mets on May 26, 1980, at Busch Stadium had a St. Louis starter earned a win and yielded as many hits. (Forsch walked none and didn’t allow a home run).

Forsch’s win snapped a 10-game Cardinals losing streak. “Everybody just decided they had had enough of this and we were going to win,” Forsch told United Press International. Boxscore

A look at the games in which Cardinals starters yielded 19 hits and still won:

_ Cardinals 8, Reds 7, May 31, 1936, at St. Louis: Dizzy Dean appeared headed for a loss when Cincinnati took a 7-5 lead into the ninth inning. But the Cardinals scored twice in the ninth and won with a run in the 12th.

Two days after pitching 1.1 innings of relief, Dean went all 12 innings, yielding 19 hits and two walks (he also hit two batters), and improved his record to 9-2. The Reds stranded 13 and had no home runs. Boxscore

_ Cardinals 4, Phillies 3, Sept. 24, 1944, at Philadelphia: In his last regular-season start of the year, Cooper went the route and earned the win in the first game of a doubleheader when Whitey Kurowski broke a 3-3 tie with a home run off Phillies starter Ken Raffensberger in the 16th inning.

Philadelphia scored single runs in the first, third and fourth innings before Cooper shut out the Phillies over the last 12. Of Philadelphia’s 19 hits, 18 were singles (first baseman Tony Lupien doubled). Boxscore

Cooper’s line: 16 innings, 19 hits, 3 runs, 5 walks, 7 strikeouts.

Raffensberger’s line: 16 innings, 13 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts.

The win improved Cooper’s record to 22-7 _ his third consecutive season with at least 21 wins.

In the 1944 World Series against the Browns, Cooper made two starts and held the American League champions to two runs over 16 innings.