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On May 7, 1940, the Cardinals raked Dodgers starter Hugh Casey for 15 hits, 13 runs and five home runs in seven innings during an 18-2 victory at St. Louis.

The Cardinals also hit two home runs against reliever Max Macon, giving them a total of seven for the game.

The outburst came against the hottest team in the National League. The 1940 Dodgers, managed by Leo Durocher, entered the Tuesday game at Sportsman’s Park with an 11-1 record. The Cardinals were 5-10.

Brooklyn featured a lineup of Dolph Camilli and Dixie Walker, and rookie shortstop Pee Wee Reese.

Casey, 26, was one of their top pitchers. The right-hander recorded 15 wins and a 2.93 ERA for the 1939 Dodgers.

Casey earned complete-game wins against the Giants and Phillies in his first two starts of 1940 before he stumbled against the Reds, yielding eight runs in four innings in Brooklyn’s first  loss.

In the series opener against the Cardinals on Sunday, May 5, Casey entered in relief, pitched a scoreless ninth and earned the save in Brooklyn’s 9-6 victory. Boxscore

Two days later, he was the starting pitcher, bringing a 2-1 record and 3.52 ERA against a Cardinals lineup that included three future Hall of Fame players: Joe Medwick, Johnny Mize and Enos Slaughter. All-star shortstop Marty Marion was unavailable because of a knee injury.

After a scoreless first inning, the Cardinals went to work against Casey. Don Padgett, Stu Martin and Eddie Lake hit solo home runs, and Medwick and Mize each launched a two-run homer. The home run by Lake, a slight second baseman, was the first of his big-league career.

Casey knocked down several Cardinals batters and hit three, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Macon, a former Cardinal, relieved Casey in the eighth and yielded five runs, including another homer apiece by Mize and Lake. Boxscore

The Cardinals collected 49 total bases, topping the league mark of 47 established by the Giants in 1931. Their seven total home runs tied a league record shared by five others.

The Associated Press reported Durocher kept Casey in the game for seven innings “to save wear and tear on his other pitchers.”

“It was at his own request” that Casey remained in the game through seven innings, The Sporting News reported.

According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Casey said to Durocher after giving up five runs in the third inning, “Let me keep pitching. I need the work.”

Casey’s performance got the headlines, but the game featured another significant development.

In the ninth inning, the Cardinals sent in Bill DeLancey to replace Padgett at catcher, drawing a big cheer from the few remaining in the announced crowd of 2,298. It was DeLancey’s first big-league appearance since 1935. He was attempting a comeback after more than four years spent in Arizona to overcome a lung ailment, The Sporting News reported.

(DeLancey would appear in 15 games for the Cardinals in 1940, his last big-league season. He died on his 35th birthday, Nov. 28, 1946).

After their sizzling start, the 1940 Dodgers finished in second place at 88-65, 12 games behind the champion Reds and four ahead of the Cardinals (84-69).

Casey was moved to the bullpen in early June and finished the 1940 season with an 11-8 record and 3.62 ERA.

Casey befriended the writer, Ernest Hemingway, pitched for Dodgers pennant winners in 1941 and 1947, earned two wins and a save in the 1947 World Series against the Yankees, and finished a nine-year big-league career with a 75-42 record, 55 saves and a 3.45 ERA.

On July 3, 1951, Casey, 37, died from a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the neck. The suicide occurred seconds after he had assured his wife in a telephone call he was innocent of a charge he fathered a son out of wedlock, according to the Associated Press.