Not even a word from Bob Gibson could prevent Rick Camp from surrendering the hit that propelled the Cardinals to their first National League pennant in 14 years.
The Cardinals completed a three-game sweep of the best-of-five 1982 National League Championship Series, beating Camp and the Braves, 6-2, in Game 3 at Atlanta. The victory vaulted them into the World Series for the first time since 1968, when Gibson was their ace.
Camp, 59, died April 25, 2013. His obituaries focus on the home run he hit with two outs in the bottom of the 18th inning of a July 4, 1985, game against the Mets, tying the score 11-11. (The Mets won, 16-13, in 19 innings and Camp was the losing pitcher.) Boxscore
In Cardinals history, Camp is better recalled for the second-inning meltdown that gave St. Louis control of the deciding game of the playoff series.
After Camp retired the Cardinals in order in the first, Keith Hernandez led off the second with a single and Darrell Porter walked. Camp had gotten two strikes on Porter and thought he had struck him out on a pitch instead ruled a checked swing.
George Hendrick singled, scoring Hernandez and advancing Porter to third, and St. Louis led, 1-0.
As Willie McGee approached the plate, Gibson, a Braves pitching coach for manager Joe Torre, went to the mound to talk with Camp.
(Torre split the pitching coach duties between Gibson and former catcher Rube Walker. “Rube teaches them how to pitch,” Torre told Stan Isle of The Sporting News. “Gibby teaches them how to win.”)
On Camp’s first pitch after Gibson’s visit, McGee tripled to right-center, scoring Porter and Hendrick.
“I made a bad pitch,” Camp said to Kerry Yencer of the Rome (Ga.) News-Tribune. “It was a fastball belt high, a fastball that was up, and that’s what broke it open.”
The next batter, Ozzie Smith, singled to center, scoring McGee and giving the Cardinals a 4-0 lead. Torre lifted Camp for Pascual Perez. Boxscore
“From the beginning, in the bullpen, I didn’t have anything,” Camp said. “I thought maybe I would work it out in the first two or three innings.”
Instead, Camp faced just eight batters, yielding four runs, four hits and a walk.
In a nine-year career with the Braves (1976-85), Camp made 28 appearances against the Cardinals, posting a 4-4 record, a 4.25 ERA and allowing 84 hits in 65.2 innings.
Camp was the losing pitcher in his first appearance against the Cardinals on April 30, 1977, at St. Louis. The Braves led 4-3 after six innings before the Cardinals scored a run apiece off Camp in the seventh and eighth, winning 5-4. Hector Cruz had a RBI-single in the seventh. Hernandez led off the eighth with a double and scored the game-winning run on an error. Boxscore
Previously: Braves fans’ behavior recalls Dodgers’ forfeit to Cardinals
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