With the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax having retired, Bob Gibson of the Cardinals entered the 1967 season ready to claim the role of best pitcher in the National League.
Ray Washburn, meanwhile, just was trying to stay healthy enough to keep a spot in the St. Louis rotation.
In consecutive games against the first-place Reds in early May 1967, Gibson and Washburn showed they were up to the tasks, each pitching a two-hit shutout.
Back-to-back shutouts by Shelby Miller and Adam Wainwright against the Rockies on May 10 and 11, 2013, represented only the second time since 1920 that Cardinals starters had shutouts of two hits or fewer in consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The others who did it were Gibson and Washburn.
Miller pitched a one-hitter in the Cardinals’ 3-0 victory over the Rockies on May 10, 2013, Boxscore and Wainwright followed with a two-hitter in another 3-0 St. Louis triumph over Colorado on May 11, 2013. Boxscore
Gibson and Washburn both were weakened by flu-like symptoms when they pitched their consecutive two-hit shutouts against Cincinnati, The Sporting News reported.
“Maybe that’s what it takes to pitch two-hitters, a couple of colds,” Gibson said.
The first-place Reds entered the two-game series at St. Louis with a 15-5 record. The Cardinals were 9-7 and four games behind.
Gibson was paired against another hard thrower, Reds ace Jim Maloney, in the opening game on May 2, 1967.
To generate more bat speed against Maloney, Cardinals third baseman Mike Shannon switched from a 39-ounce bat to a 33-ounce model, according to the book “El Birdos” (2007, McFarland). In the fifth inning, after the Cardinals loaded the bases on walks to Roger Maris, Orlando Cepeda and Tim McCarver, Shannon hit a three-run double off Maloney.
That was plenty of support for Gibson, who nearly was unhitttable that night. In a stretch from the first to third innings, Gibson struck out six in a row (Vada Pinson, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Deron Johnson, Don Pavletich and Tommy Helms).
Pinson got the Reds’ first hit, a leadoff double in the fourth, and Leo Cardenas got the last, a two-out single in the fifth. The Cardinals won, 5-0, and Gibson, who struck out 12, became the first pitcher in the major leagues that season to reach four wins. Boxscore
Said Reds manager Dave Bristol of Gibson: “He looked to me like he was throwing hard and I didn’t even have a bat in my hands.”
At 31, Gibson was near his career peak. In his book “Stranger to the Game” (1994, Viking), Gibson wrote of the 1967 Cardinals:
I was clearly the veteran of the Cardinal pitching staff, the only starter with any appreciable experience except for Ray Washburn, who was still trying to work his way back after blowing out his arm in 1963. He would never regain his speed entirely but eventually learned to work with what he had, which provided a useful lesson for our young starters (such as Larry Jaster and Steve Carlton).
I warmed up to the role of elder statesman and demonstrated my paternalism toward the young staff by bestowing nicknames on most of them. I called Washburn “Deadbody” because he moved as if every last particle of life had been sucked out of him.
Washburn, 28, was seeking his first win of the season when he faced the Reds and their veteran starter, Milt Pappas, on May 3, 1967. Washburn held the Reds to a pair of two-out hits _ a fourth-inning single by Rose and a fifth-inning single by Chico Ruiz.
Shannon again delivered the key hit. In the fourth, after Maris reached on a bunt single and Cepeda doubled, Pappas issued an intentional walk to McCarver with one out, hoping to induce the next batter, Shannon, to ground into a double play.
Instead, Shannon punished Pappas by hitting a single to right, scoring Maris and Cepeda. The Cardinals won, 2-0, in a game played in 1 hour, 40 minutes. Boxscore
Previously: How Cardinals placed a team called Marlins in West Virginia
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