RetroSimba

(Updated Sept. 27, 2019)

In late September 1964 the Cardinals were five games behind the first-place Phillies entering a five-game series against the Pirates at Pittsburgh.

With 11 games remaining in the regular season, Cardinals outfielder Bob Skinner said to teammate Dick Groat, “OK, Dick, the only thing we have to do is sweep the Pirates in five,” according to the book “October 1964.”

Skinner and Groat, both former Pirates, knew how unlikely it was for any club to accomplish such a task at Pittsburgh.

However, the Cardinals won both games of a doubleheader versus the Pirates on Sept. 24 and followed that with wins at Pittsburgh on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26.

In the series finale, played in a light rain on Sept. 27, 1964, the Cardinals started Roger Craig, who’d lost four consecutive decisions.

Craig delivered a stellar start, holding the Pirates scoreless and limiting them to six singles through 7.2 innings.

Save for Schultz

In the eighth, with the Cardinals ahead, 3-0, the Pirates had runners on first and second, two outs, when Cardinals manager Johnny Keane brought in knuckleball specialist Barney Schultz to face Roberto Clemente, who represented the tying run.

The odds seemed stacked in favor of Clemente, who hit .361 with runners in scoring position in 1964, but Schultz struck him out. Throwing nothing but knucklers, Schultz got Clemente to lunge for one and miss on a 2-and-2 count.

The Cardinals scored twice in the ninth and Schultz retired the Pirates in order in the bottom half of the inning, preserving a 5-0 St. Louis victory. Boxscore

In sweeping the five games at Pittsburgh, the Cardinals played nearly flawless baseball, committing one error and holding the Pirates to eight total runs.

“That was a disgrace in Pittsburgh,” Phillies scout Don Hoak, a former Pirates third baseman, said to Groat. “They just handed you five games.”

Groat replied, “You forgot to mention the most important thing about those five games _ that we didn’t make a single mistake in all five of them.”

Pennant push

The sweep moved the Cardinals 1.5 games behind the Reds, who had gone into first place as the fading Phillies lost their seventh in a row.

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh said the Cardinals “looked like they mean business. They’re putting everything together,” the Pittsburgh Press reported.

Arriving at the St. Louis airport after their flight from Pittsburgh, the Cardinals were greeted by an adoring crowd of at least 8,000, The Sporting News reported.

“The adrenaline was flowing,” Cardinals outfielder Carl Warwick said to Peter Golenbock in the book “Spirit of St. Louis.” “All of a sudden you’re saying, ‘We’re not out of this thing.’ ”

Craig told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Our guys believe they can win. They know we have the best club in the league.”

Finishing the season in St. Louis, the Cardinals won four of their last six against the Phillies and Mets, winning the pennant by a game over both the Phillies and Reds.

Previously: Why Gussie Busch fired Bing Devine in championship year