Don Sutton pitched some gems against the Cardinals, but they deprived him of the win he wanted most.
Sutton was a consistent winner. He is tied with Nolan Ryan for 14th all-time in wins (324). He had 18 regular-season wins versus the Cardinals, including seven shutouts. Sutton came up empty, though, when he faced them in the 1982 World Series.
A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Sutton died on Jan. 18, 2021, at 75.
Rookie success
After graduating from high school in Pensacola, Fla., Sutton, a right-hander, signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent at age 19 in 1964. Two years later, he was part of a Dodgers starting rotation with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax.
On June 2, 1966, Sutton faced the Cardinals for the first time. He pitched 6.2 scoreless innings at St. Louis and got the win. Boxscore
“He’s the most developed young pitcher I’ve ever seen,” Dodgers reliever Bob Miller, a former Cardinal, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He has a good idea of what he’s going to do every pitch.”
According to the Post-Dispatch, Sutton threw a fastball, slider and curve. The curve was delivered at three different speeds. Cardinals batters Curt Flood and Bob Skinner said Sutton also threw a spitter. For the rest of his 23-year career in the majors, Sutton faced allegations of doctoring the ball.
Old school
In 1968, when the Cardinals were National League champions for the second consecutive year, Sutton was 3-1 with a 1.82 ERA against them.
Two years later, the Cardinals got one of their most satisfying wins against Sutton.
On Aug. 28, 1970, at Los Angeles, Sutton and Cardinals rookie Jerry Reuss were locked in a scoreless duel for eight innings. In the ninth, Joe Torre hit a home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 victory. Boxscore
Two weeks earlier, Sutton had been rocked for six runs in two innings in a start at St. Louis. Jose Cardenal and Dal Maxvill had key hits against him.
When Sutton faced the Cardinals again at Dodger Stadium, he hit Cardenal in the hand with a pitch in the first inning. In the second, Maxvill hit the dirt to avoid being struck by Sutton’s fastball.
Reuss retaliated, throwing a pitch behind Sutton and at the level of his head. Sutton found his control after that.
In the ninth, Torre led off and worked the count to 3-and-2. Sutton threw a fastball into the heart of the strike zone and Torre walloped it over the wall in center.
“I was trying to keep from walking Torre and I was trying not to give him anything good to hit,” Sutton said. “That’s a tough situation.”
For Torre, who arrived in the majors 10 years earlier, it was just the third home run he hit at Dodger Stadium. The others came against Koufax and Drysdale.
Torre hit five home runs versus Sutton in his career.
Good stuff
Sutton was 3-0, with two shutouts, and a 1.33 ERA against the Cardinals in 1976.
The Dodgers and Mets were in serious talks during spring training that year about a trade of Sutton for Tom Seaver, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Mets backed away when they and Seaver agreed on contract terms.
On April 29, 1976, Sutton pitched a five-hit shutout against the Cardinals at Los Angeles. It gave him 41 career shutouts, one more than Koufax. Boxscore
Asked how Sutton was able to stop a Cardinals lineup with nine left-handed batters, slugger Reggie Smith told the Post-Dispatch, “When you have good stuff, it doesn’t matter who you’ve got in there.”
Smith’s teammate, Lou Brock, countered, “Yeah, he’s good as long as he has the Vaseline pitch going. He threw me a good one.”
Two weeks later, at St. Louis, Sutton pitched another five-hit shutout. Boxscore
Sutton’s third win against the 1976 Cardinals was an unusual one for him. In the Dodgers’ last game before the all-star break, manager Walter Alston asked Sutton whether he could pitch in relief that afternoon at St. Louis. Sutton hadn’t made a relief appearance in five years. “What could I say except, ‘OK, Skip,’ ” Sutton recalled.
Sutton entered the game in the seventh, pitched three innings and got the win, his first as a reliever since 1968. Boxscore
Series showdowns
On July 14, 1978, Sutton, trying for his 200th career win, was ejected from a game against the Cardinals at St. Louis. Umpire Doug Harvey tossed Sutton “for pitching a defaced baseball.” Harvey had three scuffed baseballs as evidence. Boxscore
Sutton became a free agent after the 1980 season and signed with the Astros. They traded him to the Brewers in August 1982. On the final day of the regular season, Sutton beat the Orioles, clinching a division title for the Brewers. He also got a win in the American League Championship Series versus the Angels.
The Brewers advanced to play the Cardinals in the World Series. They won the opener, 10-0, and started Sutton against rookie John Stuper in Game 2 at St. Louis. Sutton had leads of 3-0 and 4-2, but the Cardinals tied the score on Darrell Porter’s two-run double in the sixth. Sutton was lifted and the Cardinals went on to win. Boxscore and Video
Asked by the Post-Dispatch about Porter’s key hit, Sutton replied, “A good piece of hitting. That’s why he is so well-respected by those of us who stand in the middle of the mound.”
The Brewers won two of the next three, giving them a chance to clinch the championship in Game 6 at St. Louis. The matchup again was Sutton versus Stuper.
With the Dodgers, Sutton played for four league champions (1966, 1974, 1977 and 1978) but none won a World Series crown. At 37, he finally could be part of a World Series champion if he beat the Cardinals in Game 6.
“Nothing in my life comes close in magnitude to this game,” Sutton told the Post-Dispatch.
The Cardinals made it a blowout. Porter and Keith Hernandez each hit a two-run home run against Sutton. He gave up seven runs before being lifted with one out in the fifth. Stuper pitched a four-hitter and the Cardinals won, 13-1. Boxscore and Video
“He wasn’t vintage Sutton,” said Cardinals second baseman Tommy Herr. “He was up in the strike zone a lot. He has to pitch to spots.”
Sutton told the Post-Dispatch, “I had good stuff, but bad location. I have no excuse.”
Years later, for the book “Where Have You Gone ’82 Brewers,” Sutton said, “When I got to St. Louis, I was out of gas … There wasn’t a whole lot left. That’s why I always said I wish I could have given Milwaukee younger innings in the World Series.”
Sutton continued to pitch until he was 43. His last season was in 1988 with the Dodgers. They released him in August and he was a spectator when they won the World Series championship in October.
RetroSimba 
The Dodgers (not the Cubs) cause me the most baseball grief, and when that team is riding high, I am climbing the proverbial walls.
So I was always “That Sutton…FEH!!”
Until his scuffle with Steve Garvey. That was a huge source of amusement, trouble in Dodger Paradise.
At any rate, someone once asked a bunch of GMs: who would you rather have? A pitcher with a Sandy Koufax career or a Don Sutton career? I think 8 were for Koufax, 6 were for Sutton and 2 were undecided. I have wrestled with that one for years and I still don’t know.
Thanks for all the good insights.
For those who may not know the details, Don Sutton and Dodgers teammate Steve Garvey got into a fight inside the visiting team clubhouse at Shea Stadium in New York before a game on Aug. 20, 1978.
The fight began when Garvey confronted Sutton about remarks Sutton made to writer Thomas Boswell for an article that appeared a few days earlier in the Washington Post. Sutton told Boswell that Reggie Smith, not Garvey, was the Dodgers’ best player.
Sutton, who didn’t like Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda and his rah-rah approach, said in the article that “all you hear about is Steve Garvey, the all-American boy.”
Of Smith, the former Cardinal, Sutton told Boswell: “Reggie doesn’t go out to publicize himself. He doesn’t smile at the right people or say the right things. He tells the truth, even if it sometimes alienates people. Reggie’s not a facade or a Madison Avenue image. He’s a real person.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, when Garvey confronted Sutton in the clubhouse, the two had words and then Sutton lunged at Garvey and they fought. The two players suffered facial cuts and Garvey was poked in the right eye before general manager Al Campanis broke up the fight.
Major league baseball lost another great one in Don Sutton. During his peak years, he was without a doubt, one of the best. You can understand his disappointment in regards to the 1982 WS. And yet, if not for him, the Brewers wouldn’t have even made the playoffs. Over the final 10 days of the regular season, Baltimore and Milwaukee faced each other 7 times. The Brewers won only 2 of those games. In both of them, Don Sutton was the starting pitcher.
Thanks for the good info.
Regarding Don Sutton’s 2 wins for the Brewers vs. the Orioles in the final 10 days of the 1982 season, the first was on Sept. 24, a 15-6 Brewers win at Milwaukee. Sutton gave up six runs in seven innings, but the Brewers pounded Orioles starter Mike Flanagan and the bullpen. The second was on Oct. 3, a 10-2 Brewers win at Baltimore. Sutton beat fellow future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. Sutton held the Orioles to 2 runs in 8 innings. Another future Hall of Famer, Robin Yount, hit 2 home runs against Palmer. The boxscore: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1982/B10030BAL1982.htm
Sutton was discovered by Whitey Herzog, who was scouting for the A’s. Sutton wanted $16k to sign, but Charlie Finley stood firm at $9k. That’s how Sutton became a Dodger.
Thanks, Marty. You are correct.
In the April 30, 1966, edition of The Sporting News, Whitey Herzog told columnist Dick Young that in 1964 he was scouting the National Baseball Congress tournament at Wichita for the Athletics and could have signed Don Sutton for $16,000, but was told by the front office they had exhausted their treasury. Sutton signed with the Dodgers for that amount, Young reported.
A month later, in the May 14, 1966, edition, Sutton told The Sporting News, “I was only a pen and a phone call away from signing with Kansas City.” Sutton said he was to receive $16,000, a new car and a college scholarship, but when Herzog called for approval from club owner Charlie Finley he was informed the player procurement fund was empty.