RetroSimba

With 21 games remaining in the season, bad omens hung over the Cardinals like a murky mist along the Delaware River and threatened to choke out their division title hopes.

In September 1982, the Cardinals clung to first place in the National League East Division by a half game, entering a series against the pursuing Phillies at Philadelphia.

It didn’t take a carnival fortune teller to see the warning signs:

_ After gaining a 3.5-game lead over the Phillies with a Sept. 1 win against the Dodgers, the Cardinals lost six of their next nine.

_ Shortstop Ozzie Smith had severe swelling in his right thigh and was unavailable for the Phillies series _ and for several games after that.

_ Like the ghost of seasons past, Steve Carlton, who relentlessly tormented his former club as payback for the pettiness of club owner Gussie Busch, was the scheduled starter for the Phillies in the series opener.

After winning 12 in a row in April and leading the division for most of the season, the Cardinals, who never had won a division title, were at a crossroads.

Crunch time

The mood in Philadelphia was electric with anticipation on the eve of the series.

“This is a month when a baseball man needs strong nerves and an informative scoreboard,” columnist Mark Whicker wrote in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt told Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Our fate is in our hands for the next three or four days.”

If Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog felt pressure, it didn’t show. “A race like this is fun, to seesaw back and forth and watch that scoreboard,” Herzog said to the Inquirer’s Peter Pascarelli. “This is easy. I’ll tell you what’s tough. It’s managing a team in September that’s out of the race. That is the hardest job in baseball.”

Actually, for the Cardinals, the hardest job was trying to beat Carlton. He entered the game with a career record against the Cardinals of 33-10, including 3-1 in 1982. (Carlton would finish his Hall of Fame career 38-14 versus the Cardinals, including 5-1 in 1982.)

Phillies take first

The Sept. 13 opener was everything the Phillies hoped it would be. Carlton pitched a three-hit shutout, striking out 12 and walking none, and hit a home run in the Phillies’ 2-0 victory.

“That’s the best he’s pitched against us since I’ve been here,” Herzog told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Hal Bodley of The Sporting News noted, “Much of Carlton’s success can be attributed to his conditioning routine and his fearsome slider. Without his uncanny strength, he would not be able to throw the nasty slider. Carlton’s great strength enables him to get a tighter grip on the ball. Because it’s thrown so hard, it breaks and drops sharply.”

Phillies manager Pat Corrales, who caught Carlton as a Cardinals backup catcher in 1966, said, “It’s amazing to watch a man almost 38 throwing like he is 28. That just goes to show what desire, talent and preparing yourself can do.” Boxscore

The win moved the Phillies into first place, a half game ahead, and put them into position “to cripple the Cardinals’ division hopes,” the Post-Dispatch noted.

“Sometimes,” Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez said to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “a game like that can make you get swept.”

Dramatic duel

The turning point in the series, and perhaps the Cardinals’ season, occurred the following night, Sept. 14.

Darrell Porter’s two-run home run against Mike Krukow and the pitching of rookie starter John Stuper gave the Cardinals a 2-0 cushion as the Phillies came to bat in the eighth. After retiring the first batter of the inning, Stuper walked Bob Molinaro and gave up a single to Pete Rose. Bruce Sutter relieved and yielded an infield single to Gary Matthews, loading the bases for slugger Mike Schmidt.

(Guarding the line, third baseman Ken Oberkfell made a tumbling stop of Matthews’ grounder. After considering a throw to second for a possible force out, Oberkfell instead fired to first and barely missed retiring Matthews. If Oberkfell had thrown to first without hesitation, Matthews likely would have been out, and Herzog, with first base open, would have ordered an intentional walk to Schmidt.)

Schmidt had faced Sutter twice during the season and doubled both times.

Sutter got ahead with two quick strikes, but then Schmidt worked the count even. Swinging at a sinking split-fingered pitch, Schmidt tapped the ball to Sutter, who started a home-to-first double play, ending the threat.

“That confrontation between Sutter and Schmidt _ that is what baseball is all about,” Stuper said to the Post-Dispatch.

Schmidt said, “He’s at his best when the hitter has a lot of pressure on him.”

After winning the showdown of future Hall of Famers, Sutter held the Phillies scoreless again in the ninth, securing the Cardinals’ victory and enabling them to reclaim first place. Boxscore

The Cardinals would remain atop the division the rest of the season.

Championship caliber

In the series finale on Sept. 15, Joaquin Andujar pitched a three-hit shutout for the Cardinals, who won, 8-0. The Cardinals scored five runs in the third against former teammate John Denny, who was making his first Phillies start since being acquired three days earlier from the Indians.

After the game, “the mood bordered on the funereal” in the Phillies’ locker room, the Post-Dispatch reported. Boxscore

Having withstood the Phillies’ challenge, the Cardinals went on a roll. In addition to winning the last two games of the Phillies series, they swept a five-game series with the Mets at New York, including doubleheaders on consecutive days, and won the opener of a two-game rematch with the Phillies at St. Louis.

The eight straight wins lifted the Cardinals’ record to 87-63 and put them 5.5 games ahead of the second-place Phillies.

Ozzie Smith was out of the lineup from Sept. 11 through Sept. 23, but in that stretch the Cardinals were 10-4. His replacement, Mike Ramsey, made 14 September starts at shortstop and didn’t commit an error.

The Cardinals clinched the division title on Sept. 27, swept the Braves in the National League Championship Series and prevailed in a seven-game thriller against the Brewers in the World Series.