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Attempting to hit a home run at the most urgent point in the most crucial game of the season, Terry Pendleton had the presence of mind to make an adjustment in the middle of his at-bat and accomplished his mission.

Delivering one of the most improbable home runs in franchise lore, Pendleton revived the Cardinals and deflated the Mets.

On Sept. 11, 1987, Pendleton hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning against Roger McDowell, tying the score. The Cardinals won in the 10th, a victory that propelled them on a path to a National League pennant.

“A big morale boost for us,” second baseman Tommy Herr said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We got some of the spunk back that we had early in the season.”

Tight race

The 1987 Cardinals entered September in first place in the NL East Division, 5.5 games ahead of the second-place Mets.

However, the Mets, defending World Series champions, appeared to have regained their swagger as they opened a three-game series with the Cardinals at New York’s Shea Stadium. The Cardinals had lost three in a row, and four of their last five, and their lead had shrunk to 1.5 games ahead of the Mets.

Game 1 of the series matched John Tudor of the Cardinals against Ron Darling of the Mets. Before a raucous crowd of 51,795, the Mets scored three in the first against Tudor and carried a 4-1 lead into the ninth. A victory would move the Mets to within a half-game of the Cardinals and put them in position to secure first place with a series sweep.

The Cardinals were held to one hit through eight innings. Vince Coleman got a bunt single in the sixth. Darling, trying to field the ball, stumbled, attempted to break his fall with his right hand and jammed his thumb, tearing ligaments.

The injury foreshadowed the trouble to come in the ninth.

Handling heat

McDowell, the third Mets pitcher in the game, worked a scoreless eighth.

In the ninth, he walked the first batter, Ozzie Smith. Herr grounded out to first, with Smith moving to second. Dan Driessen struck out.

“It didn’t look very good,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said.

McDowell got ahead in the count, 1-and-2, to the next batter, Willie McGee. With the Mets one strike away from victory, the crowd rocked the stadium.

“I wasn’t really worried about the pressure,” McGee said to the Hartford Courant. “When you’ve been there after a while, you learn how to deal with it.”

McGee swung at a pitch up in the strike zone and grounded a single into center field, driving in Smith and making the score 4-2.

Pendleton plan

Next up was Pendleton. He hadn’t hit a home run in a month _ Aug. 11 versus the Pirates _ and McDowell hadn’t yielded a home run in more than a month.

Yet, Pendleton went to the plate with the intent of hitting a home run.

“That’s all I was thinking,” Pendleton said. “I knew that’s what we needed.”

The first pitch from McDowell was a sinker. Pendleton grounded it foul.

“So I decided to move up (in the batter’s box) a little bit and see if I could catch one before it sank,” Pendleton said.

McDowell threw another sinker. “It was down,” McDowell said. “I thought it was a pretty good sinker.”

Pendleton connected with the pitch before it dipped too low and drove it to straightaway center. Center fielder Mookie Wilson moved back toward the wall. “I knew he hit it well,” Wilson said, “but the wind was blowing in.”

The ball carried over the wall at the 410-foot mark for a two-run home run, tying the score at 4-4 and stunning the crowd.

“He is not a home run hitter,” Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez said, “but that’s what it called for _ and he got it. He probably got the biggest hit of the year for them. If they win it, that will be the hit that did it.” Video

David Green followed with a double, but Tom Pagnozzi struck out, ending the Cardinals’ half of the ninth.

Ken Dayley, the Cardinals’ fifth pitcher of the game, held the Mets scoreless in the bottom of the ninth.

Wakeup call

Mets manager Davey Johnson brought in Jesse Orosco to pitch the 10th. With one out, the Cardinals got consecutive singles from Coleman, Smith and Herr. Coleman scored on Herr’s hit, giving the Cardinals the lead. Driessen grounded out, scoring Smith from third and putting St. Louis ahead, 6-4.

Dayley retired the Mets in order in the 10th, sealing the win and sending the Mets reeling. Boxscore

“It was another chance for us to go for the jugular and we weren’t able to do it,” said Hernandez, the former Cardinal. “That’s a big, big win for them. It has to be very uplifting.”

Said Pendleton to the Associated Press: “This will wake us up.”

The victory stretched the Cardinals’ lead over the Mets to 2.5 games.

The next day, Sept. 12, the Mets started their ace, Dwight Gooden, against the Cardinals’ Greg Mathews. Herr produced three RBI, Mathews pitched a complete game gem and the Cardinals won, 8-1, extending their lead to 3.5 games. “Doc was wild,” Johnson said of Gooden, “and he didn’t have very good stuff either.”

Said Mets second baseman Tim Teufel: “We had the momentum going into this series and they took it away from us.”

The Cardinals went on to finish 95-67 _ three games ahead of the Mets _ and clinch the division title. They also won the pennant, beating the Giants in the NL Championship Series, before losing to the Twins in a seven-game World Series.

Previously: Top 10 facts about 1987 NL champion Cardinals

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Capping a Cardinals rally, Roger Freed burned the team he cheered for as a boy.

Freed, a Los Angeles native reared in suburban Baldwin Park, Calif., hit a walkoff three-run home run, enabling the Cardinals to overcome a five-run deficit in the ninth inning and defeat the Dodgers.

Freed was batting for pitcher Al Hrabosky when he hit his game-winning home run against knuckleball specialist Charlie Hough.

At a time before cable television and the Internet, the game was showcased nationally as ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball” telecast.

“I knew my mother was watching (in Baldwin Park),” Freed said to the Los Angeles Times. “I kept telling myself I was going to hit one for Mom. She never gives up until the game is over. She’s been a baseball rooter ever since I was in Little League.”

No surrender

The Dodgers were comfortably in first place in the National League West, 9.5 games ahead of the Reds, entering their Aug. 22, 1977, game against the Cardinals at St. Louis.

Sparked by a Steve Yeager grand slam against John Denny, the Dodgers led, 6-1. Jerry Mumphrey opened the Cardinals’ ninth with a single and scored on Garry Templeton’s triple, cutting the deficit to 6-2. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda lifted starter Burt Hooton and replaced him with a rookie, Lance Rautzhan.

Ted Simmons singled, scoring Templeton and getting the Cardinals within three at 6-3. Keith Hernandez followed with a double just inside the first-base line. When the throw from right fielder Reggie Smith eluded cutoff man Bill Russell, Simmons continued home, making the score 6-4, and Hernandez went to third.

Hough, the Dodgers’ closer, relieved Rautzhan.

Dodgers dandy

With Mike Anderson at the plate, Hough unleashed a knuckler that got past Yeager. Hernandez scored and the Cardinals were within a run, 6-5.

After Anderson struck out for the first out of the inning, Ken Reitz singled and Rick Bosetti ran for him. Mike Tyson singled _ the Cardinals’ sixth hit of the inning _ and Bosetti moved to second.

With Hrabosky due up next, Cardinals manager Vern Rapp called on Freed to bat. Freed, acquired by the Cardinals from the Expos in the December minor-league draft, was batting .345 overall and .438 as a pinch hitter for St. Louis.

Hough went to work against him with his signature knuckler and got ahead on the count 1-and-2.

“The knuckler was dancing all over the place,” Freed said. “Hough has a dandy.”

Low liner

Then Hough threw Freed a knuckler that was at the bottom of the strike zone. “A good knuckler,” Hough said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Said Cardinals general manager Bing Devine: “It was low and away.”

Freed took a big swing and connected.

“I knew I hit it hard, but the pitch had been so low that I thought it might be right at the shortstop,” Freed said.

The line drive rose and carried over the left-field wall for a home run, giving the Cardinals an 8-6 victory. “I didn’t know it was gone until I looked up,” Freed said. Boxscore

Freed, a reserve first baseman and right fielder, finished the 1977 season with a .398 batting average (33-for-83). He hit .545 (6-for-11) with two outs and a runner in scoring position.

Freed batted .239 for the 1978 Cardinals and .258 for the 1979 Cardinals before he was released in April 1980.

Previously: Carl Taylor, Roger Freed experienced the ultimate

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In the last game the Cardinals played against the Giants at the Polo Grounds in New York, Stan Musial delivered a performance worthy of Broadway.

On Aug. 21, 1957, Musial bid a dramatic farewell to the Giants at one of his favorite ballparks, hitting a home run in the first inning against former teammate Stu Miller at the Polo Grounds.

In two subsequent plate appearances that Wednesday afternoon, Musial also produced an infield single and a sacrifice fly before being removed from the game by Cardinals manager Fred Hutchinson.

Though Musial and the Cardinals never would play the Giants again at the Polo Grounds, they would return to the ballpark five years later, in 1962, when the Mets joined the National League as an expansion club.

Musial and the Cardinals would face the Mets at the Polo Grounds in 1962 and 1963. After the 1963 season, Musial retired, the Mets moved to Shea Stadium and the Polo Grounds was demolished.

In August 1957, however, there was no inkling that major-league baseball would be played at the Polo Grounds after that season.

Go west

In May 1957, National League club owners gave permission to the Giants to move from New York to San Francisco and for the Dodgers to transfer from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

Three months later, on Aug. 19, the Giants’ board of directors, by an 8-to-1 vote, approved the proposal to relocate the franchise to San Francisco for the 1958 season. The Giants had been in New York for 74 years.

On Aug. 20, the day after the board made its decision, the Cardinals played a doubleheader against the Giants at the Polo Grounds. The Cardinals won both games before a crowd of 13,198.

The next day, Aug. 21, the Cardinals and Giants played for the final time at the Polo Grounds. The game drew 5,296 spectators to the ballpark along Eighth Avenue and West 159th Street between Coogan’s Bluff and the Harlem River in upper Manhattan.

NL’s best

The starting pitchers were Lindy McDaniel for St. Louis and Stu Miller, a former Cardinal, for the Giants.

Batting third in the orders were two of the all-time best _ Musial for the Cardinals and Willie Mays for the Giants.

The Polo Grounds had unusual dimensions. The distance from home plate to the deepest part of center field was about 480 feet. Down the lines, it was 258 feet from the plate to the right field foul pole and 279 feet from the plate to the left field foul pole.

In the first inning, Musial hit a home run into the upper deck in right.

In the Giants’ half of the first, Mays hit a home run over the left-field roof.

Facing 18-year-old rookie reliever Mike McCormick, Musial got an infield single in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

With the Giants ahead, 11-3, Hutchinson opted to give Musial a rest and removed him from the game in the sixth.

Musial, 36, was leading the National League in batting average (.342) and RBI (97) and had 29 home runs.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s the most valuable player in the National League this year and it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Cardinals general manager Frank Lane said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

Big Apple fan

In 11 games at the Polo Grounds in 1957, Musial batted .439 (18-for-41) with six home runs and 14 RBI.

Asked by New York writers whether he would miss the Polo Grounds, Musial replied, “Yes. The Polo Grounds makes a hero or a bum out of you. It can throw you into a terrible batting slump if you try to pull too much. It can give you the toughest out on the longest drives anywhere and the cheapest home runs. I’ve had my good years here and others not so good, but overall I’ve been fortunate. I’ll miss the park and the fans and the city’s legitimate theater, too.”

Musial and the Cardinals returned to the Polo Grounds to play the Mets on April 18, 1962. Musial had two hits and two RBI.

Three months later, on July 8, 1962, Musial, 41, hit three home runs against the Mets at the Polo Grounds. He’s the oldest player to hit three home runs in a big-league game.

Musial, 42, appeared at the Polo Grounds for the final time on Aug. 8, 1963, against the Mets. Pinch-hitting in the ninth, he drew a walk.

In 171 games at the Polo Grounds against the Giants and Mets, Musial batted .343 with 216 hits, including 49 home runs. He hit more home runs at the Polo Grounds than he did at any other ballpark outside St. Louis.

Previously: How Stan Musial made me a Cardinals fan

Previously: Stan Musial still oldest to belt 3 home runs in game

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Lee May, one of the National League’s most consistent sluggers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, hit for both average and power against the Cardinals.

A first baseman known as “Big Bopper,” he played for the Reds (1965-71) and Astros (1972-74) in the National League before going to the American League with the Orioles and Royals.

In 103 games versus the Cardinals, May had 128 hits, 26 doubles, 16 home runs and 63 RBI. His career .327 batting average against the Cardinals is 60 points higher than his career major-league mark of .267.

A standout high school athlete in Birmingham, Ala., May was offered a football scholarship to play fullback at the University of Nebraska, but he elected to sign a baseball contract with the Reds. He modeled his swing after his boyhood idol, American League slugger Harmon Killebrew.

“May was a husky bear of a man with the disposition of a newborn cub, a guy with a wondrous sense of humor, a guy loved by everybody who came into contact with him,” wrote Hal McCoy in the Dayton Daily News.

From 1969-74, May ranked among the top 10 in the NL in home runs each year. In 1970, when he hit 34 home runs for the pennant-winning Reds, May delivered one of his most memorable long balls _ a grand slam against the Cardinals.

Keep swinging

On July 20, 1970, the Reds and Cardinals had a Monday twi-night doubleheader at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

May was in a slump. He had batted .304 in May but .220 in June. Hitless in his three previous games, he entered the doubleheader with a .246 batting average.

“I’ve been pressing a little,” May said to the Associated Press. “It’s always natural for a guy in a slump to press. When you’re in a slump, you look at it like the other team has about 20 infielders and 20 outfielders. So it really doesn’t make any difference who is pitching.”

In the opener, May was 1-for-4. His two-out double in the eighth against Jerry Reuss drove in Tony Perez from second base. When left fielder Lou Brock bobbled the ball, Johnny Bench raced from first to home, tying the score at 3-3. A run-scoring single by Bobby Tolan in the ninth lifted the Reds to a 4-3 victory. Boxscore

Reds manager Sparky Anderson intended to rest May in the second game. “He’s been in a little slump,” Anderson said. “I was going to get him away from the field and give him a chance to relax. Then he said, ‘I don’t need mental help. I just need my swings.’ ”

Winning wallop

May started Game 2 and was in his usual fifth spot in the batting order.

The starting pitchers, Tony Cloninger of the Reds and Chuck Taylor of the Cardinals, engaged in a scoreless duel. Cloninger shut out the Cardinals for eight innings before being relieved by Wayne Granger. Taylor shut out the Reds through nine.

Taylor faced the minimum 27 batters before he was lifted for a pinch hitter. He yielded three singles, but two of the runners were erased on double play grounders and the other was caught by catcher Joe Torre attempting to steal second.

With the score at 0-0, a rookie, Bob Chlupsa, was chosen by Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst to pitch the 10th.

The Reds loaded the bases with one out on singles by Pete Rose and Bernie Carbo and a walk to Perez.

May stepped to plate and drove a pitch 400 feet over the wall in left-center for a grand slam.

“It was a fat pitch _ fastball, high _ and that’s what he gets paid to hit,” Chlupsa said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Said May: “I feel a little confidence coming back. I feel like I’m going to shake this thing.”

Granger retired the Cardinals in order in the bottom half of the 10th, giving the Reds a 4-0 victory and a sweep of the doubleheader. Boxscore

The Reds set a NL record in the game by playing 10 innings without leaving a runner on base.

Fast learner

Three months later, May hit .389 (7-for-18) with two doubles and two home runs against the Orioles in the 1970 World Series.

“He might get fooled on a pitch, but on that same pitch, the next time he sees it, he’ll knock it out of the park,” said Reds hitting coach Ted Kluszewski.

After the 1971 season, May was sent to the Astros in the trade that brought future Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan to the Reds.

May played 18 seasons in the big leagues and produced 354 home runs and 1,244 RBI.

His brother, Carlos May, played 10 seasons (1968-77) in the big leagues as an outfielder for the White Sox, Yankees and Angels.

Previously: Johnny Bench was nemesis of Steve Carlton

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