RetroSimba

Kyle McClellan should be remembered as one of the key contributors in the Cardinals’ remarkable run to the World Series title in 2011.

Though he lacked the star power and big-game swagger of colleagues such as Chris Carpenter and Jason Motte, McClellan gave the 2011 Cardinals a significant early-season boost to their starting rotation and also contributed wins in relief down the stretch as St. Louis successfully made a frantic push to overtake the Braves for the National League wild-card spot.

The wear McClellan put on his right arm that year as he converted from reliever to starter in the spring and back to reliever in late July may have shortened his Cardinals career. Plagued by a damaged right shoulder, McClellan, 28, was sidelined for most of the 2012 season and was released by the Cardinals Nov. 13, 2012.

When starter Adam Wainwright suffered a season-ending arm injury at the start of spring training in 2011, McClellan moved into the rotation to replace him, even though McClellan had been used exclusively as a reliever since his rookie season of 2008.

Joining a rotation of Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia, Kyle Lohse and Jake Westbrook, McClellan’s selfless teamwork paid big early-season dividends for the Cardinals.

On April 11, 2011, McClellan earned his first win as a starter, limiting the Diamondbacks to a run in six innings and collecting his first two RBI in an 8-2 Cardinals triumph. “He did it all,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore

McClellan won his first five decisions of 2011. On May 8, after he held the Brewers to a run and four hits in eight innings in a 3-1 Cardinals victory on Mother’s Day, McClellan had a 5-0 record and 3.30 ERA and St. Louis was in first place in the National League Central. McClellan’s mother and his wife, who was pregnant, attended the game. Afterward, Wainwright told St. Louis reporter Derrick Goold that McClellan’s record “is not surprising any of us.” Boxscore

Soon thereafter, McClellan fell into a funk. After earning a win on May 19, McClellan went more than two months before recording another. On July 25, in the last of his 17 starts for the 2011 Cardinals, McClellan held the Astros to a run in seven innings and got the win in the Cardinals’ 10-5 victory. “There’s been games where I’ve let the big inning kill me,” McClellan said to the Post-Dispatch. “Today, I felt like I was able to keep control of the game.” Boxscore

Two days later, the Cardinals acquired starting pitcher Edwin Jackson from the Blue Jays. McClellan quickly agreed to move to the bullpen to open a spot for Jackson in the rotation. La Russa told St. Louis reporter Rick Hummel that McClellan “showed a lot of character” in accepting the move. “He could have been bitter,” La Russa said.

Explained McClellan: “I felt like the time I was in the rotation, I did a good job. I don’t feel that I pitched my way out of a job.”

On Sept. 16, McClellan earned a big win in relief, pitching a scoreless 10th inning in the Cardinals’ 4-2 victory in 11 over the Phillies. McClellan retired Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Chase Utley in order, helping the Cardinals get within 3.5 games of the Braves in the wild-card chase. Boxscore

Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch wrote that the victory transformed the Cardinals’ postseason chances “from improbable to, dare it be said, believable.”

St. Louis did catch the Braves, swept through the National League postseason series and won the World Series championship in seven games.

The Cardinals couldn’t have qualified for the postseason without the contributions of McClellan. The right-hander was 12-7 overall _ 6-6 as a starter and 6-1 in relief _ in 43 apperances.

Previously: 2011: a year of titles, turnarounds, turmoil for Cardinals

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Mort Cooper, usually outstanding for the 1942 Cardinals, uncharacteristically experienced double disappointments in two of his most high-profile starts that year.

Cooper earned 22 wins and pitched 10 shutouts for the Cardinals in 1942, but he also started and lost both the All-Star Game and Game 1 of the World Series.

Cooper, 29, a right-hander, was 22-7 with a 1.78 ERA and 22 complete games for the 1942 Cardinals. During one stretch, he won nine consecutive decisions, including five by shutouts. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher chose Cooper to start the All-Star Game for the National League on July 6, 1942, at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Cooper and his brother, Cardinals catcher Walker Cooper, formed the first brother battery to start an All-Star Game.

The game was scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. but was delayed more than 30 minutes because of storms. Mort Cooper, who had completed his warmups, told the United Press wire service the delay hurt him and he didn’t find his command until the third inning.

Lou Boudreau, the Indians shortstop and American League leadoff batter, drove Cooper’s second pitch of the game 260 feet into the upper deck in left for a home run. Boudreau said the home run provided “one of the biggest thrills I ever had in baseball.”

The next batter, Yankees right fielder Tommy Henrich, lined a 3-and-2 pitch. The ball landed in a pool of water in the outfield, enabling Henrich to stretch a single into a double.

After Cooper retired the American League’s two marquee players, left fielder Ted Williams of the Red Sox and center fielder Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, Tigers first baseman Rudy York delivered a key blow. A right-handed batter, York swung late at a high fastball and “the result,” The Sporting News reported, “was something like a slice in golf.”

The ball carried toward the short right-field stands and stayed in fair territory as it landed over the fence for a two-run home run and a 3-0 American League lead. “On most any other big-league field,” The Sporting News reported, “the homer would have sliced foul.”

York swung so late at the 1-and-1 pitch “I thought I already had that one in my glove,” Walker Cooper said.

“I walloped it,” York said. “I thought at first it was going foul, but what a kick I got out of it when I saw the ball plump into the lower-right stands, well inside the foul line.”

Cooper pitched three innings, yielding four hits and three runs. The American League won, 3-1. Boxscore

Behind the pitching of Cooper and rookie Johnny Beazley (a 21-game winner), the 1942 Cardinals won 106 games and finished two ahead of the second-place Dodgers. Cooper was selected by manager Billy Southworth to start Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees on Sept. 30 at St. Louis.

Cooper gave up five runs, 10 hits and three walks in 7.2 innings and took the loss in a 7-4 Yankees victory.

Batting fourth, DiMaggio singled and scored in the fourth, drove in a run in the fifth and singled and scored in the eighth, igniting a three-run inning versus Cooper. Boxscore

“I hadn’t pitched in a week and my control was off,” Cooper said to the Associated Press. “Pitched too high. They didn’t hit my fastball at all. It was my curve.”

Cooper started Game 4 at Yankee Stadium and surrendered five runs in 5.1 innings. Max Lanier got the win in relief in a 9-6 Cardinals triumph. Boxscore

Sporting News columnist Dan Daniel called Cooper an “emphatic flop,” who was “too tired to show at his best.”

It ended well, though, for Cooper and the Cardinals. St. Louis won the championship in five games. Cooper won the 1942 National League Most Valuable Player Award winner and he again topped 20 wins in both 1943 and 1944, helping the Cardinals to two more pennants.

Previously: How Mort Cooper pitched two straight 1-hitters for Cardinals

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In 1946, the Cardinals started pitcher Howie Pollet in the postseason, knowing he was injured and in pain.

Pollet lasted one-third of an inning, surrendering a run on three hits, before he was relieved in Game 5 of the 1946 World Series against the Red Sox.

In his return to the Cardinals following two years of military service, Pollet, 25, was St. Louis’ ace in 1946. He led the National League that season in wins (21), ERA (2.10) and innings pitched (266). Pollet pitched in 40 regular-season games, making 32 starts.

Under the heavy workload, Pollet was ailing in September. His back ached and he either had a torn shoulder muscle or a torn side muscle, according to conflicting published reports.

Nonetheless, Pollet kept taking his turn in the rotation. When the Cardinals and Dodgers finished the regular season tied for first place, they went to a best-of-three playoff series to determine the NL champion. Cardinals manager Eddie Dyer selected Pollet to start Game 1.

According to The Sporting News, Pollet agreed to the start despite a torn muscle in his left shoulder. (The publication subsequently reported the injury as a torn muscle in his side.)

Pollet pitched a complete game and the Cardinals won, 4-2. Boxscore

Five days later, Pollet was the starting pitcher in Game 1 of the World Series. Pitching with what the Associated Press described as an aching side, Pollet carried the Cardinals into the ninth inning with a 2-1 lead. He was one strike away from retiring the final batter until Tom McBride poked a single between short and third, scoring pinch-runner Don Gutteridge.

In the 10th, with two outs, Rudy York hit a Pollet curve into the last row of the left-field seats at Sportsman’s Park for a home run, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 victory. Boxscore

Said Pollet: “Yes, my back bothered me a couple of times, but I didn’t think it was affecting my pitching.”

With the World Series even at two wins apiece, Pollet was the Cardinals’ choice to start Game 5 at Boston. After three of the first four batters singled, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead, Al Brazle relieved Pollet. The Red Sox scored five runs off Brazle in 6.2 innings and won, 6-3. Boxscore

Wrote Sam Levy in the Milwaukee Journal: “The biggest surprise to the 35,982 fans … was the rapid exit of Howie Pollet.”

Pollet experienced an “extremely painful back ailment” and “torn side muscle,” the Associated Press reported.

Cardinals team doctor Robert Hyland instructed Pollet not to pitch again until spring training. “Howie figures that if he had taken a full week off in September after he first pulled a muscle in his back he would have been in better condition for the World Series,” The Sporting News reported.

Pollet continued to pitch in the major leagues until 1956. He was a 20-game winner for the 1949 Cardinals. In nine seasons with St. Louis, Pollet was 97-65. Pollet also was a Cardinals coach from 1959-64.

Previously: How Chase Riddle got Steve Carlton for Cardinals

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