In his first two appearances for the Cardinals, Ron Piche earned saves in both games, energizing a staff making a mid-summer push to get the club back into the pennant race.
Piche couldn’t sustain that splendid start, however, and, after finishing the 1966 season with the Cardinals, never pitched in the major leagues again.
Piche made his major-league debut with the Braves in 1960.
After four seasons with the Braves and a year with the Angels, Piche, 31, began the 1966 season with Class AAA Seattle of the Pacific Coast League. On April 30, 1966, the Cardinals acquired Piche for Earl Francis, a former big-league pitcher who was on their Class AAA Tulsa roster.
Piche, 31, was assigned to Tulsa, managed by Charlie Metro, and he performed well as a reliever. On July 4, 1966, he got his break. With Cardinals general manager Bob Howsam and farm director Sheldon Bender in attendance, Piche made a rare start and pitched a complete-game four-hitter in Tulsa’s 11-2 victory over Tacoma.
The win boosted Piche’s record to 5-3 with a team-best 2.20 ERA and impressed Howsam and Bender.
On July 17, 1966, Cardinals starter Art Mahaffey was lifted with one out in the first inning after surrendering three runs on three hits and two walks. With his staff weakened by injuries and overwork, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst seriously considered using infielder Jerry Buchek and outfielder Mike Shannon in emergency relief.
Instead, the Cardinals dispatched Mahaffey to Tulsa two days later and promoted Piche, who was 6-3 with a 2.00 ERA in 25 games for the Oilers.
The Cardinals began winning, playing as hot as the mid-summer temperatures.
On July 21, 1966, against the Braves at St. Louis, starter Al Jackson took a 7-2 lead into the eighth inning. When he tired, allowing two runs with one out, Schoendiest turned to Piche to protect the 7-4 lead in his Cardinals debut.
Piche faced two batters in the eighth and three in the ninth _ and retired all five on groundouts, earning his first big-league save since 1961 with the Braves.
The win was the Cardinals’ fourth in a row and evened their record at 46-46. Boxscore
The next day, at Chicago, Piche saved a 9-4 Cardinals victory over the Cubs with two scoreless innings of relief, moving St. Louis above .500 for the first time in more than a month. Boxscore
In two games with St. Louis, Piche had more saves than he had in his previous four big-league seasons combined.
Sparked by the improved pitching, the Cardinals climbed to seven games above .500 before slipping back again.
Piche earned a win against the Dodgers with two perfect innings of relief in St. Louis’ 3-2, 13-inning victory on Aug. 20, 1966. Boxscore
He finished with a 1-3 record, two saves and a 4.26 ERA in 20 relief appearances.
In the winter, the Cardinals assigned Piche to Tulsa. He pitched well for manager Warren Spahn’s Oilers in 1967 (4-2, 3.07 ERA in 46 games) but never got called back by the Cardinals.
On April 22, 1968, St. Louis traded Piche and pitcher Jack Lamabe to the Cubs for pitchers Pete Mikkelsen and Dave Dowling.
Piche pitched in the minor leagues until 1972 before he became a coach, scout and community ambassador for the Expos. Nicknamed “Monsieur Baseball” in Quebec, he was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Spahn, who had 363 big-league wins, primarily with the Braves, got his first try at being a manager in 1967 with the Cardinals’ Class AAA Tulsa Oilers.
Against teams whom he faced at least 10 times in his career, Hoffman’s ERA was highest vs. St. Louis (4.09 in 51 regular-season games).
Of the 257 regular-season home runs Gibson yielded in his career, 67 were hit by fellow Hall of Famers.
Duren was a hard-throwing, hard-drinking pitcher with the Yankees from 1958-61. In 1964, he was 35 and a middle-innings reliever with the Reds.
Blyleven, elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Jan. 5, 2011, was 4-2 with a 2.84 ERA against the Cardinals while he was with the Pirates from 1978-80.
