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With a pitching performance as entertaining as it was admirable, Jose Oquendo impressed teammates, frustrated the Braves and earned a spot in Cardinals lore.

On May 14, 1988, at St. Louis, Oquendo was asked by manager Whitey Herzog to relieve in the 16th inning because no one on the pitching staff was available. Oquendo shifted from first base to the mound and shut out the Braves for three innings before yielding two runs in the 19th. Though he lost, Oquendo surprised most by doing as well as he did for as long as he did.

Another surprise was the performance of Jose DeLeon, a Cardinals pitcher who played the outfield in the final four innings.

Limited options

The Saturday night game matched starting pitchers Cris Carpenter, making his major-league debut for the Cardinals, against Zane Smith. The Cardinals led, 5-4, before the Braves tied the score with a run in the seventh.

Oquendo, a utility player, entered the game in the ninth as a replacement for first baseman and ex-Brave Bob Horner. In the bottom half of the inning, Oquendo and Tony Pena were on base, with one out, when Vince Coleman hit a grounder past pitcher Jose Alvarez. Second baseman Ron Gant dived, stopped the ball and started a double play, sending the game into extra innings.

In the 12th, former Cardinals catcher Ted Simmons led off for the Braves. Facing his friend, Bob Forsch, Simmons pulled a pitch hard on the ground. Oquendo ranged to his right, snagged the ball and threw to Forsch, covering first, in time to nip Simmons.

In the 15th, Herzog brought in his last available pitcher, Randy O’Neal, whom the Cardinals acquired from the Braves the year before. O’Neal had experience as a starter and Herzog figured to let him finish the game, no matter how many innings it took.

However, after retiring the Braves in order in the 15th, O’Neal said his arm hurt. Herzog had used all his pitchers except three: DeLeon, Larry McWilliams and John Tudor. All were deemed unavailable. DeLeon had pitched 8.2 innings the previous night, McWilliams was scheduled to start the next game and had been sent home by Herzog in the 10th inning, and Tudor had a tender shoulder.

Herzog turned to Oquendo, who’d made one big-league pitching appearance, a 1987 mop-up role during a blowout loss to the Phillies.

Serious business

Selecting Oquendo to pitch, Herzog needed someone to play first base. He moved Duane Walker from left field to first and brought in DeLeon to play left.

DeLeon hadn’t played a position other than pitcher since entering the big leagues in 1983. Asked how Herzog broke the news to him, DeLeon told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “He said, ‘Can you play outfield?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I didn’t mind.”

Herzog approached umpire Bob Davidson to inform him of the lineup switches. Recalled Davidson: “Whitey said he was bringing in Oquendo to pitch and he said, ‘Can I forfeit?’ ”

When catcher Steve Lake went to the mound to review the pitch signals, Oquendo told him he had three pitches: fastball, slider and split-finger. “I started chuckling,” Lake said. “Then I see that he’s dead serious.”

Ken Griffey Sr. led off the 16th against Oquendo and doubled. After Gerald Perry was walked intentionally, Ozzie Virgil Jr. hit a single to right. In a decision the Atlanta Constitution described as “a blunder,” third-base coach Willie Stargell sent Griffey to the plate, where Lake awaited with the ball after fielding a strong peg from right fielder Tom Brunansky. Griffey was out by 10 feet.

“I’ve got to thank Stargell because he didn’t hold the guy (at third),” Herzog said. “The game should have been over then.”

Mix and match

As the game moved along through the 17th and 18th, Herzog continually shifted DeLeon and Brunansky in an effort “to put DeLeon where the batter was least likely to hit the pitch,” according to the Constitution. DeLeon and Brunansky switched spots in right field and left field 11 times.

DeLeon had two fly balls hit to him and he caught both. “I was a little nervous,” DeLeon said. “My knees were shaking.”

In the 18th, with Cardinals runners on first and third, none out, Lake grounded out to third. After Luis Alicea walked, loading the bases, Walker hit a broken-bat liner that was caught by shortstop Andres Thomas and resulted in a double play when Brunansky was unable to get back to the bag at third.

“I didn’t get the job done,” said Walker. “All I had to do was hit a fly ball to end the game.”

Said Herzog: “We should have won in the 18th.”

The Cardinals stranded 21 on base in the game.

Staying alive

In the 19th, Griffey hit a two-run double against Oquendo with two outs. Rick Mahler retired the Cardinals in order in the bottom half, completing eight scoreless innings of relief and sealing a 7-5 Braves victory. Mahler “pitched the best he has in three years,” said Braves manager Chuck Tanner.

Oquendo finished with a pitching line of four innings, four hits, two runs, six walks and one strikeout. “He threw a lot of sliders and a lot of split-fingers,” said Lake. “I never knew where his fastball was going. I didn’t know if he was going to drop down (sidearm) or throw overhand.”

Oquendo became the first non-pitcher to receive a decision since outfielder Rocky Colavito won a relief stint for the Yankees against the Tigers in 1968.

“I’m glad I got a chance to pitch and I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Oquendo said.

Said Braves slugger Dale Murphy, who was hitless in seven at-bats: “It wouldn’t have looked very good if we had lost. It didn’t look too good anyway, but we won.” Boxscore

Herzog said utility player Tom Lawless would have relieved Oquendo if the game had gone to a 20th inning. “That would have been brutal,” said Lawless. “I’d already thrown batting practice.”

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Harry Brecheen came close to being perfect for the Cardinals.

Brecheen began the 1948 season with three consecutive shutouts, including a one-hitter.

A left-hander, Brecheen followed consecutive shutouts versus the Cubs with a nearly perfect game against the Phillies. His scoreless streak reached 32 innings before the Pirates broke through with a run in the sixth inning of Brecheen’s fourth start of the season.

Hot start

Brecheen, 33, made his first start of 1948 on April 23 against the Cubs at Chicago. He yielded nine hits and a walk, but the Cubs stranded nine and the Cardinals won, 1-0. Boxscore

A week later, on May 1, Breechen got his second start, against the Cubs at St. Louis, and again held them scoreless. The Cubs got six hits and a walk, stranded seven and the Cardinals won, 4-0. Boxscore

Facing the Phillies in his third start on May 8 at St. Louis, Brecheen was extra sharp. Using a mix of screwballs, curves and fastballs, he retired the first 20 batters in a row.

With two outs in the seventh, rookie Johnny Blatnik, starting in place of slumping left fielder Harry Walker, was the batter. Brecheen got ahead on the count, 0-and-2, and decided to waste a pitch.

“I threw one in there high, above his head,” Breechen told The Sporting News.

Decisive call

Blatnik, a right-handed batter, swung at the ball and hit “a high, slow bouncer” along the third-base line, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Third baseman Whitey Kurowski fielded the ball on the foul line and fired across the diamond to first baseman Nippy Jones. “I thought I made a good throw,” Kurowski said.

First-base umpire Babe Pinelli called Blatnik safe, an infield single that ended Brecheen’s bid to pitch the first perfect game in the big leagues since Charlie Robertson of the White Sox did it against the Tigers in 1922.

“I was aware Brecheen was pitching a perfect, no-hit game when that play came up, but if I had to call it again, it would be the same,” said Pinelli. “Blatnik was safe at first. There was no doubt about that in my mind when I called the play.”

Difference of opinions

Though the Cardinals didn’t challenge the call on the field, they were united in their belief Blatnik was out.

_ Harry Breechen: “I thought Blatnik was out at first, but, of course, I’m prejudiced.”

_ Whitey Kurowski: “From where I was standing, my throw appeared to have beaten Blatnik by a good margin.”

_ Nippy Jones: “I felt the ball hit my mitt while the base runner was still in the air. I was surprised when the umpire called him safe. In fact, I didn’t think the play was even close.”

_ Eddie Dyer, Cardinals manager: Jones “was positive in his statement when he told me Kurowski’s throw had the runner by a good half-step.”

_ Red Schoendienst, Cardinals second baseman: “I was satisfied the base runner was out.”

Throwing strikes

Blatnik was the only Phillies batter to reach base. Breechen retired the last seven in a row and the Cardinals won, 5-0. Boxscore

Brecheen exhibited pinpoint control. Richie Ashburn was the only Phillies batter who worked a count to 3-and-2, and he struck out.

After the game, Pinelli met Brecheen in a runway leading from the Cardinals’ dugout to the locker room and consoled the pitcher on missing out on a perfect performance, according to The Sporting News.

A week later, on May 15 at St. Louis, Brecheen made his fourth start, against the Pirates, and held them scoreless until, with two outs in the sixth, Frankie Gustine singled and scored on Johnny Hopp’s triple. Brecheen pitched a complete game and got the win in an 8-3 Cardinals victory.

Brecheen finished the 1948 season with a 20-7 record and led the National League in ERA (2.24), shutouts (seven) and strikeouts (149).

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(Updated Nov. 25, 2024)

When the Cardinals saw Dizzy Dean for the first time in the 1938 regular season, he looked a lot different to them. He was wearing the uniform of the Cubs instead of the Cardinals, he was throwing sidearm instead of overhand, and his pitches were slow instead of fast.

What remained familiar, however, was his result.

On April 24, 1938, in his first appearance at Chicago’s Wrigley Field as a member of the Cubs, Dean faced the team that traded him and pitched a shutout against the Cardinals.

Relying exclusively on off-speed pitches, or, “his dipsy-do stuff,” as the Chicago Tribune described it, because of a damaged right arm, Dean limited the Cardinals to four hits and two walks in a 5-0 Cubs victory. Dean also produced a single and scored twice.

Pitching on a Sunday afternoon before 34,520 spectators, including Cardinals owner Sam Breadon, Dean “caused clouds of gloom to gather over the Cardinals” with his performance, the St. Louis Star-Times reported.

Slow and steady

With an intimidating fastball, Dean was the ace of the Cardinals’ Gashouse Gang teams of the 1930s, leading National League pitchers in strikeouts four years in a row (1932-35) and posting win totals of 30 (1934), 28 (1935) and 24 (1936) in his peak seasons.

His career skidded off course in 1937, however, when he suffered a toe injury in the All-Star Game. Rushed back into the Cardinals’ lineup before the injury healed, Dean altered his delivery to compensate for pain in his toe and damaged his arm.

The Cardinals traded him to the Cubs on April 16, 1938, three days before the season opened. On April 20, Dean made his first regular-season appearance for the Cubs, starting against the Reds at Cincinnati, and got the win, yielding two runs over six innings in a 10-4 Chicago victory.

Before his second start, against the Cardinals, Dean and catcher Gabby Hartnett devised a plan for how to pitch to them. “Gabby knows them better than I do,” Dean told United Press. “All I had to do was put the ball where he said.”

Throwing sidearm, Dean “mixed a fast curve with a slow curve and a fadeaway knuckler curve that threw the Cardinals’ batters off stride,” home plate umpire Larry Goetz told the Star-Times.

Dean threw 92 pitches and, because “he didn’t have a fastball,” relied on “changing pace on a half-speed delivery,” The Sporting News reported.

The Cardinals “dug in at the plate and swung from their heels,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “In so doing, they helped to beat themselves.”

Said Cardinals manager Frankie Frisch: “We were too eager. We swung too hard.”

Right stuff

The Cardinals’ hits were a pair of doubles by Terry Moore and a single each by Enos Slaughter and pitcher Max Macon.

Twice, the Cardinals had two runners on the bases, but Dean escaped unscathed.

In the second inning, with Johnny Mize on third, Moore on second and two outs, Dean got Mickey Owen to fly out to left on a 3-and-2 pitch.

In the sixth, Dean retired the first two batters before Slaughter singled and Pepper Martin walked. With Mize, a power threat, at the plate, Cubs manager Charlie Grimm had Charlie Root loosen in the bullpen.

Pitching knuckle-curves away from Mize, Dean worked the count to 1-and-2. His next pitch, described by the Post-Dispatch as a “firecracker curve,” was his fastest. Mize swung at it and popped out to third.

After retiring Mize for the last out in the ninth, Dean was swarmed by teammates. “They whacked him on the back, shook his hands and jostled him into a daze,” the Tribune reported. Hartnett and shortstop Tony Lazzeri wanted to lift Dean onto their shoulders and carry him off the field, the Star-Times observed, but Dean shook them off. Boxscore

Smart guy

Dean finished his gem in one hour, 38 minutes.

“One of the smartest pitched games I have ever seen,” said Goetz. “His control was his best asset.”

When the final was posted on the scoreboard at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, where 11,041 had gathered to watch the Browns play the White Sox, the crowd roared its approval in support of Dean.

Surrounded by reporters and photographers in the Wrigley Field locker room, Dean said, “I’m sure glad to get over that one. That was the game I was really worried about.”

About 5,000 fans waited in a runway outside the clubhouse to applaud Dean. “Police had to be summoned to make a path for the great man to leave the park,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

Though Dean said his arm was fine, it wasn’t. He didn’t pitch from May 4 through July 16 because of arm soreness. When he did pitch, he was effective. Dean produced a 7-1 record and 1.81 ERA in 13 appearances for the 1938 Cubs, who won the National League pennant. He started Game 2 of the World Series against the Yankees, but was the losing pitcher.

Dean, who pitched for the Cubs from 1938-41, went on to make eight career appearances against the Cardinals, but the shutout he pitched was his only win against them. Dean’s career record versus the Cardinals: 1-4 with a 5.58 ERA.

Though Dean’s pitching skills diminished while with the Cubs, his competitiveness never waned.

In the Book “Voices From Cooperstown,” Cubs second baseman Billy Herman told of the time during spring training with the Cubs when Dean used “sleight of hand” with two coins to win several bottles of rare whiskey in a bar bet.

“He kept one bottle and gave the rest away,” Herman said. “He never even wanted them. He just wanted to win. That was Diz. Cheat you on the golf course, tee them up in the rough, he’d do anything in the world _ just to win. He’d cheat you out of 50 cents in a card game and then take you out and spend $100 on you. Didn’t care about money _ he just wanted to win.”

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