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In a pivotal Easter weekend showdown with the Mets, the Cardinals proved to the reigning World Series champions they wouldn’t be intimidated, even when their best pitcher got a bad break.

Looking to re-establish themselves as contenders, the Cardinals swept a three-game series from the Mets in April 1987.

The glory of that achievement was marred, however, when Cardinals ace John Tudor broke a bone below his right knee in a freak dugout collision with Mets catcher Barry Lyons on Easter Sunday.

“We got a sweep, but the broom broke,” Cardinals trainer Gene Gieselmann said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

With Tudor projected to be sidelined for three months, it appeared the Cardinals’ chances of dethroning the Mets had been damaged.

Instead, the Cardinals pulled together and, with Tudor’s help down the stretch, won their third National League pennant in six years.

Message delivered

In 1986, the Mets had a 108-54 record, finishing 28.5 games ahead of the Cardinals in the NL East, and went on to win the pennant and World Series championship. The Mets won eight of nine games in St. Louis against the Cardinals that season.

The April 17-19 series was the Mets’ first visit to St. Louis in 1987 and the Cardinals wanted to send an early message they wouldn’t be pushovers.

Tudor started the series opener on April 17 and got the win in a 4-3 Cardinals victory. In the fifth inning, with the Mets ahead, 3-2, Tudor started the comeback with a single off Bob Ojeda. Tommy Herr put the Cardinals in front, 4-3, with a two-run single. Ricky Horton pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Tudor for the save. Boxscore

Herr delivered another key blow in the second game of the series on April 18. After the Cardinals got a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score at 8-8, Herr hit a grand slam off Jesse Orosco with two outs in the 10th, lifting St. Louis to a 12-8 triumph. Boxscore and video

Fateful foul

The Easter Sunday pitching matchup on April 19 in the series finale was Greg Mathews for the Cardinals against Sid Fernandez.

In the third, with the Cardinals ahead, 1-0, St. Louis slugger Jack Clark lofted a pop fly that carried toward the home team dugout.

Lyons, making his first start of the season in place of Gary Carter, who was getting a day off, gave chase, barreling full steam in pursuit of the ball.

Looking skyward, Lyons kept running hard as he neared the Cardinals’ dugout.

“I thought I had a play on it, but the ball was right in the sun and I couldn’t judge where I was,” Lyons told the Post-Dispatch.

Reckless chase

Tudor and teammates were standing on the first step of the dugout. As his teammates scattered, Tudor reached out to try to prevent Lyons from tumbling down the steps and onto the dugout floor.

“I tried to catch him,” Tudor said. “I don’t know what the hell he was thinking about. He never even broke stride. If I wasn’t there, I don’t know what would have happened to him.

“I got up on the first step, expecting him to slide. Most catchers come in and slide and you can stop them … He never stopped. When I tried to sidestep him, he took me that way. He kind of pinned me. He caught my foot _ and hip _ against the bench. The bottom of my foot was against the bench.”

The collision snapped Tudor’s right tibia bone. Lyons was unhurt. Video

The ball, uncatchable, landed several rows into the stands.

Said Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog: “Nobody thought Barry was coming in. There wasn’t any play. The Easter Bunny couldn’t have caught that ball _ and he can jump.”

Costly win

Tudor was taken to a hospital and his right leg was placed in a cast.

The Cardinals went on to win the game, 4-2, completing the sweep. Boxscore

“You look at the three games they won and I think the deciding factor in all of them was defense,” said Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson. “… They’re probably the best defensive ballclub in baseball. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

A force that would be without Tudor until August.

“Now we’ll see how good I can manage,” Herzog said.

Happy ending

When Tudor returned to the lineup Aug. 1 for a start against the Pirates, the resilient Cardinals were in first place in the NL East at 62-39, four games in front of the Expos and 6.5 ahead of the Mets.

Tudor won eight of nine decisions after he returned, finishing with a 10-2 record for the season.

The last of those wins came on Oct. 2 when Tudor faced Lyons for the first time since Easter. Lyons singled twice in two at-bats against Tudor _ “He hit two changeups that I hung. Bad pitches,” Tudor said _ but the Cardinals won, 3-2. Boxscore

St. Louis finished the regular season atop the NL East at 95-67, three ahead of the runner-up Mets, and clinched the pennant by winning four of seven in the NL Championship Series against the Giants.

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Over a two-year period, when he lost far more than he won, Astros pitcher Bob Bruce prevailed in a series of duels with Cardinals ace Bob Gibson.

Bruce was 9-18 in 1965 and 3-13 in 1966 for a combined record of 12-31. Gibson was 20-12 in 1965 and 21-12 in 1966 for a combined record of 41-24. Yet, in the four starts pairing Bruce against Gibson in those two seasons, Bruce was 3-1 with a 1.69 ERA.

In nine years (1959-67) in the majors, primarily with losing Houston clubs, Bruce was 49-71 with a 3.85 ERA. Against the Cardinals, the right-hander was 4-8 with a 2.45 ERA in 20 appearances, including 14 starts.

In a relief appearance versus the Cardinals on April 19, 1964, at Houston, Bruce became the 12th major-league pitcher to strike out three batters on nine pitches, according to the Houston Chronicle. Bruce achieved the feat in the eighth inning, striking out Bill White, Charlie James and Ken Boyer on an assortment of off-speed pitches. In the ninth, after yielding a single to Johnny Lewis, Bruce struck out the side. Boxscore

Tim McCarver, Cardinals catcher, said Bruce was a right-handed version of St. Louis left-hander Curt Simmons.

“Bruce is rough on left-handed batters with his slow stuff,” McCarver said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He has a good motion like Simmons. He keeps the ball down. He keeps you honest with fastballs on the hands.”

Another Cardinal, Phil Gagliano, said, “Bruce never gives you anything good to hit.”

Though he started multiple games against Cardinals pitchers such as Ernie Broglio, Ray Sadecki and Ray Washburn, the St. Louis opponent Bruce faced the most was Gibson.

Hot stuff

Pitching for the Houston Colt .45s in their first season in the National League, Bruce was paired against Gibson for the first time on July 22, 1962. The Cardinals won, 3-1, on a sweltering Sunday afternoon at Colt Stadium.

With the temperature in the upper 90s, Bruce pitched seven innings, giving up all three runs in the second. Gibson contributed a two-out, RBI-single.

Relying primarily on fastballs and working on three days of rest, Gibson pitched 8.2 innings for the win.

Lindy McDaniel earned the save by getting Billy Goodman to ground out with runners on second and third, two outs, in the ninth.

“I wanted a breaking ball on Goodman and Gibson didn’t have enough left,” Cardinals manager Johnny Keane told the Post-Dispatch when asked why he lifted Gibson. Boxscore

Bruce and Gibson would not be paired against one another as starters for three years. Then Bruce began his stretch of winning three of four against Gibson.

Here’s a look at those games:

Surprise slugger

Bruce held the Cardinals to two runs in eight innings and got the win in a 5-2 Astros victory at St. Louis on June 4, 1965.

Gibson was burned by home runs from a pair of players who were physical opposites. In the sixth, Walt Bond, a 6-foot-7 outfielder, hit a two-run home run into the teeth of a wind blowing in from right field. With two outs in the ninth, Ron Brand, a 5-foot-7 catcher, hit a three-run home run, snapping a 2-2 tie. It was the second of three home runs Brand would hit in an eight-year career in the majors.

Brand had hit Gibson’s first pitch of the at-bat deep but foul. The home run came with the count 1-and-2. “That first pitch was surprise enough,” Brand said. “I hardly ever hit a ball that hard. I never hit two like that in one inning.”

The Cardinals had eight singles off Bruce until McCarver led off the bottom of the ninth with a double. Jim Owens relieved and retired the next three batters, preserving the win for Bruce. Boxscore

Home sweet dome

Bruce pitched a six-hit shutout in a 2-0 victory over the Cardinals at the Astrodome on July 21, 1965. All the St. Louis hits were singles.

Gibson yielded four hits in seven innings, though he injured the little finger on his right hand reaching for a hard grounder by Joe Morgan in the fifth.

With the finger swollen and painful _ the injury later was diagnosed as a torn capsule joint _ Gibson remained in the scoreless game.

Bob Lillis, a former Cardinals infielder, broke the tie that inning with a two-run double, a pop fly to right-center that barely eluded center fielder Curt Flood. “I was a step behind the ball and I might as well have been a day late,” Flood said.

Bruce, described by the Post-Dispatch as “no Humpty Dumpty,” preserved the win by getting McCarver to fly out with two on and two outs in the ninth. Boxscore

Solid Goldfinger

Though his injured finger remained swollen, Gibson limited the Astros to four singles in a 3-1 victory at St. Louis on Aug. 5, 1965.

Gibson, who greeted well-wishers by extending his left hand, said, “The finger doesn’t bother me so much when I throw a fastball, but it really smarts when I throw curves. I bunch the fingers to throw curves and the little finger presses against the next finger on curves.”

McCarver drove in two of the three runs off Bruce without a hit. McCarver hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth and his hard groundout to first in the sixth scored Flood from third.

“I’d like to be able to pitch like Gibson _ even with a sore finger,” Bruce said. Boxscore

Eyeing a win

In his final matchup against Gibson, Bruce held the Cardinals to two hits in eight innings in a 6-1 victory at St. Louis on July 8, 1966. Gibson was lifted after surrendering four runs and eight hits in 4.1 innings.

Bruce entered the game with a record of 1-6 and a 5.98 ERA. An infection in his right eye that threatened his sight had kept him from pitching from April 20 until June 5. After beating Gibson and the Cardinals, Bruce told the Post-Dispatch he still didn’t have satisfactory vision in the eye. Boxscore

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Bill Hands, whose effective starting pitching helped transform the Cubs from losers to contenders under manager Leo Durocher, was a familiar opponent of the Cardinals in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His best performance against the Cardinals came on a day when the behavior of the Wrigley Field Bleacher Bums got out of hand.

Hands pitched 11 seasons (1965-75) in the major leagues and had a career record of 111-110 with a 3.35 ERA.

A right-hander, Hands was best in a three-year stretch for the Cubs when he was 16-10 in 1968, 20-14 in 1969 and 18-15 in 1970.

Against the Cardinals, Hands was 14-12 with a 2.58 ERA in his career. He had more wins (14), innings pitched (205.2) and appearances (38) against the Cardinals than he did versus any other opponent.

After posting losing records in 13 of 14 seasons from 1953-66, the Cubs had 87 wins in 1967 and 84 in 1968. By 1969, they were a threat to the reign of the Cardinals, who had won consecutive National League pennants in 1967 and 1968.

Fired up

On June 28, 1969, the Cubs were in first place in the East Division at 46-26 entering a Saturday game with the Cardinals at Chicago. St. Louis was 35-37, 11 games behind the Cubs. Looking to put a dagger into the Cardinals’ title hopes, the Cubs started Hands against Dave Giusti.

The left field stands at Wrigley Field filled quickly with Cubs fans. Known as Bleacher Bums, the group was whipped into a frenzy by the early-season success of their hometown team and by the sight of the archrival Cardinals.

As Cardinals players appeared in the outfield to shag flies and play catch before the game, “bleacher fans showered the Redbirds players with flashlight batteries, quarters, paper cups, dry ice and other debris in pregame practice,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Cage match

Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood told the Chicago Tribune, “They were throwing steel ball bearings at me. If I turn and catch one in the eye, it’s bye-bye career. I can start carrying a lunch pail to work.”

Cardinals pitcher Mudcat Grant said he was hit in the mouth by a hard rubber ball thrown from the left-field bleachers. Someone also flung a hard hat at him. Teammate Bob Gibson picked up the hard hat and “played the conductor’s role in leading the Bleacher Bums as they jeered the Cardinals with chants,” the Post-Dispatch reported.

According to the Tribune, bleacher fans claimed Grant retaliated by hitting three of them with baseballs he threw into the stands.

“I just lobbed the ball,” Grant said to the Post-Dispatch. “They weren’t lobbing those nails and flashlight batteries and that helmet at me.”

Grant said he “scared” the fans by throwing two baseballs hard against the ivy-covered wall.

“You ought to put a cage over them,” Grant said.

The Bleacher Bums also taunted left fielder Lou Brock, a former Cub, with calls of “bush leaguer.”

“The thing that really bothers me about it is that they are showing you people (reporters) up,” Brock said. “You have glorified them and they show their gratitude by behaving like that. It’s not right.”

Bearing down

Once the game began, Hands became the story. He held the Cardinals to one hit _ a Tim McCarver single _ through five innings.

In the sixth, with the Cubs ahead, 1-0, Flood led off with a single to left. Brock stretched his hitting streak to 13 games with a double into the left-field corner, scoring Flood.

“Both the pitches they hit in that inning were mistakes,” Hands said. “Brock hit a fastball down the middle and Flood got a hanging slider.”

Reminding himself to bear down, Hands struck out Vada Pinson and Joe Torre _ “I got Pinson on a fastball on the corner and Torre missed a slider,” Hands said _ before McCarver flied out.

The Cubs went ahead, 2-1, when Willie Smith hit a home run off Giusti in the bottom half of the inning and they added a run in the seventh.

Hands retired the Cardinals in order in the last three innings, sealing the 3-1 win and finishing with a three-hitter. Boxscore

Koufax impressed

It was the third consecutive complete game pitched by Hands.

“I knew Hands was a good pitcher, but I didn’t know he was that good,” said Sandy Koufax, the retired Dodgers ace who was broadcasting the game for NBC. “He really showed me something today.”

Said Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst: “He threw a good slider about 85 percent of the time to our right-handed batters. He had marvelous control of it _ low and away.”

The loss dropped the Cardinals 12 games behind the Cubs. “They’re far enough behind us that they’ve got to win almost every one of the (13) games left between us,” said Cubs shortstop Don Kessinger.

Though the Cardinals didn’t catch them, the Cubs couldn’t hold onto the division lead. The Mets would finish in first place at 100-62. The Cubs (92-70) placed second and the Cardinals (87-75) were fourth.

Previously: How Mike Shannon put brakes on Cubs title hopes

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