August 7, 1971: Matty Alou’s heads-up baserunning wins game for Cardinals

Matty Alou was the middle of three Dominican-born brothers who came up with the San Francisco Giants in the early 1960s. He joined older brother Felipe on the Giants roster in 1960, and three years later, their younger brother Jesús arrived. On September 10, 1963, the three brothers made history when, for the first time, a trio of siblings played together in a National or American League game.

Unlike his taller, stronger brothers, Matty Alou was slightly built at 5-feet-9 and 160 pounds. Felipe and Jesús both tallied more career home runs than stolen bases, but due to his physique and left-handed swing, Matty’s style of play incorporated speed more than power. And Matty’s career was beginning when the game was experiencing a revival of the stolen base as an offensive weapon.1

Matty spent six seasons in San Francisco before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in December 1965. Under the tutelage of Pirates manager Harry Walker, Alou’s game flourished.2 He won the National League batting title in 1966 with a .342 average and led the league with 231 hits in 1969.

In Pittsburgh Alou also had the benefit of playing alongside Maury Wills, one of the most prolific basestealers of the 1960s. Wills, who played in five All-Star Games during his eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers before joining Pittsburgh, led the NL in stolen bases from 1960 through 1965, including a then twentieth-century record of 104 in 1962.3

After six stellar seasons and two All-Star Game appearances with Pittsburgh, Alou was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1971 season and joined forces with another stolen-base legend, Lou Brock. Brock had supplanted Wills as the NL stolen-base king in 1966. He surrendered the title in 1970 to Bobby Tolan of the Cincinnati Reds, but was back on top the following four seasons, surpassing Wills’ season record with 118 steals in 1974.

On August 7, 1971, the Los Angeles Dodgers came to St. Louis for a three-game series against Alou’s Cardinals. Both teams were second in their respective divisions, 5½ games behind the leaders. With Wills fronting their lineup, Los Angeles captured the NL pennant in 1965 and 1966; with Brock sparking their offense, St. Louis had done the same in 1967 and 1968.

St. Louis hurler Steve Carlton was seeking his 16th win of the season on the warm Saturday evening. The 26-year-old southpaw, in his seventh year with the Cardinals, had already garnered 72 major-league wins. He dispatched the Dodgers in order in the top of the first.

Julián Javier stroked a one-out single to right off Dodgers southpaw Claude Osteen in the bottom of the first. Alou, sporting a .324 batting average, flied out to right fielder Willie Crawford. League-leading hitter Joe Torre followed with a single to left.4 Both runners were stranded when Ted Simmons grounded out to second.

Over the next four innings neither team could muster any offense. Carlton surrendered only two hits through the first five frames, a double by rookie catcher Joe Ferguson in the third and a single by Manny Mota in the fourth. The only baserunner Osteen allowed after the first was a one-out walk by Brock in the third.

Finally, in the sixth, the Dodgers broke through. Osteen opened the frame with a single up the middle. One out later, Mota stroked a single to left, moving Osteen to second. Willie Davis followed with a single that plated Osteen and advanced Mota to third.

Mota scored the second run on a wild pitch by Carlton. Davis moved to second on the miscue, then stole third, but Dick Allen and Jim Lefebvre struck out, stranding Davis.

In the bottom of the sixth, Alou legged out an infield single to short, but Torre grounded out to end the frame.

Los Angeles went in order in the top of the seventh, then in the bottom half of the inning St. Louis scored two runs to draw even. Simmons – two days from his 22nd birthday – started the rally with a double to left and scored on Jim Beauchamp’s triple. Rookie José Cruz grounded out to first, but pinch-hitter Jerry McNertney plated Beauchamp with a sacrifice fly to left.

After Carlton walked and Brock beat out an infield single, Dodgers manager Walter Alston removed Osteen and summoned reliever Jim Brewer. Javier hit a grounder to third baseman Steve Garvey, who threw to second for the force out, ending the frame with the score tied, 2-2.

Carlton blanked the Dodgers over the next two innings. In the eighth, Wills, who had returned to Los Angeles after two years in Pittsburgh and a short stint in Montreal with the Expos, stroked a one-out single but was stranded. In the ninth, Carlton issued a leadoff walk to Allen. Lefebvre punched a liner down the first-base line; Beauchamp snared the ball and touched the bag before Allen retreated, completing the double play.5

Brewer returned for the Dodgers in the eighth. Alou walked but was erased on a double-play grounder. St. Louis mounted a threat in the ninth off Brewer but failed to score. Cruz worked a one-out walk and stole second as Ted Kubiak struck out. Pinch-hitter Ted Sizemore, batting for Carlton, beat out an infield single, moving Cruz to third. With runners at the corners, Brock bounced a grounder to deep short. Wills picked it cleanly, pivoted, and threw to second, barely forcing Sizemore.6

The game moved to extra innings. New Cardinals pitcher Frank Linzy held the Dodgers scoreless in the top of the 10th.

Pete Mikkelsen, who replaced Brewer, struck out Javier leading off the bottom of the 10th. Alou, who had already reached twice on an infield single and a walk, beat out a perfectly placed drag bunt. Mikkelsen, Wills, and Lefebvre huddled behind the mound to discuss strategy. Suddenly, Alou took off for second. “I looked at the umpires and saw nobody called time,” Alou said later.7

A surprised Mikkelsen hurried a throw toward second. Lefebvre broke for the bag, but Mikkelsen’s throw was high and bounded into short center field. Alou never stopped running. “When I saw the ball go by Lefebvre, I knew I could get to third,” he said.8 When Lefebvre fumbled the pickup, Alou rounded third and easily beat the hurried throw home.

Alou was given credit for a stolen base and both Mikkelsen and Lefebvre were charged with errors. Alou’s aggressive sprint around the bases forced the Dodgers mistakes and won the game for St. Louis, 3-2. After the game a frustrated Alston said, “No, I’ve never seen a guy score from first on something like that. I hope I don’t see it again.”9

The loss kept Los Angeles from gaining ground on the first-place San Francisco Giants in the NL West Division. When the regular season concluded, San Francisco was on top, one game in front of the second-place Dodgers.

Matty Alou played 2½ more seasons in the majors, briefly joining his brother Felipe in New York with the Yankees before finishing his playing career in Japan. He concluded a distinguished 15-year major-league career with 156 stolen bases and a .307 batting average.

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Matty Alou, Trading Card Database.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN197108070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1971/B08070SLN1971.htm

Notes

1 John McMurray, “Examining Stolen Base Trends by Decade from the Deadball Era through the 1970’s,” Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2015), https://sabr.org/journal/article/examining-stolen-base-trends-by-decade-from-the-deadball-era-through-the-1970s/.

2 Mark Armour, “Matty Alou,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/matty-alou/, accessed October 2025.

3 As of 2026, Rickey Henderson held the post-1900 record for stolen bases in a season, 130, which he achieved in 1982 while playing for the Oakland Athletics.

4 Torre entered the game sporting a .362 average, finished the season with a league-leading .363 average, and won the MVP Award.

5 Ron Rapoport, “Dodgers Doze and Give Cards 3-2 Win in 10th,” Los Angeles Times, September 8, 1971: D1.

6 Rapoport.

7 Neal Russo, “Alou’s Mad Dash Befuddles LA in 10th,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 8, 1971: 1B.

8 Russo.

9 Gordon Verrell, “Dodgers Snooze, Cards Win in 10,” Long Beach (California) Independent, September 8, 1971: S-1.