August 23, 2009: John Smoltz earns 213th and final career win in debut with Cardinals

“Pretty humbled right now, the ways things have gone. Time might not be on my side.”1 These were the words of 42-year-old John Smoltz on August 6, 2009, after what turned out to be the final start of his seven-week stint with the Boston Red Sox. He had given up eight earned runs to the New York Yankees in 3⅓ innings. A day later, the Red Sox designated Smoltz for assignment.

Smoltz, the winner of 210 games with the Atlanta Braves from 1988 through 2008, had entered the 2009 season on a mission. He wanted to prove he could still contribute to a major-league team. Not only was Smoltz fighting Father Time, but significant labrum surgery to his right shoulder in June 2008 had ended his season after only six appearances. Just a year earlier, in 2007, he had made the National League All-Star team for the eighth time in his career and came in sixth in the NL Cy Young Award voting.

Despite his wanting to finish his career with the Braves, Smoltz was open to signing with another team, since 2008 was the last year of his Atlanta contract.2 In January 2009 Smoltz agreed to a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Red Sox.3 Rehabilitation from shoulder surgery delayed his season debut until June 25, and Smoltz posted a record of 2-5 in eight starts for Boston, with an 8.33 ERA.4 After designating him for assignment, the Red Sox – whose five-game lead in the American League East had turned into a 7½-game deficit to the Yankees during Smoltz’s time in their rotation – released Smoltz on August 17.

Once again Smoltz was looking for another team to pitch for. The St. Louis Cardinals were surging in the NL Central Division, winning 18 of 24 games from July 27 through August 22 to transform a half-game deficit into an eight-game advantage over the second-place Chicago Cubs. Still, manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan wanted to add a dependable starter to a rotation that included Adam Wainwright, Joel Piñiero, Chris Carpenter, and Kyle Lohse.5

After Smoltz cleared waivers, two Cardinals who had started their careers in the Braves’ organization, Adam Wainwright and Mark DeRosa, advocated for the team to sign Smoltz for the rest of the season.6 Smoltz signed with the Cardinals on August 19, with hopes to start a few games for the team, then later become a relief pitcher to set up closer Ryan Franklin.7 Four days later, Smoltz started on the road against the San Diego Padres, who were last in the NL West.

While Smoltz looked for his 213th career win, his Padres counterpart, 25-year-old University of Miami product Cesar Carrillo, was making his third major-league start and coming off his first career win, in which he pitched six innings and allowed three earned runs to the Cubs on August 18.8 It was a marked improvement from his major-league debut four days earlier, when Carrillo allowed the Milwaukee Brewers eight runs on four hits (including three home runs), two walks, and two hit-by-pitches in 2⅓ innings.9

Carrillo’s start on this day was more reminiscent of his debut than his win over the Cubs. The Cardinals began the first inning by loading the bases with none out on two singles and a walk. Carrillo regained control by getting Matt Holliday to foul out to first, Ryan Ludwick to pop up to deep short, and Rick Ankiel to ground out to second.

In the Padres’ first, Smoltz – wearing number 30, with his trademark number 29 taken by Carpenter – allowed a leadoff single to Everth Cabrera. Tony Gwynn Jr. reached on a fielder’s choice with an error charged to Brendan Ryan. With two on and no out, Adrián González, who had 33 home runs so far in 2009, grounded into a double play. Smoltz struck out Chase Headley for the third out.

Carrillo had worked out of a jam in the first but was not so lucky in the second inning. Yadier Molina walked with one out. Smoltz hit into a force out but Skip Schumaker singled to center, pushing Smoltz to second and bringing up Brendan Ryan. Ryan singled up the middle to score Smoltz with the first run of the game. It was the first time Smoltz had crossed home plate since September 7, 2007.

Carrillo’s first pitch to reigning National League MVP Albert Pujols was wild, and Schumaker and Ryan advanced. With first base open, Padres manager Bud Black opted for an intentional walk to Pujols, which loaded the bases for Holliday.

Holliday worked the count full and drew a bases-loaded walk on the seventh pitch to make it 2-0 Cardinals. Ludwick continued the damage with a line-drive single to right field, scoring Ryan and Pujols, and St. Louis led 4-0 after two innings.

It was vintage Smoltz the next two innings. The strikeout of Headley to end the first was the first of seven consecutive Padres strikeouts. With a commanding fastball, Smoltz utilized his split-finger fastball and his slider to keep the Padres off-balance.

In the top of the fourth, Pujols capitalized on a 1-and-1 pitch from reliever Edward Mujica and hammered his 40th home run over the right-field wall to make it 5-0. Pujols went on to hit seven more homers in the regular season; he repeated as the National League MVP.10

The Padres threatened to score when Will Venable hit a leadoff double in the fifth inning and went to third on Luis Rodríguez’s one-out groundout. Kyle Blanks pinch-hit for Mujica, but Smoltz struck him out on a 2-and-2 slider off the plate to end the threat.

The strikeout of Blanks, Smoltz’s ninth of the game, finished the pitcher’s day with five shutout innings on 75 pitches. When the Padres batted in the sixth, La Russa summoned Blake Hawksworth from the bullpen. Hawksworth gave up a single to Cabrera and walked Gwynn Jr. on six pitches. With two on and no out, Gonzalez singled to right field to score Cabrera for the first Padres run of the game.

Hawksworth rebounded to get the next two outs before La Russa called for left-handed pitcher Dennys Reyes to face the left-handed-hitting Venable. Venable grounded out to first unassisted, but according to Pujols, swung an elbow at him as he ran to the bag. Pujols confronted the Padre runner, who exclaimed, “What?” Both benches and bullpens emptied, but no fights took place and order was restored.11

The Cardinals almost got that run back in the seventh after loading the bases with one out. La Russa sent up Joe Thurston to pinch-hit against Greg Burke, but Black went to his bullpen and brought in left-handed pitcher Joe Thatcher. La Russa countered by pinch-hitting right-handed hitter Julio Lugo for Thurston. On an 0-and-1 count, Lugo hit a groundball to deep short, but Cabrera fielded it cleanly to start a 6-4-3 double play.

Jason Motte took over for the Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh and gave up a home run to Nick Hundley on his first pitch to make the score 5-2. After Motte got the next two hitters out, La Russa went to his bullpen again, bringing in lefty Trever Miller to face Cabrera. Miller retired Cabrera on a fly ball to deep right-center field.

Franklin, who entered with 31 saves, came in to close out the game in the ninth. The Padres didn’t go quietly. Kevin Kouzmanoff led off with a six-pitch walk. On a 1-and-1 pitch, Venable doubled to center, bringing the tying run to the plate in Hundley. Hundley, who had homered in his previous at-bat, grounded out to third for the first out, but Luis Rodríguez walked on five pitches to load the bases.

With the potential tying run at first and the winning run coming to the plate, Black brought up another pinch-hitter, Oscar Salazar. After Franklin and Salazar dueled to a 3-and-2 count, on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Salazar swung and missed for the second out. The Padres, hoping for their ninth walk-off win of the season, put their hopes on Cabrera, but Franklin struck him out swinging, and the Cardinals won, 5-2.

Both Cardinals and Padres raved about Smoltz’s dominating performance.12 Black said the difference between Smoltz and Carrillo was the commanding fastball and how Smoltz utilized his split-finger fastball and slider off it.13

Smoltz was determined to show teams that at 42 years old, he could still pitch. He made six more starts with the Cardinals, compiling a 1-3 record and 4.26 ERA. St. Louis won the NL Central Division title but lost the NL Division Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in three games. Smoltz’s final major-league appearance was two innings of relief in Game Three. After the season, he was not offered a contract with the Cardinals and went into television broadcasting.14 Smoltz was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.

Acknowledgements

This article was fact-checked by Jim Sweetman and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for pertinent information including box scores, play-by-play, and other statistical data. He also consulted player biographies in the SABR BioProject and a recording of Smoltz’s nine strikeouts, posted on YouTube by the MLB account.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN200908230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2009/B08230SDN2009.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWOsIgHXVs0

Notes

1 Derrick Goold, “Who’s Down: Fading Stars,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 9, 2009: C7.

2 David O’Brien, “Smoltz: I’m Here Till Told I’m Not,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, September 10, 2008: D1.

3 Michael Silverman, “Smoltz Adds to Depth – Veteran to Start Late,” Boston Herald, January 14, 2009: 60.

4 Sean McAdam, “Red Sox Beat – Smoltz Set Free – Sox Halt Comeback, but Return Still Possible,” Boston Herald, August 8, 2009: 37.

5 Todd Wellemeyer, an effective starter for the Cardinals in 2008 with a 13-9 record and 3.71 ERA, had started 20 games in ’09 before being removed from the rotation in late July with a 5.79 ERA; he went on the disabled list in August with an elbow injury. With Wellemeyer out of the rotation, St. Louis had gone with a four-man rotation when offdays allowed its starters an additional day of rest and called up 25-year-old Mitchell Boggs from Triple A for spot starts. Joe Strauss, “Boggs Set to Take Spin in Rotation – Memphis Starter Will Take Wellemeyer’s Spot as Birds Tinker with No. 5 Slot,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 31, 2009: C1.

6 Joe Strauss, “Cards Are Set to Add Smoltz – Notebook: He’ll Be Fifth Starter Unless Another Team Claims Him,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 19, 2009: C5.

7 Strauss.

8 Associated Press, “Blanks Hits Inside the Park Homer in Padres’ Win,” San Diego Union-Tribune, August 18, 2009, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-blanks-hits-inside-park-homer-padres-win-2009aug18-story.html.

9 Bill Center, “Brewers Demosh Carillo in Debut – He Gives Up 3 HRs – Gonzalez Hits 30th,” San Diego Union-Tribune, August 14, 2009: C-1.

10 Ronald Blum (Associated Press), “Albert Pujols Wins 2nd Straight MVP Award,” Toronto Star, November 24, 2009, https://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/2009/11/24/albert_pujols_wins_2nd_straight_mvp_award.html.

11 Joe Strauss, “Tempers Flare in Finale,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 24, 2009: B5.

12 Joe Strauss, “Cards’ Smoltz Opens to Glowing Reviews,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 29, 2009: B1.

13 After the game Carrillo was sent down to Triple-A Portland. He never pitched in the major leagues again. Bill Center, “Vet Smoltz Gives Command Performance Against Rook – Card K’s 9 in Debut – Carrillo Demoted,” San Diego Union-Tribune, August 24, 2009: D-1.

14 Carroll Rogers, “Smoltz ‘Close’ to Retirement – Righty Says He’s Not 100 Percent Decided on Calling It Quits,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 25, 2010: C4.