June 4, 1982: Cardinals’ Bob Forsch wins 100th career game

St. Louis Cardinals fans saw one of their favorite sons reach a milestone on June 4, 1982.

Right-handed pitcher Bob Forsch, in his ninth season in St. Louis, won the 100th game of his major-league career as the high-flying Cardinals defeated the defending World Series champion – but now flailing – Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2, at Busch Stadium.

When the Dodgers arrived in St. Louis, the Cardinals roosted atop the National League East Division at 32-19, 4½ games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. They had won two out of three against both the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants on their nine-game homestand versus West Coast clubs. Los Angeles, meanwhile, had dropped two of three at both Chicago and Pittsburgh and was in third place in the NL West at 25-26, five games behind the division-leading Atlanta Braves.

Through three innings, Forsch, who entered with a 6-1 record and a 4.04 ERA, allowed only a walk to Dusty Baker with two outs in the first. In the fourth, Steve Garvey singled to left field leading off and scored on a double to left by Baker. Pedro Guerrero followed with a single to right to plate Baker and give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

“I’ve been facing Bob since high school, and you have to get him in the early innings,” said Baker, recalling encounters going back to their teenage years in Sacramento, California. “If he can get by the third, then he’s sharp and he gets a little sharper.”1

Los Angeles starter Dave Stewart, making his fourth start after 12 relief appearances and entering with a 1-2 record and a 5.06 ERA, retired the first 11 St. Louis batters. The Cardinals got their first baserunner in the fourth when Lonnie Smith singled with two outs. They abruptly tied the game one inning later. Keith Hernandez tripled to left leading off – the ball got by a charging Baker and rolled on the AstroTurf to the wall – and George Hendrick followed with his 10th home run of the season, described by Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times as “a low line drive that threatened to take out of a row of seats in the left field stands.”2

The Cardinals were not a power-hitting team in 1982, finishing last in the major leagues with 67 home runs.

“That was quite a shot,” Forsch said of Hendrick’s first homer since May 16 (a span of 11 games) and the Cardinals’ first since May 26 (seven games). “I hope nobody was sitting in the seat and got hurt.”3

St. Louis took a 4-2 advantage in the sixth. Ozzie Smith stroked a leadoff triple to left-center and scored on a one-out sacrifice fly to left by Lonnie Smith. Hernandez then singled, stole second, and came home on a single by Hendrick that knocked out Stewart. With two hits apiece, Hendrick and Hernandez combined for half of the Cardinals’ output.

Forsch helped himself with an insurance run in the seventh that was the essence of the 1982 Cardinals, who overcame their lack of power by stealing bases (they led the NL and were second in the majors with 200 thefts), taking the extra base, and executing fundamentals. After not-so-fleet-of-foot backup catcher Glenn Brummer doubled with one out against Dodgers reliever Terry Forster and stole third,4 Forsch successfully laid down a suicide squeeze bunt.

Meanwhile, Forsch was cruising on the mound. The only baserunner he allowed after the fourth inning was Garvey, who doubled with one out in the sixth. Forsch set down the final 11 Dodgers and 17 of the last 18, getting Guerrero to pop to second for the final out.

“I was keeping the curveball down most of the time,” Forsch said. “I got some breaking pitches up that [fourth] inning, and then I made some adjustments, like throwing some fastballs.”5

Before a Friday-night crowd of 25,415, Forsch authored his second complete game of the season6 while improving his record to 7-1. He moved into a tie for the NL lead in wins with Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos, Don Sutton of the Houston Astros, and Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers. Forsch allowed just four hits and one walk with four strikeouts while facing 31 batters in the 2-hour, 3-minute affair.

“I’m not records-conscious,” said the 32-year-old Forsch, whose career won-lost mark stood at 100-74. “The important thing to me is that I won all 100 games with the same club. The Cardinals have been good to me. … It’s nice but it’s just a number. I felt comfortable before the game. I hadn’t pitched in seven days. I felt strong.”7

The loss was the Dodgers’ third in a row, but Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said, “I wouldn’t mind having won a world championship and being where [the Dodgers] are right now. They’re in good shape. They’ve got veteran players who’ve been through it and they’re going to get nothing but better. If I had to pick a team to win the West, they’d be it.”8

The Cardinals, whose lead in the NL East increased to 5½ games, went on to win the division title with a 92-70 mark, three games ahead of the second-place Phillies. St. Louis returned to the postseason for the first time since capturing the 1968 NL pennant.

Although the Dodgers spent most of the season in third place in the NL West, they moved into first on August 10. By September 22, Los Angeles led Atlanta by three games with 10 to play – making Herzog appear prophetic – but an eight-game losing streak left manager Tom Lasorda’s team two out with four remaining. The Dodgers never caught up with the Braves after that, ultimately losing out on an opportunity to force a tiebreaking playoff by dropping the season finale to the Giants, 5-3.

Atlanta advanced to face St. Louis in the NLCS. Forsch pitched a three-hit shutout in Game One, spearheading the Cardinals’ three-game sweep. St. Louis went on to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in an exciting seven-game World Series.9

Forsch enjoyed one of his finest seasons as a big leaguer in 1982, finishing with a 15-9 record and a 3.48 ERA. He ranked tied for 10th in the NL in wins with teammate Joaquín Andújar and Don Robinson of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Forsch, who debuted with the Cardinals in 1974, pitched for them until he was traded to Houston on August 31, 1988,10 compiling a 163-127 record and a 3.67 ERA. Through the 2022 season, he ranked fourth on the franchise career wins list, trailing only Hall of Famers Bob Gibson (251) and Jesse Haines (210) and Adam Wainwright (195). Forsch also ranked second in starts (401), third in quality starts (229) and innings pitched (2,658⅔), fifth in games (455) and strikeouts (1,079), and ninth in shutouts (19). He authored two no-hitters – April 16, 1978, against Philadelphia and September 26, 1983, against Montreal. Forsch retired after the 1989 season with 168 wins.11

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to Kurt Blumenau and John Fredland for their assistance.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and the box scores noted here.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198206040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1982/B06040SLN1982.htm

Notes

1 Neal Russo, “Dodgers Are Victim No. 100 for Forsch,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1982: 5A.

2 Mark Heisler, “Dodgers Lose, Leave It Up to Fernando Again,” Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1982: Part III, 1.

3 Russo, “Dodgers Are Victim No. 100 for Forsch.”

4 The stolen base was the first of Brummer’s major-league career. On August 22, 1982, he stole home in the bottom of the 12th inning to give the Cardinals a 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants. Brummer finished his five-year career with four steals.

5 Russo, “Dodgers Are Victim No. 100 for Forsch.”

6 On May 18, 1982, Forsch beat the San Diego Padres, 5-0, for his first complete-game victory since August 28, 1980, and his first shutout since July 27, 1979.

7 Russo, “Dodgers Are Victim No. 100 for Forsch.”

8 “Dodgers Lose, Leave It Up to Fernando Again.”

9 Forsch was 0-2 in the World Series.

10 The Cardinals acquired Denny Walling in the deal.

11 Coincidentally, Stewart, who was 25 years old during the 1982 season, also finished his career with 168 wins. He completed his second full season in the majors in 1982 with a 9-8 record and a 3.81 ERA. The Dodgers traded him to the Texas Rangers on August 19, 1983, and he subsequently went 7-20 in 1984 and 1985 before being dealt to Philadelphia. After being released by the Phillies in 1986, he signed with the Oakland A’s, and his career blossomed. Stewart was a 20-game winner four straight seasons (1987-90), finishing in the top four in American League Cy Young Award voting each year.