May 9, 1975: Pirates’ Dave Parker drives in six runs against Dodgers in breakout season

In 1975 Dave Parker became the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting right fielder and began a half-decade reign as baseball’s best outfielder. His loudest declaration of onrushing superstardom came on May 9 against the defending National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers, when he bashed out run-producing extra-base hits in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings and drove in six runs to rally the Pirates to an 11-3 win over their playoff tormentors of 1974.

Parker reached the majors in July 1973, just over six months after Roberto Clemente’s death left Pittsburgh without its right-field icon.1 But another young outfielder, Richie Zisk, soon seized right field and held it for the next season and a half.2 Fighting for at-bats behind Zisk, left fielder Willie Stargell, center fielder Al Oliver, and first baseman Bob Robertson, the lefty-swinging Parker was almost exclusively a platoon player in 1973 and 1974.3

Still, he hit .313 and slugged .482 in September and October of those seasons, as the Pirates were eliminated from the National League East Division race on the final day of regular-season play in 1973 and won it at the wire in 1974. “No one denies that a wondrous future awaits him, but everyone wonders when it’s going to come,” the Pittsburgh Press remarked about the 23-year-old Parker in February 1975.4

Things began to accelerate later in spring training. Manager Danny Murtaugh announced that Stargell was moving to first and Zisk to left, opening up right field for Parker.5 Taking extra motivation from four early-season benchings against lefties, Parker started to break out.6 He hit .435 in a seven-game stretch in late April and early May while producing what the Pittsburgh Press described as “overpowering shots.”7

Next up for the Pirates was a weekend series with the Dodgers at Three Rivers Stadium. It was their first meeting since Los Angeles ended Pittsburgh’s 1974 season with an NLCS Game Four blowout at Dodger Stadium.

The ’75 Dodgers had won 19 of their last 26 and led the NL West Division by three games over the Cincinnati Reds, overcoming a rash of ailments to set the division’s pace. Four members of their Opening Day lineup – catcher Steve Yeager, shortstop Bill Russell, left fielder Bill Buckner, and center fielder Jim Wynn – had already missed games because of injuries.8

But their most damaging long-term injury had happened back in July 1974, when starting pitcher Tommy John tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. John had undergone reconstructive surgery with Dr. Frank Jobe and was expected to miss the entire season.9

Without John, Los Angeles foraged for a fourth starter alongside Don Sutton, Andy Messersmith, and Doug Rau. Longtime rival Juan Marichal started twice, posted a 13.50 ERA, and retired from baseball at age 37.10 Rookie Rick Rhoden’s four-start audition resulted in a 5.23 ERA,11 and the Dodgers turned to the trade market.

On May 2 they dealt two pitchers to the Chicago Cubs for 25-year-old right-hander Burt Hooton, who had pitched a no-hitter and recorded a 2.80 ERA as a rookie in 1972 but had been inconsistent ever since.12 Hooton’s woes continued in his Dodgers debut – he allowed five runs in 2 2/3 innings of relief against the San Diego Padres on May 4, inflating his ERA to 9.88 – but he started the series opener in Pittsburgh.13

In Hooton’s first four innings, as threatening clouds hung over the crowd of 16,378,14 no Pirate made it past first base. Parker followed Zisk’s one-out second-inning single with a grounder to third baseman Ron Cey. Expecting Parker to pull, the Dodgers were shading second baseman Lee Lacy well to the left of second; Russell took Cey’s throw at the bag, then fired to first to complete the 5-6-3 double play.15

Center fielder Dave Lopes sprinted to catch Rennie Stennett’s fly ball near the wall, keeping the Pirates’ leadoff hitter off the bases in the fourth.16 Later in the inning, Richie Hebner reached first on Cey’s error, but Hooton stranded him there.

“I could see his confidence mounting each inning,” catcher Joe Ferguson observed.17

The Dodgers managed only three baserunners through four innings against Dock Ellis, aided by shortstop Frank Taveras’s strong defense.18 Wynn’s walk and Steve Garvey’s single put two runners on with one out in the fourth, but Ellis retired Willie Crawford and Cey to keep the game scoreless.

With one out in the fifth, Russell – in his first game since breaking his left hand on April 12 – was safe when Taveras mishandled his grounder for an error. Russell took second on Hooton’s sacrifice and scored on Lopes’ single.

The Dodgers committed an error of their own in the bottom of the fifth, and the Pirates capitalized. Hebner led off with a single and took second on Manny Sanguillén’s one-out single. Ed Kirkpatrick hit for the .120-batting Taveras and flied out. The inning’s end seemed imminent with Ellis’s grounder to third, but Cey misplayed it for another error, loading the bases. Stennett’s single to center scored Zisk with Pittsburgh’s first run; Lopes threw out Sanguillén at the plate to keep the game deadlocked.

The tie did not hold for long. Garvey, the reigning NL MVP and the majors’ current hit-leader,19 opened the sixth with a single and scored on Crawford’s triple into the right-field corner.20 Ferguson’s one-out RBI single made it a 3-1 Dodgers lead.

Hooton had thrown just 51 pitches in five innings.21 He seemed headed for another efficient frame after striking out Stargell on a fastball in the sixth,22 leaving Pittsburgh with Oliver on first and two outs. But Zisk walked, and Parker – until then, 0-for-2 on the night – doubled to left. Oliver scored and Zisk stopped at third.

The Dodgers intentionally walked Sanguillén, and Murtaugh shuffled his shortstops again, calling back Taveras’s replacement Mario Mendoza – hitless in 10 at-bats in 1975 – for Paul Popovich. Popovich, himself 0-for-6 entering the game, watched a third strike to strand all three runners.

Hooton’s six innings matched his longest outing of the season, and manager Walter Alston sent up pinch-hitter Henry Cruz to lead off the seventh.23 Cruz walked but was left on second.

Fireman Mike Marshall came in to protect the one-run lead. In 1974 Marshall’s 106 appearances – all in relief – had set a major-league record, and he won the NL Cy Young Award. He had an 0.95 ERA so far in 1975.

But he was also another member of the Dodgers’ injured list. Marshall had torn a muscle in his side on April 19 and aggravated the injury in his only appearance since then, six days before taking the mound in Pittsburgh.24

Robertson, batting for Ellis, led off with a bloop single. Murtaugh sent in pitcher Larry Demery to pinch-run, and Demery moved up on Stennett’s sacrifice.

When Hebner singled to center, Demery came home with a headfirst slide. Umpire Paul Runge ruled Demery safe under Ferguson’s tag, and it was a 3-3 game.25

Oliver followed with a double over a shallowed-up Lopes’ head in center, scoring Hebner with the go-ahead run.26 Pittsburgh’s eruption paused when Crawford grabbed Stargell’s screaming liner,27 but Zisk walked. Parker came through with a two-run triple to left, and the Pirates had a 6-3 lead.

Marshall asked to remain in the game after his seventh-inning struggles, and Alston agreed to send him out for the eighth.28 Stennett drew a one-out walk.

“That trick pitch of his, the screwball, he wasn’t getting it over,” Stennett said afterward.29

One out later, Oliver hit another double over Lopes in center, and Stennett scored. Stargell walked, and Zisk lined a single off Garvey’s glove, bringing in Oliver.30

Parker took a ball, then drove the next pitch into the seats beyond the right-field wall.31 He had his third homer of the season, his third extra-base hit in three innings,32 and a six-RBI game.33

Dave Giusti’s two scoreless innings secured Ellis’s second win of the season. Pittsburgh had turned a save situation into an 11-3 rout by battering Marshall for nine runs in two innings – the most runs he allowed in a game in 14 big-league seasons.34

The biggest hitter in the Pirates’ late-game siege was ascending to a higher plane. Parker started nearly every game for the rest of the season, leading the NL with a .541 slugging percentage and finishing third in the MVP voting. Pittsburgh won its second consecutive division title and fifth in six years.35

“The fans had been looking for a hero to lead them from right field since Roberto died,” Stargell commented in his autobiography. “They found the perfect leader in Dave.”36

From 1975 through 1979, Parker hit .321 with a .532 slugging percentage. He won the 1978 NL MVP Award, two batting titles, and three Gold Gloves. In 1979 he was MVP of the All-Star Game and integral to the Pirates’ World Series championship. Only Mike Schmidt, George Brett, and Rod Carew topped his five-season total of 31.1 Wins Above Replacement.37 Parker’s rampage through the late 1970s was the foundation of his 2025 selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks SABR members Gary Belleville and Kurt Blumenau for their comments on an earlier version of this article.

Photo credit: Dave Parker, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197505090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B05090PIT1975.htm

Notes

1 “Pirates Lose Clines, Tap Parker to Fill Hole,” Pittsburgh Press, July 11, 1973: 66.

2 Bob Smizik, “Richie Zisk Ready to Pick Up Where He Left Off,” Pittsburgh Press, March 8, 1974: 30; Bob Smizik, “Zisk Faces Loss of Status,” Pittsburgh Press, March 18, 1975: 24.

3 Of Parker’s 377 plate appearances in 1973 and 1974, only 52 were against left-handers.

4 Bob Smizik, “Parker Ponders Future, Goes on the Defensive,” Pittsburgh Press, February 28, 1975: 29.

5 Charley Feeney, “Starg on 1st, Zisk in Left, Parker Right,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 28, 1975: 10.

6 Parker started the Pirates’ first four games of 1975 against left-handed pitchers: April 11 (Jerry Koosman of the New York Mets), April 16 (Woodie Fryman of the Montreal Expos), April 17 (Dave McNally of the Expos), and April 22 (McNally). He went 2-for-14 against the lefty starters in those games. The next four times that Pittsburgh faced left-handers – April 23 (Fryman), April 25 (Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies), April 27 (Tom Underwood of the Phillies), and May 3 (Underwood), newly acquired Bill Robinson started in right field and Parker was on the bench. Dave Parker and Dave Jordan, Cobra: A Life of Baseball and Brotherhood (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska, 2021), 164-165.

7 Bob Smizik, “Bucs’ Sick Hitters Eye Sagging Seaver for Cure,” Pittsburgh Press, May 6, 1975: 7.

8 Russell broke his left hand making a tag against the Houston Astros on April 12, the Dodgers’ fifth game of the season. He missed 24 games. Jeff Prugh, “Russell Breaks Hand; Marichal Stumbles, 7-5,” Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1975: III,1. Yeager injured his knee in a home-plate collision on April 13; he missed seven games. Jeff Prugh, “Dome Takes Its Toll; Yeager Hurts Knee: Dodgers Win, 7-4, as Catcher Joins Russell on Sideline,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1975: III,1. Buckner sprained his ankle while sliding into second base against the San Francisco Giants on April 18, causing him to miss 24 games. Jeff Prugh, “A Painful Loss for Dodgers, 3-1: Buckner and Paciorek Hurt as Montefusco Baffles L.A.,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1975: III,1. Wynn injured his right forearm while making a throw on April 21 against the Atlanta Braves; he missed five games and later spent time in left field to accommodate his arm injury. Jeff Prugh, “Wynn Hurt; Dodgers Defeat Atlanta, 2-1: Cey Homers, Cruz Hits Key Double for Messersmith,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1975: III,1; Associated Press, “Dodgers Admit Win Was Lucky – But They’ll Take It,” Bakersfield Californian, April 29, 1975: 17.

9 Dan Berger (Associated Press), “John Optimism Not Shared by Pitching Coach,” Los Angeles Times, April 17, 1975: III,4. John spent the 1975 season rehabilitating. He returned to the mound for the Dodgers in April 1976 and pitched in the major leagues until the 1989 season, retiring at age 46. Dr. Jobe’s pioneering procedure, which involved harvesting a tendon from John’s right wrist and using it to replace the ruptured ulnar collateral ligament in John’s left elbow, became commonly known as Tommy John surgery.

10 Paul Hagen, “Decision to Quit Was Easy to Make,” San Bernardino (California) Sun-Telegraph, April 18, 1975: D-2. Marichal, who won 243 career games, all but five of them with the Giants, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.

11 “Rick Rhoden: He’s Traveled a Long Way,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1975: III,1; Jeff Prugh, “It’s a Lucky Seventh – For San Diego: Padres’ 7-Run Splurge Beats Hooton as Dodger Attendance Tops 500,000,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1975: III,1.

12 Bob Verdi, “Hooton Gets His Way – Traded to Dodgers for 2 Hurlers,” Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1975: Sports, 1; Paul Hagen “Padres Win, 3-1, in 15,” San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, May 4, 1975: E-1. The Cubs received 29-year-old left-hander Geoff Zahn and 24-year-old Eddie Solomon.

13 Prugh, “It’s a Lucky Seventh – For San Diego.”

14 Bob Cox, “Hooten [sic] Gains Confidence But Marshall Roughed Up,” San Pedro (California) News-Pilot, May 10, 1975: B2.

15 Cox, “Hooten [sic] Gains Confidence But Marshall Roughed Up.”

16 Jeff Prugh, “Bucs Bomb Marshall to Beat Dodgers, 11-3: Star Reliever Gives up 9 Runs, Says He Feels Pain After Two-Inning Stint; Parker Has 6 RBI,” Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1975: III,1.

17 Bob Hunter, “Dodgers Find 4th Starter,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, May 10. 1975: B-1.

18 Charley Feeney, “Pirates’ Rally Buries Dodgers,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 10, 1975: 6.

19 “League Leaders,” Pittsburgh Press, May 10, 1975: 7.

20 Bob Cox, “Hooton Looks Good, but Marshall Doesn’t: Pirates Explode for 11-3 Win,” Torrance (California) Daily Breeze, May 10, 1975: B8.

21 Hunter, “Dodgers Find 4th Starter.”

22 Hunter, “Dodgers Find 4th Starter.”

23 “We have a fourth starter,” Alston said after the game. Hooton had an 18-7 record and a 2.82 ERA for the Dodgers in 1975. He pitched for Los Angeles for 10 seasons, winning 112 regular-season games, making the NL All-Star team in 1981, and finishing second to Gaylord Perry in the 1978 NL Cy Young Award voting. He also won six postseason games for the Dodgers, including the clinching Game Six of the 1981 World Series.

24 Pat Frizzell, “Giants Lose, Can’t Fault Pete,” Oakland Tribune, April 20, 1975: 25; Gordon Verrell, “Iron Mike’s Arm a Bit Rusty,” Long Beach (California) Independent Press-Telegraph, May 10, 1975: B-1.

25 Bill Christine, “Bucs Continue to Feast on Dodger Relief Ace,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 10, 1975: 6.

26 Feeney, “Pirates’ Rally Buries Dodgers.” Oliver, whose .321 batting average in 1974 was second in the NL to the Braves’ Ralph Garr, entered the game with a .202 season average and had been out of the starting lineup in Pittsburgh’s two previous games. Charley Feeney, “Next 80 At-Bats Critical for Oliver,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 5, 1975: 20; Charley Feeney, “Reuss Gets Strong Support in Pirates’ Win,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 8, 1975: 20.

27 Bob Smizik, “Pirates Scrap Marshall Plan Again, 11-3: Dodger Ace Buried,” Pittsburgh Press, May 10, 1975: 6.

28 Cox, “Hooten [sic] Gains Confidence But Marshall Roughed Up.”

29 Smizik, “Pirates Scrap Marshall Plan Again, 11-3.”

30 Feeney, “Pirates’ Rally Buries Dodgers”; Prugh, “Bucs Bomb Marshall to Beat Dodgers, 11-3.”

31 Prugh, “Bucs Bomb Marshall to Beat Dodgers, 11-3.”

32 Parker had only one other game in his career when he doubled, tripled, and homered: on September 11, 1977, against the Montreal Expos at Three Rivers Stadium.

33 Parker’s career high for RBIs in a game was eight, in September 1987 as a member of the Reds against the Braves. He also drove in six runs in two more games – both six days apart in July 1987 with Cincinnati.

34 Three days later, on May 12, the Dodgers put Marshall on the 21-day disabled list. “Marshall Put on Disabled List,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 1975: III,1. He did not return until June 6. Marshall appeared in 58 games in 1975 and had a 9-14 record and a 3.29 ERA.

35 The Dodgers had an 88-74 record and finished second, 20 games behind the eventual World Series champion Reds.

36 Willie Stargell and Tom Bird, Willie Stargell: An Autobiography (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 167.

37 According to Baseball-Reference.com, Schmidt had 38.7 WAR from 1975 through 1979, Brett 35.0, and Carew 31.9.