October 1, 1974: Expos’ Mike Jorgensen dashes Cardinals’ pennant hopes with dramatic homer

Montreal Expos fans were stunned by the news.1 On April 5, 1972, the Expos traded the face of the franchise, 28-year-old superstar Rusty Staub, to the New York Mets for three promising young players: 24-year-old outfielder Ken Singleton, 23-year-old first baseman Mike Jorgensen, and 21-year-old shortstop Tim Foli.

Although the ever-popular Staub helped the Mets reach the World Series in 1973, the Expos came out ahead in the deal.2 Singleton, Jorgensen, and Foli immediately moved into starting roles with the Expos, and in 1973 they helped the fledgling expansion team hang around the wild, five-team National League East pennant race until its final regular-season game.3

That season the slick-fielding Jorgensen won a Gold Glove Award, drew walks at a healthy pace, and (briefly) set a team record with 16 stolen bases.4 But he hit only .231 in his first two seasons in Montreal, so an impatient Gene Mauch relegated him to a bench role for the start of the 1974 season—with the understanding that the first-base job would be his once he started hitting for a higher average.5  

After seeing little action (3-for-18) in April and May, Jorgensen finally got his first start of the season on June 1. He hit a blistering .341 in 138 at-bats—mainly as an outfielder—from June 1 to August 6, and on August 7 he was reinstalled as the starting first baseman.

As the 1974 season wound down, the Expos still had a shot at reaching the .500 mark for the first time in the franchise’s six-season history. All they needed to do was sweep the tough St. Louis Cardinals in a three-game, season-ending series at Jarry Park.6 But it was not meant to be, as rookie hurler Bob Forsch nearly no-hit the Expos in the series opener, with Jorgensen breaking up the no-hit bid with a two-out double in the seventh inning. Forsch settled for a three-hit, complete-game victory and the Expos dropped to 78-82, keeping them in a third-place tie with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Cardinals had a loftier goal for their final visit to Montreal: winning the National League East. St. Louis sought its first postseason appearance since it won three pennants and two World Series between 1964 and 1968. Forsch’s clutch performance in the series opener raised the Cardinals’ record to 86-74 and kept them in a tie for first place with the Pittsburgh Pirates with two games to play.

Future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson got the start for St. Louis in the second game of the series. The 38-year-old righty came into the contest with an 11-12 record and a 3.84 ERA. After struggling for much of the season, Gibson rebounded down the stretch, posting a 2.51 ERA in games after August 16. It was the final dominant period of his illustrious career.7

The Expos countered with Mike Torrez, a 28-year-old right-hander who was also on a hot streak. Torrez had gone 6-0 in his previous seven starts to raise his record to 15-8 and whittle his ERA down to 3.61.8

Torrez and Gibson toiled under less-than-ideal conditions, with the game-time temperature dipping to 41 degrees Fahrenheit. The contest remained scoreless through the first three innings.

Right fielder Reggie Smith got the Cardinals on the scoreboard with a home run leading off the fourth; it was his 23rd round-tripper of the season.9

Gibson limited the Expos to two singles and three walks in the first five innings before running into difficulty in the sixth. Bob Bailey doubled to open the inning, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on Willie Davis’s groundout to second baseman Ted Sizemore. Jorgensen and Singleton followed with singles, but Gibson, who less than three months earlier had become the first National League hurler to record 3,000 career strikeouts, struck out Barry Foote to end the inning and keep the score tied, 1-1.

Torrez issued a leadoff walk to Joe Torre in the seventh. After Torre was forced at second on Bake McBride’s grounder, the rookie center fielder stole second and third, giving him 30 steals for the season.10 McBride scored when light-hitting shortstop Mike Tyson drove a two-out single into left field, and the Cardinals grabbed the lead, 2-1.

In the bottom of the eighth, Davis started a two-out rally with a single up the middle, bringing the left-handed-swinging Jorgensen to the plate.11 St. Louis manager Red Schoendienst considered sending in dominant southpaw Al Hrabosky to face Jorgensen before deciding against it.12

Jorgensen intentionally took a strike on a 1-and-1 pitch, allowing Montreal’s veteran center fielder to steal second.13

On a 3-and-2 count, Jorgensen slammed Gibson’s chest-high fastball to right field. His towering line drive against the brisk wind just cleared the fence, giving the Expos a 3-2 lead.14 The stunning homer earned Jorgensen handshakes from his teammates and a kiss on the cheek from hitting coach Duke Snider.15

Montreal reliever Dale Murray returned to the mound for his second inning of work with an opportunity to earn his first major-league win. The 24-year-old hurler was one of several young Expos to see action in September, as Gary Carter, Larry Parrish, Warren Cromartie, and Jerry White had all made their major-league debuts that month.16 A red-hot Murray posted 10 saves and a 0.25 ERA in September, and he came into the game having tossed 25⅓ consecutive innings without giving up an earned run.17

After giving up a one-out single to pinch-hitter José Cruz, Murray induced another pinch-hitter, Jim Dwyer, to hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.

“I don’t know really what to say,” muttered a deflated Schoendienst after the game. “I’ll say one thing, Jorgensen hit that thing well.”18

“This was the biggest hit of my life,” said Jorgensen. “We have pride. We want to finish third.”19

Jorgensen’s homer was eerily similar to his first plate appearance in an Expos uniform. On Opening Day in 1972, he hit a two-run homer off Gibson on a 3-and-2 fastball, and Montreal won that game by an identical 3-2 score.20

Shortly after retiring to the visitors’ clubhouse, the Cardinals learned that Pittsburgh had staged a late rally to beat the Chicago Cubs and pull a game ahead of St. Louis.21 For the second time in less than an hour, a first baseman (Jorgensen and Pittsburgh’s Bob Robertson) had victimized the Cardinals with a game-winning, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning.22 With only one game remaining, St. Louis was no longer master of its own destiny.

The news kept getting worse for the Cardinals. The next night their game with the Expos was rained out, and St. Louis could only sit in the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal listening to updates on the Pittsburgh-Chicago game relayed by telephone.23

For the third consecutive game the Pirates eked out a come-from-behind victory, this one aided by a dropped third strike with two outs in the bottom of the ninth by Cubs catcher Steve Swisher.24 The win clinched the Pirates’ fourth division title in five years, while the heartbroken Cardinals finished 1½ games out of first place for the second year in a row.25

Jorgensen ended the campaign with a .310 batting average, 11 homers, and 59 RBIs in only 287 at-bats. If he had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, his .444 on-base percentage would have been tops in the majors.26 Boosted by his outstanding defense, Jorgensen led the Expos with a career-high 4.2 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (bWAR) despite his limited playing time.

“Jorgy” had another good season in 1975, setting career highs in homers (18), RBIs (67), runs scored (58), walks (79), and plate appearances (535).

After Jorgensen had a disappointing season in 1976, the Expos acquired 34-year-old Tony Pérez in an offseason trade with the Cincinnati Reds, suddenly rendering the 28-year-old first baseman redundant in Montreal.27 He asked for a trade so that he could play regularly, and the Expos honored his request, dealing him to the Oakland Athletics in return for reliever Stan Bahnsen in May 1977.28

Jorgensen played in the big leagues—largely in a bench role—until the end of the 1985 season. He spent his final year and a half with St. Louis, and in 1986 he began a four-year stint managing in the Cardinals’ minor-league system. He remained in their organization until 2018, holding a variety of positions, including minor-league hitting instructor (1990-91), scout, director of player development (1992-2001), and special assistant to the general manager (2001-18).29

Jorgensen also stepped in as Cardinals manager when Torre was fired in June 1995, although he returned to his job as director of player development once the season ended.30 (Tony La Russa was hired as manager in late October.)

Shortly after taking over as the St. Louis manager, Jorgensen was asked about his home run that may have cost the Cardinals the pennant 21 years earlier. “People bring that up to me a lot around here,” he admitted. “They might forgive me, hopefully, if I do all right managing. But I know they won’t forget.”31

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mark Richard and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to using the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Jorgensen Keys Expos Past Cardinals” on page 27 of the October 2, 1974, edition of the Columbia (South Carolina) State.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MON/MON197410010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1974/B10010MON1974.htm

Photo credit

Photo of Mike Jorgensen downloaded from the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Ian MacDonald, “Expos Deal Staub for Youth; Mauch: ‘Those Kids Can Play,’” Montreal Gazette, April 7, 1972: 17.

2 Staub played for 14 more seasons and registered only 13.7 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (bWAR). He had averaged 6.1 bWAR in his three seasons in Montreal. Ken Singleton (39.3 bWAR), Mike Jorgensen (9.6 bWAR), and Tim Foli (5.3 bWAR) combined to post 54.2 bWAR from 1972 until the end of their careers. Unfortunately for the Expos, they traded Singleton to the Baltimore Orioles after the 1974 season in a disastrous move. Montreal dealt Singleton and Mike Torrez to Baltimore for Dave McNally, Rich Coggins, and minor leaguer Bill Kirpatrick. McNally retired after appearing in only 12 games with the Expos, Kirpatrick never made it to the big leagues, and Coggins was worth -1.2 bWAR in his two remaining seasons in the majors. Mark Armour, “Dave McNally,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Dave-McNally/, accessed January 2, 2023.

3 Rory Costello, “September 17, 1973: Montreal Expos ‘Stumble onto a Pennant Race,’” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-17-1973-montreal-expos-stumble-onto-a-pennant-race/, accessed January 2, 2023.

4 Jorgensen walked 64 times in 486 plate appearances in 1973. Larry Lintz broke Jorgensen’s record by stealing 50 bases in 1974. As of the start of the 2023 season, the franchise record for stolen bases in a single season was 97 by Ron LeFlore in 1980.

5 Ian MacDonald, “Jorgensen in Fight for Left Field, Must Bat Way Back to First Base,” Montreal Gazette, March 19, 1974: 34.

6 The Expos had swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series at Jarry Park on September 13-15, knocking them out of first place and allowing the Cardinals to move into the top spot.

7 Gibson went 3-10 with a 5.04 ERA in 1975, retiring just before the end of the season. Terry Sloope, “Bob Gibson,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bob-Gibson/, accessed January 2, 2023.

8 This was Torrez’s final start with the Montreal Expos. He was traded to the Baltimore Orioles along with Singleton in December 1974.

9 The solo homer was Smith’s 100th RBI of the season, a career high.

10 McBride easily won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1974, finishing ahead of Houston’s Greg Gross and Chicago’s Bill Madlock.

11 Neal Russo, “Magic Number Turns to Tragic,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 2, 1974: 1-E.

12 The United Press International game story quoted Schoendienst as saying, “I was considering using reliever Al Hrabosky but Gibson was doing such an excellent job that I didn’t want to take him out.” Hrabosky had gone 6-0 with 6 saves and a 1.51 ERA since July 14. Fred McMane (United Press International), “Expos Dim Cardinals’ Hopes,” Ottawa Journal, October 2, 1974: 22.

13 It was Davis’s 25th stolen base of the season. Ian MacDonald, “Jorgensen’s ‘Biggest Hit Ever’ Dims Cards Hopes,” Montreal Gazette, October 2, 1974: 29.

14 Russo, “Magic Number Turns to Tragic”; Associated Press, “Cards Hope Against Hope in Pennant Chase,” Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock), October 2, 1974: 1-B.

15 Snider played briefly for the Montreal Royals as a 17-year-old in 1944. After a slow start to the 1948 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Snider was sent down to Montreal in May. He hit .327 with 17 homers and 77 RBIs in 77 games with Montreal and was recalled by Brooklyn in August. The future Hall of Famer never played another game in the minors. Snider served as the Expos’ batting coach in 1974 and 1975 and he provided color commentary on the Expos’ radio and television broadcasts from 1973 until 1986. MacDonald, “Jorgensen’s ‘Biggest Hit Ever’ Dims Cards Hopes”; Richard Griffin, “Griffin: A Friend’s Fond Farewell to Duke Snider,” Toronto Star, February 27, 2011, https://www.thestar.com/sports/blue_jays_baseball_blog/2011/02/griffin-a-friends-fond-farewell-to-duke-snider-.html, accessed January 3, 2023.

16 Murray made his big-league debut on July 7, 1974.

17 Murray tossed two shutout innings in this game. He also recorded four innings of relief without allowing an earned run against the Cardinals in his first two appearances in 1975, running his streak to 31⅓ innings.

18 Associated Press, “Cards Hope Against Hope in Pennant Chase.”

19 The Phillies won the next day, while the Expos and Cardinals were rained out. Montreal finished in fourth place, a half-game behind Philadelphia. MacDonald, “Jorgensen’s ‘Biggest Hit Ever’ Dims Cards Hopes.”

20 MacDonald, “Jorgensen’s ‘Biggest Hit Ever’ Dims Cards Hopes.”

21 Russo, “Magic Number Turns to Tragic.”

22 The Jorgensen home run was announced on the Pirates’ radio broadcast as the Cubs came to bat in the seventh inning. The final score in the Expos-Cardinals game was announced after Cubs second baseman Billy Grabarkewitz walked later in that inning. “1974 10 01 Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh Pirates Classic Baseball Radio,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0CiGHEzLpA, accessed January 3, 2023.

23 The rainout also cost the Expos a chance at finishing in a third-place tie with Philadelphia. The rained-out game was never played and the Expos finished a half-game behind the Phillies. Neal Russo, “Cards’ Celebration Turns into a Wake,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 3, 1974: 1.

24 St. Louis’s 20-year-old rookie Keith Hernandez, who didn’t play in the Montreal series, was incredulous after learning of Swisher’s passed ball and error in the bottom of the ninth. “How could they make a bonehead play like that?,” he said. Russo, “Cards’ Celebration Turns into a Wake.”

25 The Pirates repeated as National League East champions in 1975. Despite winning the division in five of the six seasons between 1970 and 1975, their only World Series appearance—and win—in this period came in 1971. The Pirates won another World Series in 1979.

26 Rod Carew led the majors with a .433 on-base percentage in 1974.

27 A move to the outfield wasn’t possible for Jorgensen since the Expos had three promising young outfielders: 22-year-old Andre Dawson, 22-year-old Ellis Valentine, and 23-year-old Warren Cromartie. Bob Dunn, “Jorgensen Logical Back-Up for Tony,” Montreal Star, December 18, 1976: G-3.

28 Ian MacDonald, “Carter, Hannahs Fume as Expos Wheel and Deal,” Montreal Gazette, May 24, 1977, 13.

29 “2018 Official Media Guide, St. Louis Cardinals,” https://www.sportsarchive.net/documents/788, accessed January 3, 2023.

30 Jorgensen’s pitching coach on the 1995 Cardinals was none other than Bob Gibson. Rick Hummel, “La Russa Agrees to Two-Year Deal as Cards Manager,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 24, 1995: 1.

31 Mike Eisenbath, “Driver’s Seat,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 18, 1995: 1F.