September 2, 1968: Bob Gibson tosses 10-inning shutout for 20th win, lowers ERA to 0.99

The high-powered Cincinnati Reds “collided head-on with [an] immovable object,” declared sportswriter Bill Ford in the Cincinnati Enquirer. That object was St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson, who “reduced the most vaunted offense in baseball to a fistful of beebees,” tossing a four-hit, 10-inning shutout.1

“His fastballs to me never were the same,” complained a frustrated Pete Rose, the majors’ leading hitter. “One sailed, another was straight and another moved away. Gibson never gets tired.”2

“They’re a cocky bunch, these Cardinals,” playfully opined Reds beat reporter Earl Lawson with a sense of awe.3 Skipper Red Schoendienst’s reigning World Series champion Redbirds had ridden roughshod over the NL, moving out to a 15-game lead on August 1. After a rough spell, winning just 7 of 17 games, the Cardinals arrived in the Queen City for a three-game set having won four of their last five games as part of an eight-game road swing. They owned the best record in baseball (87-51) and a seemingly insurmountable 13-game lead over the San Francisco Giants. Third-base coach Joe Schultz, who had been on the Cardinals’ staff since 1963, got some exciting news the day of the game when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he would become the manager of the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1969.4

Pilot Dave Bristol’s third-place Reds (71-63) were no slouches. The majors’ highest-scoring team (4.23 runs per game) in ’68 was gradually morphing into what became the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. Johnny Bench, just 20 years old, emerged as a star; Tony Pérez was in his second season as a starter; and six-year veteran Rose, known as Charlie Hustle, was en route to leading the NL in batting average (.335) and on-base-percentage (.391) and tying Felipe Alou of the Atlanta Braves for first in hits (210). Riding a four-game losing streak to end a road trip, the Reds were looking forward to kicking off an 11-game homestand.

On the rubber for Cincinnati was 20-year-old right-hander Gary Nolan, one of the brightest pitching stars in baseball. In 1967, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Californian had one of the best seasons ever for a teenage moundsman, going 14-8 with 206 punchouts. He had the fourth-best ERA (2.58) in the NL, while leading the league with 8.18 strikeouts per nine innings.

Nolan’s 1968 season had been more difficult. He had missed the first seven weeks with shoulder pain, then injured his Achilles tendon on August 23, when he awkwardly landed on first base on a fielding play.5 Still, Nolan had a 7-2 record and a stellar 2.26 ERA going into his start against the Cardinals.

Taking the mound for St. Louis was “greatest money pitcher in the game,” gushed scribe Bill Ford.6 The 32-year-old Gibson entered the ’68 season as a two-time 20-game winner with 125 wins in his nine-year career and a reputation as one of the fiercest and most intimidating pitchers in baseball. As good as his regular-season statistics were, Gibson was even better in the postseason. He was the World Series MVP in the Cardinals’ 1964 and 1967 championships, having thrown five straight complete-game victories.

Gibby was in the home stretch of what became a mythical season in baseball lore. After losing four consecutive starts for the first time since 1965 to drop his record to 3-5 at the end of May, he went on a tear. He won 15 straight decisions in 16 starts, during which he hurled 10 shutouts, amassed a streak of 48⅔ scoreless innings, and posted a 0.68 ERA.

That winning streak came to an end on August 24 against the Pirates when Gibson fanned a then career-best 15,7 but two Cardinals errors led to three costly unearned runs in a 6-4 loss. Gibson avenged that loss on three days’ rest, blanking those same Bucs, 8-0, with 14 punchouts in his last start.

He entered the September 2 game with the majors’ best ERA (1.03) and ranked second in the NL in wins (19), innings (252⅔), and strikeouts (215). Reds coach Hal Smith, who had caught Gibson in the pitcher’s first three seasons, credited Gibson’s “better control” for his record-breaking campaign in 1968. “Gibson can start that slider of his toward a hitter and break it over the inside corner. Or he can start it toward the plate and break it over the outside corner.”8

On a mild Labor Day Monday night with temperature in the low 70s, a modest crowed of 11,846 came out for the nationally televised game at Crosley Field, the Reds’ cozy ballpark, which opened in 1912.9

With his trademark snarl, Gibson was almost invincible through the first nine innings. He yielded just two hits. Leo Cardenas’s bloop single in the third, which ended when Rose grounded into a double play. The next inning Pérez laced a two-out single, followed by Bench’s walk. The other two baserunners were walks to Vada Pinson in the first and Nolan in the eighth. The Reds’ hardest-hit ball, according to sportswriter Ritter Collett, was an out when Lou Brock smoothly caught Lee May’s screeching line drive to left field in the seventh.10

“As effortlessly as Gibson seemed to unwrap his magic,” opined Bill Ford, “he was met pitch-for-pitch by Gary Nolan.”11 The Cardinals collected one hit in each of the first five innings but threatened only twice. In the third, Brock singled with one out and stole second, but was gunned down by Bench in an attempt to swipe third. Nolan subsequently issued his only walks of the game, to Curt Flood and Roger Maris, both of whom were left stranded. In the fifth, Flood tripled to center with two outs. Nolan fanned Maris to end the inning and begin a streak of 13 consecutive retired batters.

Nolan reaggravated the injury to his Achilles tendon in the eighth. “Brock hit the ball foul down the first base line,” he explained. “I ran over to cover first and stopped quickly. That’s when I aggravated it.”12 Jumping off the mound to field Flood’s grounder minutes later further strained the injury.

After Nolan fanned Mike Shannon for his eighth punchout to end the ninth, he had his ankle taped. He returned to the mound in the 10th. “I couldn’t put any pressure on it,” he admitted.13 Bristol reluctantly yanked his ace before he threw a pitch. “[W]hen you’re pitching with an injury,” said the skipper, “you can tear up your arm too.”14

Rubber-armed Ted Abernathy, en route to leading the NL in appearances for the third time in four seasons, relieved Nolan. On his second pitch, Julián Javier sent a high curve over the screen in left field for his third home run of the season and the game’s first run. Javier referred to Abernathy as “Abernasty … because he doesn’t give you many good pitches to hit.”15

Two batters later, the Cardinals got a shock when Gibson swung at a pitch and missed, and  grimaced in pain. He later explained that he had pulled a side muscle several starts earlier.16

Despite the pain, Gibson was back on the mound in the bottom of the 10th. Pitching into extra innings was nothing new to Gibson: He was doing it for the fifth time in 29 starts in ’68. He retired Bench, then recorded his eighth and final strikeout, punching out May. Tommy Helms and pinch-hitter Mack Jones followed with singles. Bristol called on Fred Whitfield, a dangerous left-handed slugger who had cracked 20-plus home runs three times with Cleveland, to pinch-hit for Abernathy. Whitfield fouled off a fastball, then “I jammed him good,” said Gibson gleefully.17 Whitfield flied out, ending the game in 2 hours and 26 minutes.

With his lively fastball, Gibson needed just 115 pitches to complete his masterpiece, earn his 20th victory, and lower his ERA to a remarkable 0.99.18 Said Helms in disbelief, “I’ve never seen a fastball sail the way Gibson’s does.”19

Gibson admitted that the cooler weather helped him fend off fatigue20 and added, “I really didn’t feel I had that good of stuff.”21 That comment might be shocking to most observers of Gibson’s overpowering four-hit, 10-inning shutout, but the hurler offered some insight: “I had a lot of trouble with my breaking pitches in the early going, and I had to come down with my slider and that’s the pitch that hurts my elbow.”22

Gibson joined Jesse Haines, Dizzy Dean, and Mort Cooper as the only Cardinals hurlers to win 20 or more games three times.23 His 12th shutout gave the Cardinals 27 for the season, breaking the club mark of 26 set in 1944.

Since the Cardinals had seemingly sewn up their third pennant in five seasons, sportswriters and fans turned their attention to Gibson over the final four weeks of the season. Could he set a new twentieth-century NL/AL ERA record, breaking Dutch Leonard’s mark of 0.96 in 1914? With an anticipated five more starts in the regular season, could he reach Grover Cleveland Alexander’s record of 16 shutouts in 1916? And would Gibson continue his magic in the World Series and lead the Cardinals to their third title in five seasons?

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Bob Gibson, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN196809020.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1968/B09020CIN1968.htm

Notes

1 Bill Ford, “Javier’s 10th Inning Homer Nips Reds, 1-0,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 3, 1968: 21.

2 Neal Russo, “Javier’s Blast Lets Gibby Reach No. 20,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 3, 1968: 1C.

3 Earl Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout,” Cincinnati Post, September 3, 1968: 11.

4 “Seattle Expected to Pick Schultz,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 3, 1968: 2C.

5 Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout.”

6 Ford.

7 In Game One of the 1968 World Series, on October 2, Gibson topped that mark by striking out 17 Detroit Tigers. His regular-season high was 16 strikeouts against the Philadelphia Phillies in May 1970.

8 Earl Lawson, “Card Pitching Ace Sets 3 Club Marks,” Cincinnati Post, September 3, 1968: 11.

9 “Warmer Tonight,” Cincinnati Post, September 3, 1968: 21.

10 Ritter Collett, “Gibson Shackles Reds,” Dayton (Ohio) Journal-Herald, September 3, 1968: 22.

11 Ford

12 Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout.”

13 Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout.”

14 Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout.”

15 Russo.

16 Russo.

17 Collett.

18 Si Burwick, “Si-ings, by Si Burwick,” Dayton News, September 3, 1968: 18.

19 Lawson, “Gibson Hurls 12th Shutout.”

20 Russo.

21 Collett.

22 Collett.

23 Only St. Louis’s NL history is included and not the team’s American Association history.