September 5, 1970: Pirates rookie Fred Cambria beats Phillies for only major-league win

Rookie right-hander Fred Cambria was the starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they took on the Philadelphia Phillies at Three Rivers Stadium on Saturday, September 5, 1970. A late August call-up from the Columbus Jets of the Triple-A International League, where he had been 12-7 with a 4.17 ERA, Cambria was 0-1 in two starts with Pittsburgh.

The Pirates entered the day in a virtual tie with the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League East Division, with respective records of 71-64 and 72-65. The night before, the Pirates had been leading the Phillies 4-1 after six innings when rain halted play. The grounds crew tried to cover the field with the automatic tarpaulin, but it malfunctioned, forcing the umpires to suspend play till the next day. The game would be finished before the regularly scheduled game, which would see Cambria facing off against the Phillies’ Barry Lersch (4-1, 3.23 ERA).1

The Pirates won the suspended game, 4-3, clearing the way for Cambria to try again for his first major-league victory. Cambria faced a Phillies team that occupied fifth place in the National League East with a 63-73 record. Cambria’s day began inauspiciously: He gave up an infield single to the Phillies’ leadoff batter, rookie shortstop Larry Bowa, who scored on second baseman Denny Doyle’s double. Cambria’s fortunes changed quickly, however. Doyle was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a triple, Cambria struck out left fielder John Briggs, and he got first baseman Deron Johnson to pop out, ending the inning.

The score stayed 1-0 until the bottom of the third. Leading off the inning for the Pirates, Cambria walked. Center fielder Matty Alou singled, moving Cambria to second. Third baseman Richie Hebner lined out to Johnson, who stepped on first to double up Alou, but the next batter, right fielder Al Oliver, doubled Cambria home to tie the score. Future Hall of Famer Willie Stargell followed with a single to center to bring Oliver home and give the Pirates a 2-1 lead. First baseman Bob Robinson struck out to end the inning.

The Phillies knotted the score in the top of the fourth when third baseman Don Money tripled, driving in catcher Tim McCarver, who had singled with two out. But the Pirates came right back in their half of the inning. Catcher Manny Sanguillén reached on a single and later scored on a one-out single by another future Hall of Famer, second baseman Bill Mazeroski.

Cambria held the Phillies scoreless in the top of the fifth. In their half of the inning, the Pirates erupted for four runs on three hits, including a triple by Stargell, to give them a 6-2 lead.

Cambria’s first major-league victory was now in sight, but the Phillies were hard to put away. In the sixth, Cambria gave up one run on one hit. He pitched a scoreless seventh, but he ran into trouble in the eighth. He gave up a single to pinch-hitter Willie Montañez to start the inning. Cambria retired the next batter, but then surrendered a run-scoring single to Denny Doyle. With the score now 6-4, Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh took Cambria out and brought in George Brunet, whom he used as a left-handed relief specialist, to face left-handed-batting John Briggs. Brunet gave up a double to Briggs, moving Doyle to third. Relieving Brunet, Dave Giusti got the last two outs to end the inning. He then pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the Pirates’ 6-4 victory and give Cambria the win.

Cambria’s stats for the day were 4 earned runs and 10 hits allowed in 7⅓ innings pitched. He walked none and struck out three. Giusti earned his 22nd save. Barry Lersch took the loss for the Phillies. The star at the plate for the Pirates was Willie Stargell, who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two walks. The Phillies were led by John Briggs, who was 3-for-4. Pirates legend Roberto Clemente, with an injured back, did not play.2

Cambria’s victory, combined with the Pirates’ win in the suspended game, gave Pittsburgh a 1½-game cushion over the Cubs in the National League East. The Cubs, nevertheless, remained a factor in the race, and the New York Mets, who had been in first place for a 19-game stretch in June and July, were also still in contention. But the Pirates would not be denied. They won six of their final seven games, including a three-game sweep of the Mets, to finish in first place with an 89-73 record, five games ahead of the Cubs and six ahead of the Mets. In the National League Championship Series, the Pirates were swept by the Cincinnati Reds, three games to none, marking the first of four times that the two storied franchises would face off in the NLCS during the 1970s.

The Phillies, meanwhile, went on to a 73-88 season record, putting them in fifth place in the East, 15½ games behind the Pirates. They edged the Expos by a half-game to stay out of last place.

Cambria’s win was not only his first in the majors, it was also his last. He pitched three more times with the Pirates in 1970, going 0-1 in two starts and one relief appearance. After 1970 injuries prevented him from returning to the majors. Cambria initially injured his arm in college when he overused his slider during an important game his junior season.3 In 1970 he threw nearly 200 innings between the Columbus Jets and the Pirates and then pitched in the Puerto Rican Winter League. Reflecting on his experience, Cambria said, “I hate to say it, but all that extra pitching [in Puerto Rico] might have had a bearing on my arm trouble.”4

He began the 1971 season in the minors fully expecting to be called back up to the Pirates, but his arm was never the same after he pitched in cold weather in his first start.5 Never able to regain his form, he pitched two more years in the minors before retiring. He finished his major-league career with a 1-2 record and a 3.51 ERA in 33⅓ innings pitched.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197009050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1970/B09050PIT1970.htm

Notes

1 “Trouble with Tarp Stops Phils, Bucs,” Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Intelligencer Journal, September 5, 1970: 11.

2 Roberto Clemente injured his back on September 4 in the first inning of the Pirates’ game against the Phillies that was later suspended until September 5. See: “Clemente Twists Back Swinging, Leaves Game,” York (Pennsylvania) Dispatch, September 5, 1970: 25.

3 Fred Cambria, telephone interview, April 6, 2023.

4 Bill Christine, “Playing Games – Back to the Bushes,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 15, 1973: 27.

5 Fred Cambria, telephone interview, April 6, 2023.