Talk about fastball: An 89-minute game
This is going to sound like legend. A fairy tale. Mythology. But it’s all true. Swear.
It’s from a time when baseball games didn’t require three hours (or four hours in the postseason) to play.
It was a game between the Padres and the Phillies, with left-handers
and opposing each other at San Diego Stadium. The Padres’ 4-1 win came on a Wednesday night in front of 10,021 fans.
It took only 1 hour, 29 minutes to complete. Eighty-nine minutes! The date was May 4, 1977. Forty years ago yesterday.
It was the fastest nineinning game in Padres history and, in fact, the secondfastest major league game over the past half-century.
The Padres already were sinking in the NL West, well on their way to a fifth-place, 69-93 season.
Their lineup that night included three rookies — center fielder
shortstop and second baseman
— as well as a future Hall of Famer in right fielder Future hitting coach
was in left field. The corner infielders were first baseman
and third baseman
was the catcher.
And there was Jones, fresh off a season in which he went 22-14 with a 2.74 ERA and 25 complete games to earn the 1976 NL Cy Young Award.
Jones was known for working fast. He once completed a victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates by throwing just 67 pitches. He also didn’t walk many batters. A year earlier, Jones had tied a 63-year-old record by
by going 68 consecutive innings without allowing a walk.
“That sinker would look so good that hitters would go after that pitch. And he didn’t walk anybody, so you better go after any pitch that was somewhat close,” said Padres broadcaster
“(Former coach and manager) once described Randy Jones’ pitches as ‘too good to take and too hard to hit.’”
Said Jones: “Everybody is mystified that I could complete 25 games. You have to remember that I completed 25 games and I didn’t average 100 pitches in those games. I’d throw 89, 88, 92 COMMENTARY pitches for a nine-inning game.
“That was philosophically how I approached the game. I went out in the first inning and wanted to throw three pitches. I loved those. I had so many three-pitch innings in my career it was phenomenal.”
The Phillies were on their way to winning 101 games and the NL East Division.
Their lineup included
and from left to right in the outfield. The middle infield featured shortstop and second baseman Future Hall of Famer was at third base. Future big-league manager was at first base.
was the catcher. And there was Kaat, who won 283 games over a 25-year career that spanned four decades. This was his 19th season, and by this time he was getting by more with guile and wile than “stuff.”
“Jim Kaat was at the tail end of his career, and he’s a guy who kept reinventing himself,” said Chandler. “At that time in his career with the Phillies, he was in this hurry-up mode trying to throw off the hitter’s timing. He would literally get the ball back from the catcher and be ready to make the next pitch . ... ”
Jones and Kaat were in such a hurry when they took the mound that neither ever threw the eight warm- up pitches allotted before each inning.
The game opened with Jones retiring Maddox on a flyout, one of only three outfield putouts by the Padres, and Martin on a grounder to shortstop, the first of 12 assists Almon had in the game.
Schmidt coaxed the only walk of the game out of Jones but promptly was picked off to end the inning.
The Padres led 2-1 through three innings, Champion scoring on a single by Richards in the second and driving in the go-ahead run with an infield out in the third.
The Phillies’ run came in the third when Maddox’s two-out single drove in Sizemore, who had led off the inning with a single and moved to third on a pair of groundouts.
The game really zipped by from there, with Jones and Kaat combining to retire 21 straight batters over the next 31⁄2 innings.
The streak of hitters being retired didn’t end until Jones led off the bottom of the seventh against Kaat with a double. Richards followed him, twice failing to bunt Jones over to third base. So Richards swung away and connected for his first career home run and a 4-1 lead.
Kaat then retired Almon on a fly ball, but when Rettenmund singled, Phillies manager Danny Ozark summoned reliever Ron Reed, who retired five of the seven hitters he faced over 12⁄3 innings.
In the ninth, Jones got two quick outs before Martin doubled to right field. But Schmidt then grounded to shortstop — where else? — to end the game.
And that was that.