1969: Jenkins, Cubs Blank Padres
Sat, May 12, 2007
by Geoff Young
May 12, 1969, Chicago: Cubs 2, Padres 0 (box score)
Fresh off their first ever road series win, the Padres headed to Chicago for their first series at Wrigley Field. San Diego sent Gary Ross to the hill in the Monday afternoon opener. The Cubs countered with Canadian right-hander Ferguson Jenkins.
The Cubs featured names such as Ron Santo, Billy Williams, and an aging Billy Williams. Early in the season, though, shortstop Don Kessinger, catcher Randy Hundley, and left fielder Al Spangler were leading the charge, helping the Cubs to a fine 21-11 start under manager Leo Durocher.
Originally signed by the Phillies, Jenkins had won exactly 20 games in 1967 and again the following season. Coming into Monday’s game, Jenkins owned a 4-2 record on the season, with a 2.77 ERA over eight starts. In a sign of the times, the 26-year-old already had thrown five complete games. In his previous start, against the Dodgers, Jenkins worked 12 innings and took the tough-luck loss.
Today, Jenkins would need only nine frames. He dominated from the start, retiring the Padres in order in the first and striking out the side in the second. The Padres managed to load the bases in the third before Tony Gonzalez grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to end the threat, but beyond that, they never got a runner past second base.
The Cubs, meanwhile, broke the ice in the second on a Jenkins groundout that scored Hundley. In the fifth, Williams singled home Nate Oliver to give the hometown club an insurance run should they need it.
Ross allowed five hits, walked five, and hit a batter in 5 2/3 innings of work. He was lucky to escape with just the two runs. The way Jenkins pitched, those two runs were more than enough for the Cubs. Jenkins finished with a five-hit shutout, including 10 strikeouts.
Trivia: Cubs second baseman Glen Beckert later finished his career in San Diego, playing nine games for the Padres in 1975 before calling it quits.
Elsewhere in the world: Kim Fields, who played Tootie on The Facts of Life, was born in New York; Boston Celtics star John Havlicek graced the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Picking up where last year's version left off, the Ducksnorts 2008 Baseball Annual provides in-depth analysis of and commentary on the San Diego Padres. Get your copy today.
May 12, 2007 at 11:48 am
It’s still a *very* small sample size, but it’s cool to see Tony Gwynn (Jr) hitting .400 … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270512121 … he’s 12-for-30 after the 6th inning of today’s game!
May 12, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Here’s a note from an article I just read …
Cameron has not allowed a run in 16 1/3 scoreless innings. It is the longest scoreless innings streak ever by a Padres pitcher to begin his career (the old mark, 16 innings, was set by Jeremy Fikac in 2001).
… I can’t say as I remember Fikac doing this … let’s hope KCamy has more of an impact …
May 12, 2007 at 12:36 pm
John Sickles has done some “Thinking about Chase Headley” … http://minorleagueball.com/sto.....commenttop … good stuff!
May 12, 2007 at 1:44 pm
A short video snip about Padres uniforms … http://video.sionnbcsports.com/player/?id=95904
May 12, 2007 at 2:19 pm
1: Speaking of small, but impressive, samples…. Cust has hit #5 today… now at 350/458/1100 - that’s 1100 SLG, OPS=1558.
May 12, 2007 at 4:01 pm
A pitchers duel at Ft Wayne today … http://www.minorleaguebaseball.....p;did=milb … Aaron Breit lowers his ERA to 6.47 with 6 good looking innings today …
Cedric Hunter went 0-for-3 today … now down to .263 (.356/.331 for OPS = .687) … yikes …
Getting back to thoughts re: Farm System from last night … if Cedric doesn’t get on the ball, then I’m thinking that there’s a pretty good chance that *none* of the players on this Ft Wayne roster ever make an appearance for the Padres … perhaps not even MLB … (Nate Culp lookin’ like the next-most-likely)
May 12, 2007 at 4:06 pm
5: can’t win them all, but I share the bafflement that he could not even get a decent shot, ever.
Still pissed about the Atlanta series. Teams in NL I dislike the most: SF, STL & ATL. SF mainly because I live here and have to deal with their fans when I go to games, and, of course, Barry. But what really pissed me off was them going 13-6 against us despite us out hitting them over those 19 games (our OPS against was higher than their OPS against). We hit horribly with men on base vs. them (unlucky) and vice versa for them (lucky).
So, in this ATL series, the batting lines for the series:
SDG: 220/276/371/647
ATL: 197/274/287/561
So we had an 086 OPS edge for the series, but still dropped it 1-3. All those “clutch” Atlanta hits drove me crazy. Atlanta is currently 3.5 games over their third order wins, behind only the Brewers and Tigers in all baseball; I am sure hoping for that to erode and them slide back to earth.
May 12, 2007 at 5:19 pm
No room for Cust ? No room because we have Termel Sledge. Please. I heard John Kentera say on his radio show saying that Cust was a journeyman who the Pads simply do not have room for. Cust is younger than the journeymen Cruz and Sledge and has way more upside.
May 12, 2007 at 5:36 pm
OT - Barry Zito gets a rude intro to Coors Field … http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=270512127
8 … that’s not how I interpret the data … Sledge has never been cut … Cust has been let go by Arizona, Colorado, Baltimore, and the Padres (which seems to me to align with the defintion of “journeyman” … I’m a Jack Cust fan … I wish he was hitting HRs for the Padres … I respect the decision by the Padres’ management that he wasn’t a good fit for this team this season … I’d say that Jack Cust now qualifies as a “hot journeyman”