July 28, 1969, St. Louis: Cardinals 2, Padres 1 (box score)

Julian Javier led off the bottom of the first with a home run to left off Dick Kelley. The Cardinals added to their lead in the sixth, when Vada Pinson doubled home Javier to make the score 2-0. It could have been even worse, but reliever Gary Ross retired Lou Brock and Tim McCarver with the bases loaded to limit the damage.

The Padres, meanwhile, couldn’t do anything against rookie right-hander Chuck Taylor. In the eighth, with the help of some shoddy defense by the home team, San Diego finally managed to score. Walt Hriniak reached on an error by Javier to open the inning. After Al Ferrara struck out, Ed Spiezio hit an infield single to put runners at the corners. Roberto Pena followed with a double to left that scored Hriniak and advanced pinch-runner John Sipin to third. Taylor then intentionally walked Ollie Brown to face Nate Colbert (!), who flied to right. Unfortunately for the Padres, Pinson doubled up Sipin at the plate for the final out.

Taylor retired San Diego in order in the ninth to earn his third victory of the season. The Padres saw their record fall to 34-69. They were 24 1/2 games out of first place in the NL West, and a whopping 18 1/2 back of fifth-place Houston.

Tagged as: Baseball, cardinals, chuck_taylor, dick_kelley, julian_javier, lou_brock, nate_colbert, padres, san_diego_padres, st_louis_cardinals, tim_mccarver, vada_pinson