Philadelphia Inquirer - July 3, 1980
Carlton is named to NL All-Stars pitching staff
By the Associated Press
Steve Carlton of Philadelphia, with a record of 13-4 baseball's winningest pitcher, heads the eight-man staff named yesterday by National League president Chub Feeney and Pittsburgh manager Chuck Tanner for the NL All-Star team.
Joining Carlton on the NL team for the July 8 game against the American League at Los Angeles are Jim Bibby of Pittsburgh, San Francisco's Vida Blue, Jerry Reuss of Los Angeles, J. R. Richard of Houston, Bob Welch of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh's Kent Tekulve and Chicago's Bruce Sutter.
Carlton, who started last year's game for the NL in Seattle and also was the NL starting pitcher in the 1969 game at Washington, has a 2.19 earned-run average and was NL pitcher of the month for May. He leads the league in strikeouts and innings pitched.
Four NL pitchers – Bibby, Blue, Reuss and Richard – have won nine games apiece.
Bibby, 9-1 with a 3.00 ERA, leads the league in winning percentage. Blue, 9-5, won seven straight over one stretch and is the only man to start the All-Star Game for both leagues, opening for the AL in 1971 the only AL victory in the last 17 years and for the NL in 1978. But he won't pitch in this one; he was put on the 21-day disabled list yesterday because of back problems.
Reuss, 9-2 with a league-leading 1.74 ERA, pitched the season's only no-hitter last week and was chosen NL pitcher of the month for June. He was the starting pitcher for the NL in the 1975 game in Milwaukee and pitched three shutout innings. Richard, 9-4 and 1.90, had a string of 31 consecutive scoreless innings earlier this season.
Sutter, winning pitcher in the last two All-Star games, is 3-4 with a 3.06 ERA and leads the majors with 18 saves. Tekulve, bulwark of the Pirate bullpen, is 5-4 with nine saves and a 3.23 ERA and Welch is 8-3 with a 2.35 ERA.
The American League named its eight-man pitching staff earlier yesterday, selecting New York Yankee teammates Tommy John and Rich Gossage, Rick Honeycutt of Seattle, Dave Stieb of Toronto, Boston's Tom Burgmeier, Ed Farmer of Chicago. Steve Stone of Baltimore and Larry Gura of Kansas City.
John and Stone are the league's top winners with 11-3 records, and Gura is right behind them at 10-3 with a 2.09 earned run average, best on the All-Star staff. John's ERA is 3.13 and Stone's is 3.04.
Stieb, 22, a righthander, is 7-5 with a 3.01 ERA for the Blue Jays. Seattle's Honeycutt is also 7-5 and has a 2.82 ERA.
Phils play 2 in St. Louis
The St. Louis Cardinals, who, despite some lofty batting averages, have been in last place in the National League East most of the season, host the Phillies in a twi-night doubleheader tonight (6:35, Channel 17).
Three Cardinals – Keith Hernandez, Garry Templeton and George Hendrick – currently are among the top 10 hitters in the National League. A weak pitching staff, however, has been St. Louis' undoing. The Cards recently fired manager Ken Boyer and replaced him with Whitey Herzog.
Tonight's doubleheader starts a four-game series for the Phils at St. Louis.
BASEBALL
PHILLIES at St. Louis, twl-night doubleheader (TV-Ch. 17; Radlo-KYW-1060,6:35 p.m.)
Phils stumble, fall before Expos, 6-1
Carlton goes wild, loses his 2d straight
By Jayson Stark, Inquirer Staff Writer
MONTREAL It has long been suspected that Steve Carlton might really be an ordinary mortal. Just like Wayne Twitchell, Merv Griffin and all kinds of other people.
It just took until last night to prove it, that's all.
Carlton lost to the Montreal Expos, 6-1, last night. He is now 13-4 for the year. He has even lost (gulp) two in a row.
The six runs were the most that he has allowed all year. He walked six, the worst lack of control that he has evidenced all year.
He did strike out five, moving him – temporarily, at least – ahead of Texas Ranger Ferguson Jenkins and into eighth place on the all-time strikeout list with 2,829, but that little accomplishment seemed to pale into inconsequential trivia under the circumstances.
Dallas Green even had to come out and hook him in the midst of the Expos' three-run eighth. That's the first time Carlton has been yanked in the middle of an inning since May 1.
But there were even more serious examples of mortality. He wild-pitched two runs across. He walked the pitcher, Steve Rogers, to set up a run. He gave up an RBI single to Rogers for another.
He was, in short, not perfect. That's OK for most people. It is just hard to get used to with him.
"He's a human being," said Green, after the Phillies had fallen two games behind first-place Montreal. "Everybody is going to have days where, everything doesn’t fall into place.
"But still, even though he didn't have his best stuff or his best control or his best game... other than the last inning he pitched a damn good baseball game. It's just one of those things where he's starting to run out of gas, and I'm trying to milk him for all he's worth. And that's a dangerous situation at best."
What bothered Green most was that the Phillies were pretty mortal themselves. They blew big chances against Rogers (10-6). They blew their final chance in the eighth, when Garry Maddox was thrown out after taking too big a turn around second after Greg Gross' two-on, two-out single.
"If Rogers had just beat us, I'd have felt better about this," Green said. "But I think we contributed to this victory."
Green was most upset about the first inning, when the Phillies loaded the bases off Rogers, who is 8-2 since May 16, with nobody out. But all they got was one run. First, Rogers fanned Greg Luzinski (0-for-17, with 10 strikeouts, and 2-for-41, with 17 strikeouts) with a great 2-2 fastball.
After Luzinski's whiff, Maddox chopped the first pitch to third. It turned into a force at second and a run. But Rogers got Boone with the bases loaded. And the Phils never got a shot like that again.
They did have shots, though. They left Ramon Aviles on second base after a leadoff double in the second. They stranded Pete Rose (2-for-4) at third in the fifth. Ron LeFlore made a gunning grab on Luzinski's sinking liner in the eighth. Then Maddox got caught after Gross' hit two batters later.
All that meant that Carlton would have had to pitch awesomely to win. He didn't. But until the eighth, the first three runs off him were only about half his fault.
Second inning: Warren Cromartie took what amounted to about a third of a swing at Carlton's first pitch and dumped it into short left for a double. With two outs, Rogers drilled a lazy 3-2 breaking ball through the middle, and it was 1-1.
Third inning: a pure Andre Dawson production. Dawson lined an 0-2 fastball to left-center. Maddox made a great play to cut it off. But Dawson took the chance on Maddox' not making a perfect throw while heading in the opposite direction, and turned it into a double.
From there, he was able to go to third on Gary Carter's fly to deep left and score on Carlton's first wild pitch.
What made the wild pitch hurt was that Carlton had gone 0-and-2 to Cromartie with unhittable sidearm curves. He came back with a third but bounced it way outside and past Boone.
Fifth inning: Carlton set this run up with a four-pitch leadoff walk to Rogers, a very rare lapse of concentration. He never got Rogers out all night, yielding two walks and a single to him.
"What that indicates," said Green, "is that it was not a real good concentration game for him tonight. I don't think he had himself all together."
Eventually, he got two outs, but one was a force at second that put primo sprinter Rodney Scott on first. Here the Expos used a strategic ploy that they worked successfully three different times in the series.
Carlton caught Scott off the bag. Instead of diving back to first, Scott took off for second and beat Rose's throw for the stolen base. Dawson had pulled the same move earlier off Carlton. And Ron LeFlore did it Tuesday on Randy Lerch.
"It's something I've been considering in the past couple of years," Dawson said. "And we kind of talked about it. I think his move (to first) might be a balk. But if it's not, this is really the only way to steal on him.
"You almost have to try and get picked off. You've got to get a big lead. Then once he moves his hands and brings his feet up, just be gone. You can't wait around. You just hope he won't speed up his throw to first."
With Scott on second, Carlton threw three pitches to Dawson. On the third, Scott wandered way off the bag, and Boone caught him off there, too. But he made it to third when Manny Trillo's throw plunked him in the back. Carlton then wild-pitched him home.
In the eighth, he just lost it. Dawson singled. Carter made it 4-1 with a double. Cromartie dropped a bunt single. Parrish made it 5-1 with a sacrifice fly. A four-pitch walk to Bob Pate and an RBI single by Chris Speier, and it was 6-1. And over.
NOTES: It hasn't been announced yet, but Manny Trillo has not been chosen as a backup for the All-Star team. Chuck Tanner reportedly picked Phil Garner to play behind Davey (3 Million Votes) Lopes. The only other Phillies chosen, besides Mike Schmidt (who was voted in), were Pete Rose and Steve Carlton. This will be Rose's 14th all-star game in 18 seasons.... Nino Espinosa definitely will start tomorrow afternoon in St. Louis. With Tug McGraw out, Dallas Green can't afford to use Dickie Noles anywhere other than in the bullpen.... Larry Bowa returns from a hamstring strain and will play today.... Mike Schmidt re-pulled his hamstring Tuesday; but it wasn't serious enough to keep him out last night. Bake McBride sat out his second straight with a knee injury.... Montreal manager Dick Williams signed a new contract for the balance of 1980 and '81, to include what general manager John McHale called a substantial salary increase and incentive bonuses.... Pitching matchups in St. Louis: Dick Ruthven. and Bob Walk vs. Bob Forsch and Jim Otten in tonight's doubleheader, Espinosa vs. John Urrea tomorrow, Randy Lerch vs. Bob Sykes on Saturday, Carlton vs. Pete Vuckovich on Sunday.