Sports Illustrated - May 5, 1980

Baseball – N.L. East 

By Herm Weiskopf

Cardinal relievers have been so inept that their appearances during games in Pittsburgh provoked the stadium organist to play Send in the Clowns. The St. Louis (2-3) bullpen reached its nadir during a subsequent series in Chicago, in which five pitchers were tagged for nine hits and seven runs in four innings before Cub Barry Foote mercifully ended the game with a two-out grand slam in the ninth. During that 16-12 victory for Chicago (3-2), Foote assaulted Cardinal pitchers for four hits—two were homers—and eight RBIs. Also included in the Cubs' 23-hit outburst were five by Ivan DeJesus, who needed just five innings to hit for the cycle.

No one pitched better than Steve Carlton of Philadelphia (2-4), who beat St. Louis on one hit, a second-inning single by Ted Simmons. For Carlton, that was his sixth one-hitter, a modern league record. Mike Schmidt's two homers and six RBIs carried the Phillies past the Mets 14-8. New York (2-4) won the two other games between the teams. After Ray Burris and Neil Allen teamed up for a 3-0 victory, Mark Bomback and three relievers held on for a 3-2 triumph.

Still in first place was Pittsburgh (4-2), which got two complete-game wins from John Candelaria and some hefty hitting from Mike Easier. By homering twice and driving across four runs in a rare start, Easler earned the job as the Pirates' regular leftfielder.

Steve Rogers became the first Montreal pitcher to go the distance when he beat Pittsburgh 3-2. One the Expos (3-3) didn't win was an 8-7 slugfest in Atlanta, where they lost despite three home runs and seven RBIs by Larry Parrish.

PITT 9-5; CHI 7-5; MONT 6-7; PHIL 6-7; ST.L 6-8; NY 5-9