October 3, 1964: Five Homers Rout Cardinals
From The Met Wiki
| Date: October 3, 1964 |
| Mets starter: Jack Fisher |
| Mets: 15 |
| Cardinals: 5 |
| Winning pitcher: Tom Parsons |
| Key player(s): Bobby Klaus, Joe Christopher, Ed Kranepool |
| Key play: Mets' five home runs |
In their next to last game of the season, the Mets faced the Cardinals at Busch Stadium on a Saturday afternoon. An offensive outburst that included five home runs lifted the Mets to victory over the pennant-contending St. Louis team. The final score was 15-5.
As the Mets' Bobby Klaus was leading off the first inning, the Cards committed two errors. Catcher Tim McCarver dropped Klaus's foul pop-up before Bobby hit a ball that was misplayed by left fielder Lou Brock for a two-base error. Roy McMillan hit an infield single (on which Klaus stayed at second base) and Joe Christopher followed with a single to load the bases. Jim Hickman then delivered another single to bring home Klaus and McMillan. After St. Louis pitcher Ray Sadecki threw a wild pitch, Hawk Taylor got the Mets' fourth single of the inning to bring home Christopher and Hickman for two more runs and a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the first, the Cardinals got three runs on back-to-back home runs by Bill White and Ken Boyer off Mets' starter Jack Fisher. Dick Groat followed with a double and moved to third base on McCarver's ground out. Fisher then threw out Groat at the plate on Julian Javier's grounder to end the inning.
George Altman homered for the Mets' fifth run to lead off the top of the second inning. Sadecki was then replaced by Roger Craig, who recorded all three outs in the inning. The Cards got a run in the bottom half when White singled off reliever Dennis Ribant to bring home Curt Flood. Brock also tried to score, but was out at home on the play.
Craig walked Hickman to begin the top of the third inning. With one out, Hawk Taylor got a single and Kranepool followed with a three-run homer. For St. Louis, Gordon Richardson came in to relieve Craig and retired the next two batters. Ribant then pitched a scoreless bottom of the inning to maintain the Mets' 8-4 lead.
In the fourth, the Cardinals loaded the bases with two out against Ribant. Mets' reliever Tom Parsons came in and got Boyer to fly out and end the inning. Charley Smith then homered off St. Louis reliever Ron Taylor to lead off the top of the fifth before Parsons held off the Cards again in the bottom half.
After a scoreless sixth inning, Smith started the top of the seventh with a single off Mike Cuellar. Hawk Taylor also singled, as did Kranepool to score Smith for the Mets' tenth run of the game. Altman reached on McCarver's second error to bring home Hawk Taylor before Parsons hit into a force play. Klaus then nailed a three-run homer to extend the Met lead to 14-5. Later in the inning, Christopher homered off Cuellar for another Met run.
Parsons pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh before giving up a pinch-hit single to Charlie James leading off the eighth. Flood followed with a single to move James to third base. Brock's sacrifice fly scored James for the fifth St. Louis run. Parsons then retired the next two Cardinal batters to end the inning.
In the ninth, Parsons walked Groat before recording two outs. He then struck out Mike Shannon to end the game. The Mets had a blowout win that dropped the Cardinals into a first place tie with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League standings.
