1987 St. Louis Cardinals season explained

St. Louis Cardinals
Season:	1987
Misc:	National League Champions National League East Champions
League:	National League
Record:	95–67 (.586)
Divisional Place:	1st
Owners:	August "Gussie" Busch
General Managers:	Dal Maxvill
Managers:	Whitey Herzog
Television:	KSDK (Jack Buck, Mike Shannon, Jay Randolph) Cardinal Cable Network (Al Hrabosky, Ken Wilson)
Radio:	KMOX (Jack Buck, Mike Shannon)

The 1987 St. Louis Cardinals season was the team's 106th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 96th season in the National League. The Cardinals went 95–67 during the season and finished first in the National League East for the third and last time before moving to the National League Central in 1994. They went on to win the NLCS in seven games over the San Francisco Giants. In the World Series against the Minnesota Twins, after having fallen behind 2-0 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, they won their next three games at home. However, back at the Metrodome, they lost the last two and fell one game short of a World Series title. It would be the Cardinals' last World Series appearance until 2004.

Offseason

October 31, 1986: Alan Knicely was released by the Cardinals.^[1]
December 19, 1986: Bob Forsch was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.^[2]
January 26, 1987: Skeeter Barnes was signed as a free agent by the Cardinals.^[3]

Regular season

September highlights included a Terry Pendleton home run during a September 11 game against the contending Mets as well as a Tom Herr walk-off grand slam against the Mets on Seat Cushion Night. As St. Louis proceeded into the post-season, they found themselves without clean-up hitter Jack Clark, the team's number-one offensive threat. He damaged his ankle when he caught a cleat in the artificial turf at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.^[4] Nonetheless, the Redbirds won 95 games to capture the NL East title.

Notable transactions

April 1, 1987: Mike LaValliere, Mike Dunne and Andy Van Slyke were traded by the Cardinals to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tony Peña.^[5]
April 6, 1987: Lee Tunnell was purchased by the Cardinals from the Pittsburgh Pirates.^[6]
June 2, 1987: Jeremy Hernandez was drafted by the Cardinals in the 2nd round of the 1987 Major League Baseball draft.^[7]
July 16, 1987: Skeeter Barnes was purchased from the Cardinals by the Milwaukee Brewers.
July 25, 1987: Joe Boever was traded by the Cardinals to the Atlanta Braves for Randy O'Neal.^[8]
August 31, 1987: Pat Perry was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later. On September 3, 1987 the Cincinnati Reds sent Scott Terry to the St. Louis Cardinals to complete the deal.
September 29, 1987: Doug DeCinces was signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.^[9]

Roster

1987 St. Louis Cardinals
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		ManagerCoaches (First base) (Hitting) (Third base) (Bullpen) (Pitching) (Bench)

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	116	384	82	.214	5	44
1B	131	419	120	.286	35	106
2B	141	510	134	.263	2	83
3B	159	583	167	.286	12	96
SS	158	600	182	.303	0	75
LF	151	623	180	.289	3	43
CF	153	620	177	.285	11	105
RF	89	228	65	.285	3	26

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
116	248	71	.286	1	24
75	207	43	.208	8	28
74	179	45	.251	2	19
101	157	41	.261	3	23
24	60	14	.233	1	11
63	59	13	.220	0	7
30	50	10	.200	0	6
27	48	9	.188	2	9
44	47	13	.277	0	8
14	30	8	.267	1	1
17	29	4	.138	1	4
19	25	2	.080	0	0
4	9	2	.222	0	1
4	4	1	.250	1	3

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
31	199.1	11	9	3.88	101
32	197.2	11	11	3.73	108
33	179.0	11	7	4.32	89
27	170.1	9	7	3.54	101
16	96.0	10	2	3.84	54

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
67	125.0	8	3	3.82	55
32	74.1	4	4	4.84	49
10	40.2	3	2	5.53	22
6	16.0	1	1	6.75	8

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
75	8	6	33	2.66	92
60	5	8	2	4.47	65
53	9	5	4	2.66	63
45	4	2	1	4.39	33
12	1	0	0	6.46	9
12	0	0	1	1.80	11
11	0	0	0	3.38	9
1	0	0	0	1.80	4
1	0	0	0	27.00	0

Postseason

NLCS

See main article: 1987 National League Championship Series. Despite the Cardinals prevailing over the San Francisco Giants in 7 games, it was the Giants' Jeffrey Leonard who won the NLCS MVP award.

Game 1

October 6, Busch Stadium

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
San Francisco	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	3	7	0
St. Louis	0	0	1	1	0	3	0	0	X	5	10	1
W: Greg Mathews (1-0) L: Rick Reuschel (0-1) SV: Ken Dayley (1)
HRs: SFG - Jeffrey Leonard (1) STL - None

Game 2

October 7, Busch Stadium

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
San Francisco	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	5	10	0
St. Louis	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
W: Dave Dravecky (1-0) L: John Tudor (0-1) SV: None
HRs: SFG - Will Clark (1) Jeffrey Leonard (2) STL - None

Game 3

October 9, Candlestick Park

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
St. Louis	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	0	6	11	1
San Francisco	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	7	1
W: Bob Forsch (1-0) L: Don Robinson (0-1) SV: Todd Worrell (1)
HRs: SFG - Jeffrey Leonard (3) Harry Spilman (1) STL - Jim Lindeman (1)

Game 4

October 10, Candlestick Park

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
St. Louis	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	9	0
San Francisco	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	1	X	4	9	2
W: Mike Krukow (1-0) L: Danny Cox (0-1) SV: None
HRs: SFG - Robby Thompson (1) Jeffrey Leonard (4) STL - None

Game 5

October 11, Candlestick Park

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
St. Louis	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	7	0
San Francisco	1	0	1	4	0	0	0	0	X	6	7	1
W: Joe Price (1-0) L: Bob Forsch (1-1) SV: None
HRs: SFG - Kevin Mitchell (1) STL - None

Game 6

October 13, Busch Stadium

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	0
St. Louis	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	X	1	5	0
W: John Tudor (1-1) L: Dave Dravecky (1-1) SV: Ken Dayley (2)
HRs: SFG - None STL - None

Game 7

October 14, Busch Stadium

align=left width=28%	Team	width=6%	1	width=6%	2	width=6%	3	width=6%	4	width=6%	5	width=6%	6	width=6%	7	width=6%	8	width=6%	9	width=6%	R	width=6%	H	width=6%	E
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	8	1
St. Louis	0	4	0	0	0	2	0	0	X	6	12	0
W: Danny Cox (1-1) L: Atlee Hammaker (0-1) SV: None
HRs: SFG - None STL - José Oquendo (1)

World Series

See main article: 1987 World Series. The Minnesota Twins defeated the Cardinals in seven games. This Series was the first in which the home team won each of the seven games. The Cardinals held their own at Busch Stadium, but the crowd noise and the "Homer Hankys" in the Metrodome appeared to give the Twins an edge. The booming bats of the Twins were too much for the Cardinals' "inside baseball" style of offense in Games 1, 2, and 6. In Game 7 it was the Twins' pitching that shut down the Cardinals.

AL Minnesota Twins (4) vs. NL St. Louis Cardinals (3)

width=	Game	width=	Score	width=	Date	width=	Location	width=	Attendance	width=	Time of Game
1	Cardinals – 1, Twins – 10	October 17	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota)	55,171	3:36
2	Cardinals – 4, Twins – 8	October 18	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota)	55,257	2:42
3	Twins – 1, Cardinals – 3	October 20	Busch Stadium (St. Louis)	55,347	2:45
4	Twins – 2, Cardinals – 7	October 21	Busch Stadium (St. Louis)	55,347	3:11
5	Twins – 2, Cardinals – 4	October 22	Busch Stadium (St. Louis)	55,347	3:21
6	Cardinals – 5, Twins – 11	October 24	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota)	55,293	3:22
7	Cardinals – 2, Twins – 4	October 25	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (Minnesota)	55,376	3:04

Awards and honors

Terry Pendleton, Third Base, National League Gold Glove
Ozzie Smith, Shortstop, National League Gold Glove, Silver Slugger
Jack Clark, First Base, National League Silver Slugger

Farm system

External links

1987 St. Louis Cardinals at Baseball Reference
1987 St. Louis Cardinals at Baseball Almanac

Notes and References

https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/kniceal01.shtml Alan Knicely
https://www.baseball-reference.com/f/forscbo01.shtml Bob Forsch
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/barnesk01.shtml Skeeter Barnes
News: Jack Clark's frustrating postseason: Cards slugger is pained by injury and uncertain about return . https://archive.today/20130630042310/http://articles.philly.com/1987-10-09/sports/26215384_1_jack-clark-turtlenecks-and-long-sleeves-cardinals . dead . June 30, 2013 . . Peter . Pascarelli . October 9, 1987.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lavalmi01.shtml Mike LaValliere
https://www.baseball-reference.com/t/tunnele01.shtml Lee Tunnell
https://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hernaje02.shtml Jeremy Hernandez
https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/boevejo01.shtml Joe Boever
Web site: Doug DeCinces Stats - Baseball-Reference.com. Baseball-Reference.com.
Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007