1987 National League Championship Series
Cardinals beat Giants in seven games for NL pennant.
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The 1987 National League Championship Series was a seven-game playoff between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants, held from October 6 to 14 at Busch Memorial Stadium and Candlestick Park. The Cardinals won the series but lost the World Series to the Minnesota Twins. The series is notable for Jeffrey Leonard winning the NLCS MVP award despite being on the losing team.
Game summaries
In Game 1 at Busch Stadium, the Giants took an early lead on a Candy Maldonado RBI groundout, but the Cardinals tied it in the third on a Vince Coleman single. Jeffrey Leonard homered in the fourth to put San Francisco ahead briefly, but the Cardinals re-tied the game when Ozzie Smith tripled and Willie McGee singled him home. St. Louis took control in the sixth with three runs on RBI singles by Terry Pendleton, Curt Ford, and pitcher Greg Mathews; Ken Dayley earned the save.
Game 2 saw the Giants even the series behind a complete-game shutout by Dave Dravecky. Will Clark hit a two-run homer in the second, and Leonard added a solo shot in the fourth. Two more runs scored in the eighth on a rare Ozzie Smith throwing error. During this game, Leonard angered Cardinals fans with a slow, arm-spread home run trot.
Game 3 at Candlestick Park featured a matchup between Joe Magrane and Atlee Hammaker. San Francisco scored four runs in the first three innings, including another Leonard home run. In his next at-bat, reliever Bob Forsch hit Leonard in the left shoulder, apparently in retaliation. The Cardinals rallied in the sixth on a Jim Lindeman two-run homer and a Willie McGee triple, then scored four in the seventh to take a 6–4 lead, highlighted by a two-run single from Vince Coleman.
Aftermath
The Cardinals and Giants developed a strong rivalry in the mid-to-late 1980s. During the 1988 season, a brawl erupted after Will Clark slid hard into Cardinals second baseman José Oquendo, who along with Ozzie Smith threw a punch at Clark; both benches cleared, and Oquendo and Clark were ejected. A second confrontation occurred when Cardinals pitcher Scott Terry nearly hit Mike Aldrete in the head with a pitch, leading to another bench-clearing incident and Terry's ejection.
The Cardinals lost the 1987 World Series in seven games to the Minnesota Twins and did not return to the postseason until 1996, the World Series until 2004, or win a championship until 2006. The Giants returned to the NLCS in 1989, beating the Chicago Cubs before losing the World Series to the Oakland Athletics; they did not win a World Series until 2010. The two teams have met three more times in the postseason (2002, 2012, and 2014 NLCS), with the Giants winning each series.
In the 2012 NLCS, a play similar to the Clark-Oquendo incident occurred when Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday slid late into Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro, but no brawl resulted. As of 1987, Jeffrey Leonard remains the last player to win an LCS MVP while on the losing team.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: 1987 National League Championship Series (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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