Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
Home     List of Articles

Montreal Expos at San Francisco Giants, Candlestick Park, San Francisco, CA
April 29, 1982

Introduction

My series of random game stories moves next to the first month of the 1982 season in San Francisco. The Giants' opponent was the defending NL East Division champion Montreal Expos.

The Montreal Expos were in the midst of the best stretch of their relatively short, relatively disappointing history. The 1981 Expos were the only playoff team in Montreal history (damn 1994 strike) and the 1982 Expos featured three Hall-of-Famers in their primes: left fielder Tim Raines, center fielder Andre Dawson, and catcher Gary Carter - who batted 1st, 3rd, and 5th, respectively, in this game.

The Expos' starting pitcher in this game was Ray Burris who entered the game with a somewhat contradictory record of 0-3 with a 1.17 ERA. Burris's first two games of the 1982 season were 8-inning complete-game losses, 1-0 (the one run being unearned) and 2-1. His third game was another 1-0 loss, although he only pitched seven innings in this one.

The Giants were not in the midst of the best stretch of their (much longer, much more successful) history. The 1981 Giants had finished one game over .500 (56-55), which was an improvement over the two previous years when they lost 86 and 91 games. The 1982 Giants did not have three Hall-of-Famers. They did have one Hall-of-Famer on their roster, 38-year-old former two-time MVP Joe Morgan, but he did not play in this game.

The Giants' starting pitcher in this game was 24-year-old rookie Alan Fowlkes, making the fifth start of his major-league career. Fowlkes entered play with a record of 2-1 and a 4.26 ERA.

First Inning

Tim Raines led off the game doing what Tim Raines did so great: getting on base. Specifically, he doubled to center field. Frank Taveras grounded out, Raines taking third on the play. And Raines scored on a sacrifice fly by Andre Dawson. Al Oliver doubled and Gary Carter walked, but Warren Cromartie fouled out to end the inning with only one run scoring - which was one more than the Expos had scored in two of Ray Burris's first three starts.

Blessed with run support for the first time in four games, Ray Burris didn't know quite what to do. He probably shouldn't have done this.

• Chili Davis singled to center field.
• Duane Kuiper singled Davis to third.
• Dave Bergman singled to right field, scoring Davis and sending Kuiper to third.
• Champ Summers singled to right field, scoring Kuiper and sending Bergman to third.
• Darrell Evans hit a three-run home run.

And the Giants had a 5-1 lead and Ray Burris had yet to record an out.

Burris did, however, retire the next three batters in order. But the damage was done.

Second Inning

Tim Wallach led off the top of the second inning by striking out. But Chris Speier and Burris had back-to-back singles bringing up the top of the order. But Raines struck out, Taveras popped out, and the inning was over.

Meanwhile, Burris threw a 1-2-3 bottom of the second giving him six consecutive batters retired. Too bad the five batters before that had all scored.

Third Inning

Meanwhile, Alan Fowlkes looked like he knew what to do with a lead. He struck out Dawson. Al Oliver singled but Carter and Cromartie both flew out.

Burris's streak of retired batters went to seven as Dave Bergman grounded out to Taveras. The streak should have reached eight as Summers also hit a grounder to Taveras. But Taveras booted this one. Evans followed with a single putting runners on first and second. Taveras and Evans didn't stay on base long, however, as Jack Clark doubled to right field, scoring both runners. A wild pitch put Clark on third base with only one out. But the Giants couldn't get him home as Jeff Ransom popped out and (after an intentional walk to Johnnie LeMaster) Fowlkes hit into a force play.

But it hardly mattered that Clark didn't score. The Giants led 7-1.

Fourth Inning

The top of the fourth inning opened with a glimmer of hope: Tim Wallach reached base on an error by LeMaster. But Speier and pinch hitter Wallace Johnson grounded out and Raines struck out and the score remained 7-1.

Johnson had pinch hit for Burris, whose day ended with 7 runs allowed (6 earned) in three innings pitched. The Expos new pitcher was Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Lee was very near the end of his 14-year-career (Lee made two more career appearances after this game). Lee had spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox, for whom he had three consecutive seasons with exactly 17 wins (1973 , 1974, 1975). He added 16 more wins in his first season in Montreal, 1979. Lee was an interesting character, perhaps better known for the "Spaceman" nickname than the quality pitching.

Anyway, here on April 29, 1982, Lee gave up an infield single to Chili Davis. But Davis was caught stealing, Kuiper grounded out, and Bergman popped out, for a relatively easy three-batter inning.

Fifth Inning

Frank Taveras led off the top of the fifth inning by striking out. But Andre Dawson doubled to left field. Al Oliver singled to left field, Dawson stopping at third base. Carter singled, scoring Dawson and putting Oliver on second base with only one out.

But Cromartie flew out to center field and Wallach hit a comebacker to the mound and the Expos could only get one run back and still trailed, 7-2.

In the bottom of the inning, Bill Lee completed his six-batter, two-inning relief stint, following a Darrell Evans single by getting Jack Clark to hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Sixth - Eighth Innings

After the excitement of the first five innings, the game settled down for awhile. Fowlkes settled down nicely pitching a 1-2-3 sixth, a 1-2-3 seventh (helped by Jack Clark throwing out Raines when he over-ran first base on a two-out single) and a four-batter seventh inning (Fowlkes hit Dawson with one out).

Meanwhile, the Expos got two strong innings of relief from Bob James and a shutout inning from Woodie Fryman.

Ninth Inning

And so, the game moved to the ninth inning with the Giants still holding a 7-2 lead. And Art Fowlkes was out in search of his first complete game. So far in his (4-game) major-league career, his previous career high had been 7 innings.

The Expos had the top of their lineup up, but they needed five runs to tie (six to win). And when Raines grounded out and Taveras popped out, the Expos needed to come up with five runs before making one out.

Dawson singled and stole second. And Oliver singled him home. But Carter struck out and that was that.

Game Summary

And so the Giants won, 7-3, to improve their record to 8-11. They went on to finish the 1982 season with a record of 87-75, in third place in the NL West, but only two games out of first. In fact, the Giants entered the final weekend of the season only one game out of first place, before losing two of three games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Expos fell to 9-7. The Expos finished one game worse than the Giants - in retrospect, THIS game - 86-76, which was also good for third place. The Expos finished 6 games out of first place in the NL East, although they got as close as two games back on September 15th before fading a bit over the last two weeks of the season.

This game ended up being the only complete game of winning pitcher Alan Fowlkes' (23-game) major-league career. As for losing pitcher Ray Burris, this game dropped his record to 0-4 (although this was the first of his four starts that he really deserved to lose). Burris finished the 1982 season with a record of 4-14, 0-11 in his 15 starts.

The most valuable player of this game, as measured by Player won-lost records, was Darrell Evans, about whom I just wrote an article.

Details of the game are shown below. First, I show Player won-lost records for all of the players who participated in the game. Baseball Player won-lost records are constructed so that the players on the winning team earn two pWins and one pLoss in the game while the players on the losing team earn one pWin and two pLosses. I also show expected wins and losses, eWins and eLosses, which are context-neutral. Full play by play details of the game are shown below the won-lost tables. My Player won-lost records are described in more detail in this article and throughout my website.

Retrosheet Box Score and Play-by-Play