Retelling The Tale Of Two Cities

It was a joyous Wednesday evening in Montreal, and everyone pitched in: the old, the new, the tried and the true. Talk about redemption. There was .238-hitting Catcher Gary Carter who, with the Expos trailing the Pirates 2-1, opened the eighth with a double. There was 22-year-old Tim Raines, who gamely ran for Carter despite a plastic cast on his broken right hand. There was much-booed Third Baseman Larry Parrish, who generously hit to the right side and scored Raines with a single. There was 38-year-old Grant Jackson, dumped by the Pirates a few weeks earlier, who pitched two innings of shutout relief. And most of all, there was Jerry White, who once prided himself on being the best "fourth" outfielder in baseball but now was reduced to pinch-hitting.

All White did was smash a home run to win the game in the ninth, give the Expos the National League East lead by a half game over the Cardinals and set off a massive celebration. Teammates hoisted White overhead, kissed him on the cheek, laid down a carpet of towels to his locker and forgot about their postgame meal for a record 15 minutes.

In St. Louis, meanwhile, no one was pitching, much less pitching in. As the Cards lost 9-4 to the Phillies, starter John Martin was rocked for four runs in the third inning, rookie Leftfielder Gene Roof allowed another run to score by double-pumping before throwing home, and Manager Whitey Herzog's vaunted offense didn't begin to click until the game was out of reach. Afterward, the Cardinals were quiet but somehow poised. Also, they were out of the second-season division lead for the first time since Aug. 19.

It was the best of races, it was the worst of races, it was the happiest of races, it was the saddest of races, it was the richest of races, it was the poorest of races. The NL East race became a tale of two cities last week, and whether or not you enjoyed the story depended upon what city you favored. In Montreal last week the Expos won six of seven games and climbed from 1½ out on Monday to 1½ up on Sunday because St. Louis lost four of seven. The boisterous Expos celebrated like French peasants inside the Bastille. The phlegmatic Cardinals accepted their fate as stoically as landlords at the guillotine.

If St. Louis is to win a reprieve, it will have to be in the last week of the season, when the Cardinals play the Expos twice at home. Away from Montreal, the Expos haven't fared very well (18-27). The last time the two teams met, St. Louis took three of five in Montreal to open up a 3½-game lead. With only 17 games to go, that advantage seemed secure. But since then Montreal has made effective use of the best pitching staff in the division—a 3.29 ERA—and St. Louis finally may have run out of borrowed time.

Herzog did a masterful job of keeping his tattered and torn pitching staff together for this long, but he admits he knew he was in trouble in early September. "With so many arms hurting, we went right down the chute," he says. "All I'm doing now is shooting craps."

Sometimes that has worked. Last Saturday, for instance, when Bob Forsch pitched with three days' rest for the first time this year and beat Pittsburgh 5-3. But usually not. The night before Herzog had started 42-year-old Jim Kaat for the first time this year—"he's my healthiest pitcher"—but Kaat allowed five runs in 3⅔ innings. Even so, St. Louis trailed by only 5-4 when Herzog took another chance by bringing in relief ace Bruce Sutter for the first time this season with the Cards trailing. "When you see that Montreal has won, it's too close to the end to worry about whether or not to use him," Herzog said.

Recently, everyone has seen Montreal win. After losing those three of five to St. Louis two weeks ago, the Expos held a grim clubhouse meeting before a three-game series with Chicago. Amid an unexpected managerial change—Jim Fanning for Dick Williams on Sept. 8—and an untimely injury—Raines's broken hand on Sept. 13—the Expos appeared to be squandering their considerable talent. Without naming names, Fanning told the Expos what was expected of them and implied that some of them weren't playing to their capabilities. "Everybody had to look at themselves," says Pitcher Steve Rogers. "That's thought-provoking, and that can be action-provoking." The action Montreal took was to win two of three from the Cubs.

The Expos began last week with their most extraordinary game of the year—a 1-0, 17-inning win over the Phillies. The game ended on a bang-bang play, Rodney Scott racing home ahead of Third Baseman Mike Schmidt's throw on a bases-loaded grounder, but there were many heart-stopping moments before that. Gary Carter threw out three base stealers in a row. Leftfielder Terry Francona made a perfect throw home to save a run in the 14th inning, and reliever Jeff Reardon pitched three shutout innings. After two more wins over the Phillies—6-2 on Tuesday and 3-2 on Wednesday—the Expos were in first by half a game. But it was a big half game. Montreal had won four in a row and nine of 13, and had allowed just 29 hits over the last 62 innings. First Baseman Warren Cromartie, the leadoff man in Raines's absence, was hitting .455, with an on-base percentage of .655 over his last six games. For their part, half of the Cardinals' pitching staff was hurting, and precious few hitters were delivering. "We need Garry Templeton, Keith Hernandez and George Hendrick to be hot," said Herzog. Only Templeton was even lukewarm.

So let's pick up the race, or what little seemed to be left of it.