Toward the end of his Hall of Fame career, Fred McGriff gave the Cardinals something to remember him by.
A left-handed power hitter, McGriff slugged 22 regular-season home runs against the Cardinals and two more in the playoffs. The very last two came on June 21, 2002, in a Cardinals-Cubs classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The Friday afternoon game matched right-handers Woody Williams, 35, of the Cardinals and Jon Lieber, 32, of the Cubs. Both pitched with precision and smarts.
J.D. Drew, the second batter of the game, slammed a home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the first, before Lieber settled into a groove.
Williams retired the first 12 Cubs batters.
McGriff, who struck out his first time at the plate against Williams, led off the bottom of the fifth.
Traded by the Rays to the Cubs the year before (he made his Cubs debut against the Cardinals), McGriff, a first baseman, had led both the American League and National League in home runs (1989 with the Blue Jays and 1992 with the Padres), and had helped the Braves win two pennants and a World Series title. Video
At 38, he still was a force. (McGriff would produce 30 home runs and 103 RBI for the 2002 Cubs, giving him 10 seasons with 30 homers and eight seasons with 100 RBI.)
After McGriff worked the count to 3-and-1 in his at-bat in the fifth, Williams challenged him with a fastball. McGriff drove it out of the park for a home run, tying the score at 1-1.
When he came to bat again in the seventh, Williams jammed him with a fastball, but McGriff got around on it and belted another home run, which turned out to be the game-winner.
The Cubs won, 2-1. Williams pitched seven innings, walked none and allowed three hits _ the two McGriff home runs and a single by Lieber.
Lieber pitched a three-hit complete game and also walked none.
The game was played in a snappy one hour, 49 minutes _ the fastest involving the Cardinals since a May 1981 game against Steve Carlton and the Phillies that was completed in one hour, 45 minutes, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boxscore
“Several times, Williams and Lieber used more pitches while warming between innings than in securing their next three outs,” Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch observed.
Williams told the newspaper, “It’s the way the game is supposed to be played … The way baseball is today, it’s set up for a three-hour game, which is a crock.”
Asked about his decision to throw a fastball to McGriff with the score tied in the seventh, Williams told Strauss, “I threw exactly the type of pitch that I wanted to throw when it was a 1-1 game. I got beat.”
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa wanted Williams to work around McGriff and take his chances with other batters. Referring to the fastballs McGriff hit for home runs, La Russa told the Post-Dispatch, “We made a couple of pitching mistakes.”
Williams saw it differently: “I go right at him … I’m not pitching around him.” Boxscore
McGriff hit .389 versus Williams in his career. Four of his seven hits against him were home runs.