History
October 16, 1985: Jack Clark’s first-pitch homer wins the pennant
With first base open and two outs in the ninth, the Dodgers pitched to Clark. His three-run homer completed St. Louis' fourth straight victory in the NLCS.
Jack Clark came to the plate with first base open and the Cardinals down to their last out. Tommy Lasorda kept Tom Niedenfuer on the mound and let him pitch to St. Louis’ cleanup hitter. Clark hit the first pitch into the left-field seats.
The three-run homer gave the Cardinals a 7-5 lead in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on October 16, 1985. Ken Dayley closed the ninth, and St. Louis had its pennant. The Dodgers had won the first two games of the series before losing four straight.1
Clark had arrived from San Francisco before the season and supplied power to Whitey Herzog’s lineup. He hit 22 regular-season home runs as the Cardinals won 101 games and the National League East. He was playing through rib trouble that autumn and had gone more than three weeks without a home run when the ninth inning began.2
The trade also brought a different assignment. Clark had been an outfielder in San Francisco; with St. Louis he played first base and drove in 87 regular-season runs. He became an All-Star for the third time in 1985. The pennant race had given the Cardinals reason to value that acquisition before the postseason began, and the deciding NLCS game would give it a lasting place in franchise history.2
St. Louis first had to recover from a 4-1 deficit. Orel Hershiser had taken the Dodgers into the seventh, but the Cardinals scored three times in that inning to tie it. Willie McGee drove in two runs, and Ozzie Smith tripled home the tying run. The rally brought Niedenfuer into the game.3
Niedenfuer had already been beaten by Smith’s walk-off homer in Game 5, leaving St. Louis ahead three games to two.4 That game was played on October 14. The teams returned to Los Angeles for Game 6, with the Dodgers needing two home victories to advance.1
In Game 6, Niedenfuer stopped the seventh-inning rally and the Dodgers reclaimed the lead in the eighth. Mike Marshall homered off Todd Worrell to make it 5-4. Los Angeles needed three more outs to force a deciding game at Dodger Stadium.3
The ninth opened with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Cesar Cedeno. McGee then singled and stole second. A walk to Smith put two runners aboard, and Tommy Herr’s groundout moved them to second and third. That left the open base and brought Clark up with two outs.1
Walking Clark would have filled the bases for Andy Van Slyke. Lasorda chose to face Clark, who had struck out against Niedenfuer in the seventh. Gordon Edes’ next-day report in the Los Angeles Times recorded that earlier strikeout as an influence on Lasorda’s decision.5
Niedenfuer’s first pitch was a fastball. Clark drove it deep enough to score both runners and himself, turning a one-run deficit into a two-run lead. The hit delivered three of the four RBI Clark recorded in the series.2
Dayley retired the Dodgers without a hit in the bottom of the ninth, striking out two. Worrell received the victory after allowing Marshall’s homer; Niedenfuer took his second loss of the series. The Cardinals finished with 12 hits, including three from McGee. Clark had two hits in five at-bats.3
The decisive at-bat ended after one pitch, with the tying run coming from third and the go-ahead run from second. Clark crossed the plate behind both runners. His only home run of that NLCS had produced the final lead change in a game the Cardinals had twice trailed.6
