domination at dodger stadium

i like a good pitchers' duel. especially when i am attending a game in person. there is more tension, and i think i pay closer attention to smaller parts of the game.  i've seen some good ones in person, although they are harder to come by living in an american league town. unfortunately for me, even though i was living in socal at the time, i was not in attendance at dodger stadium during what might have been the best weekend to witness pitcher dominance.

i've mentioned it before, i know, but the series between the dodgers and expos at the end of july in 1991 featured some great pitching performances and has to be one of the best series in terms of pitching dominance this side of the orioles in the 1966 fall classic. the three game series was capped on july 28, 1991 when dennis martinez threw a perfect game against the dodgers.  by definition, that is one of the greatest pitching performances of all-time.  however, two nights before, martinez' teammate mark gardner was almost as good - he was near-perfect through nine innings.

gardner had allowed walks in the first and eighth innings, but retired every other dodger to come to bat, along with one of those walks being erased on a double play, in the first nine innings of the game.  unfortunately for him, the dodger tandem of orel hershiser and kevin gross was almost as good. the two dodger pitchers each allowed just one hit and one walk through nine innings, and so the game went in to extras. in the top of the tenth, jay howell set the expos down 1-2-3. gardner lost the no-hitter in the bottom of the 10th when leadoff hitter lenny harris singled. he gave up another single to the next batter (murray), and was relieved by jeff fassero who promptly gave up the game winning single to darryl strawberry.

the game in between wasn't bad from a dodger point of view, with bob ojeda throwing a 5-hit shutout. that's a three game series that featured three shutouts, a perfect game, and a near no-hitter. not bad for the guys on the bump.

there have been plenty of cards paying tribute to martinez' perfect game, and i have many of them in my dodger stadium collection. this 2002 topps tribute card

is also in my dodger stadium collection, even though it is celebrating his career strikeout total exceeding the 2,000 milestone. martinez reached the milestone with cleveland, but i am glad topps used a photo of him in dodger stadium, even if it likely comes from that july day when he was at the top of not just his game, but the game period.