Mark McGwire’s quest for 70 home runs aided by Expos pitching

During the summer of 1998, the Expos pitching staff did their best to help Mark McGwire.

With ESPN’s release of “Long Gone Summer”, the 30 for 30 documentary about the home run race of 1998, on the horizon, we take a look back at Mark McGwire and his quest for 70 dingers in a single season. More specifically we look at how the Montreal Expos aided McGwire in achieving the historic number in the last series of the season.

The 1998 version of the Expos was bad. 65 wins and 97 losses bad.

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The 1998 version of Mark McGwire was good. He was hitting home runs at a record pace and by the time the final series was about to kickoff, he had already bested Roger Maris‘ single-season home run record of 61.

As the Montreal Expos waltzed into town for the final four games of the year with the St. Louis Cardinals, McGwire was sitting on 65 home runs. Expos manager Felipe Alou famously quipped “We are not going to walk him like cowards”.

Who exactly would the Expos be running out to the mound to face McGwire? A 22-year-old rookie with a 5-14 record and 6 ERA named Javier Vazquez, Miguel Batista, a journeyman reliever who had 18 starts to his name, Dustin Hermanson, who would win 14 games on the year, and Mike Thurman, a 24-year-old rookie.

This group of pitchers wasn’t exactly Cy Young caliber and most would be outdueled by Anthony Young.

True to Alou’s words, McGwire was issued no intentional passes and walked only three times in the four-game series. Contrary to Alou’s wishes, McGwire stroked the ball and stroked it well. He had eight hits with five of them leaving the yard.

Against the ragtag group of pitchers McGwire upped his home run total to 70, the first time a baseball player had reached such heights in the history of the game.

What were the Expos pitchers supposed to do? Had they pitched around McGwire would anyone have really cared? Twenty years later would people remember them as cowards as opposed to pitchers who served up gopher balls?

Had I been the pitching coach, or Felipe Alou for that matter, I would not have let Carl Pavano pitch to McGwire with him sitting on 69 with one at-bat left in the season. I would have called time, walked to the mound, and said throw four pitches as far off the plate as you can without throwing a wild pitch. Actually throw the pitches to the backstop if you have to, just don’t let McGwire get wood on them.

In reality, the Expos pitchers are a side note and are most likely to go unmentioned in the 30 for 30 documentary. A side note which helped Mark McGwire reach a number of baseball purists thought would never be possible.