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Originally Posted by DJLN
Pretty decent 'bulldog' outing from him.
Didn't have his best stuff, staked to a big lead, just gutted through 5 to help his BP out a little and retain the lead against a quality club.
Damn near anyone can be good when they bring their A stuff to the mound. The top of the rotation guys are guys who can get you to the finish line with their B stuff. Or guys that can give you 6 with 3 earned when they brought dick to the park that day.
As a kid in KC, Kevin Appier was a guy that could do that for the Royals. Even his bad days were days where he'd mitigate damage and get the job done. A less talented version of him then came to STL in Todd Stottlemeyer. And finally there was the guy I will FOREVER remember as a bulldog, Chris !@#$ing Carpenter. I will forever love that guy not for what he did on days that he was locked in, but for the things he did on days that he wasn't.
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Thought it best to put this in the repository as it was too good of a post to be lost in a game day thread.
It’s very true of Appier and Jack McDowell in that 1993 season.
In the 70’s and early 80’s that bulldog was Dennis Leonard. I was fortunate enough to see him when he was completely unhittable with that slider.
But on days he didn’t have that slider he would battle like a mother and, especially at home, the Royals would jump on a mistake by the other team and he could finish or turn it over to Quiz. Most of the time he finished the job himself.
As he was aging and had arm injuries (83-84 and 85) he relied on guile and location. One fine May Day I scored tickets in the 4th row behind home plate against the Orioles. Pretty sure it was 83. O’s had a great lineup. But Murray had been in a slump and hadn’t hit a HR in like 20 games.
Leo was pitching in the 4th and I think there were two on. He got Murray to foul off a couple of pitches but couldn’t get him to fish.
Count was full. Advantage Murray. Leo from the stretch rares back and for the first time I’d ever seen it, threw about an 80 MPH slurve like pitch. (Think vintage CWS Lamar Hoyt).
Murray saw it, but couldn’t trigger. Genuflected at it as it dropped in Sundberg’s glove. As Leonard was walking to the dugout Murray said loud enough for everyone in that section to hear:
“Where the **** did you find that (pitch)”?
Leonard snuck a grin and said “Been saving that for ya”! And kept on trucking to the dugout.
Murray said back to him - and Eddie Murray was a surly MF’er and great player
“**** you, mother ****er”.
Leonard laughed and the entire section broke into laughter.
Murray homered later in the game off Leonard to win it 1-0.
But by then Dennis Leonard wasn’t the same pitcher. Dude would throw 20 complete games a year at his peak. And that story you told reminded me of how tough a competitor he was.