Cardinals-Cubs Game Called on Account of Darkness

Apr. 12, 1965 - The St. Louis Cardinals today played 11 dreary innings in four hours and 19 minutes to a 10-10 tie against the Chicago Cubs before the game was called because of darkness. 

The Cards nursed a 9-6 lead with two outs in the ninth before knuckleballer Barney Schultz was called into action to face Ernie Banks, who belted Schultz’s 2-2 pitch into the left field seats with two men on to produce a tie.

The Cards bunched three singles in the 11th for a run, but the Cubs came back on rookie Roberto Pena’s single, a passed ball, and Ron Santo’s double to tie again.

New St. Louis manager Red Schoendienst brought in lefthander Steve Carlton to pitch to George Altman, who walked, and then called on his sixth pitcher of the game, Bob Purkey, to pitch to Banks, who flied out.

Schoendienst ordered Doug Clemens to be intentionally walked to fill the bases, and Purkey got Vic Roznovsky on a fly to Mike Shannon to end the inning.The Cubs made five errors to help the Cardinals to four unearned runs, but the Cards outhit the Cubs, 17 to 12. St. Louis left 15 runners stranded against 10 for Chicago.

The Cubs used seven of their 12 pitchers, and the total by both teams was only two short of the league record in an extra-inning game. 

Card catcher Bob Uecker, playing because Tim McCarver has a broken hand, collided with the wall chasing a foul and wound up in the hospital for X-rays for an injury to his left knee. Third-string catcher Dave Ricketts finished the game.

The game will be played over in its entirety, but all the records count. The date for the replay will be set later.

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