Tudor vintage in '85

ST. LOUIS -- The parallels are striking. Like Jeff Suppan, he began his career with the Red Sox. Like Suppan, he pitched for the Pirates. Like Suppan, his finest moments came with the Cardinals. And like Suppan, he pitched Game 4 of the World Series.

That's where the parallels end. (Suppan went six innings last night, allowing three runs and eight hits in the Cardinals' 5-4 victory over the Tigers.) For one thing, John Tudor is lefthanded. For another, when Andy Van Slyke, the first base coach of the Tigers and former Tudor teammate on the Cardinals, was asked to name the pitcher who had the greatest overlooked season in the last quarter-century, he instantly responded, "John Tudor."

"I had a great year," said Tudor, who grew up in Peabody and now lives in Middleton, Mass., and coaches his 15-year-old daughter and 13-year-old twin boys in sports, mostly hockey. "But what are you going to do? You can't argue with what Doc Gooden did."

In 1985, Tudor was 21-8 for the Cardinals, but you have to dig a little deeper. From June 1 to the end of the season, Tudor in 26 games was 20-1 with a 1.37 ERA and had 13 complete games. He threw 10 shutouts, including five in his last eight starts. Opponents batted .199 against him. In 210 innings, he struck out 137 and walked 33.

After losing to the Dodgers in his first postseason start, Tudor won three straight games, one against the Dodgers in the NLCS and two against the Royals in the World Series, allowing two earned runs in 22 2/3 innings.

"If he'd pitched great in Game 7," Van Slyke said yesterday, "people would still be talking about John Tudor to this day."

Ten shutouts. Think about that. Chris Carpenter of the Cardinals and Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks led the big leagues this season with three. Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, with 10 in 1975, is the only pitcher other than Tudor to have 10 or more shutouts in a season since Hall of Famer Bob Gibson had 13 in 1968. Only three lefthanders in history have thrown 10 or more shutouts in a season: Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax (11 in 1963) and Carl Hubbell (10 in 1933), and Tudor.

"He threw two pitches," Van Slyke said. "Fastball and a changeup. But he had a better changeup than [Tom ] Glavine. I think Glavine overall had better command, but nobody had better command of fastball-changeup than John Tudor had that year."

Do pitchers, like hitters, get in a zone?

"You try not to let the bubble break," Tudor said by phone yesterday. "I tried to ignore everything positive. That was kind of natural for me."

Van Slyke laughed when Tudor's words were relayed to him.

"He's the most negative ballplayer I've ever known," Van Slyke said, "by multiples of 100."

There were two factors working in his favor when he was with the Cardinals, Tudor said. "We had a great defensive ball club," he said of a team that had Gold Glovers at short (Ozzie Smith) and third (Terry Pendleton) and in right field (Van Slyke) and center (Willie McGee), as well as the fastest man in baseball in left field (Vince Coleman), "and a big ballpark.

"Not to take away from what happened, but a lot of mistakes we made on the mound never showed up on the scoreboard."

Van Slyke's take on the Cardinals' defense? "We had stinkin' rabbits everywhere," he said. "The best defensive team I've ever been on."

But Tudor did not win Game 7 that year. After getting unwanted publicity for a verbal scrap with reporters after his Game 4 triumph, one that gave the Cardinals a 3-1 series lead, and after the Cardinals were robbed of a Series title by Don Denkinger's blown call in Game 6, Tudor unraveled early in Game 7, taking the loss to Bret Saberhagen's Royals, 11-0. Before leaving the dugout, Tudor punched an electric fan, cutting his hand.

"I tried to hit the fan, but missed it," Tudor said. "I slipped off the lip of the bench and caught it with the middle knuckle of my index finger and clipped it. Some knucklehead at the ballpark had to make a phone call and told someone I had left to get it sutured, otherwise no one would have known about it."

When the season ended, Tudor lost the Cy Young Award to Gooden, the fastballing sensation who went 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts. Gooden received all 24 first-place votes.

Tudor hurt his shoulder the next season and still won 13 games. The year after that, Mets catcher Barry Lyons collided with him in the dugout and broke his leg. He got back to the World Series with the Cardinals in '87, but with a chance to close out the Twins in Game 6, Tudor was knocked around, and the Twins won the Series the next night. Tudor finally got a ring the next year with the Dodgers, but faced just one batter out of the bullpen.

"I didn't earn that one," he said. "I would have loved to get a ring with the Cardinals."

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez broke his 0-for-23 postseason skid with a second-inning single and went 3 for 4. The longest hitless string in a postseason is Bobby Bonilla's 0 for 24 with the Orioles in 1996. The most plate appearances in a Series without a hit is 22, by Billy Sullivan of the 1906 White Sox, a team immortalized as the Hitless Wonders. Entering last night's game, both the Cardinals (.196) and Tigers (.185) were batting under .200 for the Series. The only time a Series has ended with the teams below .200 was 1906, when the Hitless Wonders (.198) actually outhit their cross-town counterparts, the Cubs (.196) . . . Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has elected to go with Game 2 starter Jeff Weaver over Game 1 starter Anthony Reyes for Game 5. The rookie Reyes retired 17 in a row and 22 of 23 in one stretch during his 7-2 win over the Tigers, but La Russa elected not to deviate from his plan of bringing back Weaver in Game 5, especially now that he'll be on regular rest because of the rainout.