Have A Day, Leo Cardenas
You know I have this system of Game Scores for Hitters, which doesn’t include defense or park adjustments, but just summarizes all of a player’s hitting accomplishments for the game into one number.
Leonardo Lazaro (Alfonso) Cardenas played 1,941 games in his major league career, earning 199 Win Shares and being credited with 27.2 WAR. He made five all-star teams and was mentioned in the MVP voting three times. Listed at 5-11 and 150 pounds, some sources 160 pounds, he had extremely long arms but a thin torso which gave him a unique, spider-like appearance; I have never quite seen a body just like it. A shortstop, much of his value was in his defense, but he wasn’t a bad hitter, either, hitting .294 (1962), .287 (1965) and .280 (1969), double figures in home runs six times including 20 and 18, drove in 81 runs (1966), 75 (1971), 70 (1969) and 69 (1964). He drew as many as 66 walks in a season, won a Gold Glove and helped the Minnesota Twins win their division in 1969-1970. He hit 7th and 8th most of his career, but he was a really good hitter for a 7th/8th place hitter.
Anyway, my point here. You know I have this system for Game Scores for hitters. In the first game of a double header against the Cubs on June 5, 1966, Cardenas went 3-for-4 with 2 homers, 5 RBI—the best game of his career by Game Scores, scoring at 87.2.
And in the second game of the double header, he had the second-best game of his career! He went 3-for-4 again, hitting two more home runs and this time adding a double, although his Game Score was down to 80.7 since he drove in only 3 runs. Other than June 5, 1966, Cardenas never had a Game Score higher than 77.5.
Cardenas hit two homers in a game only four times in his career. Three of them were in the same week. On May 31, 1966, he homered twice against Juan Marichal. Cardenas was in the middle of a kind of incredible hot streak in which the 150-pound shortstop hit six home runs in four games, and eight homers in eight games. After homering in the 7th and 9th innings against Marichal on May 31 (Tuesday), Cardenal had two hits on Wednesday, did not get a hit on Wednesday but was intentionally walked twice, and had an RBI single on Thursday. Then he homered on Friday, homered four times on Saturday, and homered again on Monday, no game on Sunday, presumably a rainout, I don’t know. I would guess that he is the weakest hitter ever to hit 8 home runs in 8 consecutive games.
The only other player I know of who had his two best games in consecutive games was Ed Kirkpatrick, who had his two best games on September 28 and September 30, 1969, getting 4 hits and 2 homers in each game.
