While the Mets and Phillies did their best to delay the inevitable, the San Diego Padres struggled to get home.
After the first five NL games were completed Thursday, New York and Philadelphia played 15 rainy, uneventful innings at Veterans Stadium before the Phillies pulled out a 2-1 win.Meanwhile in Houston, the Padres, their bags packed and aboard a California-bound airplane following an 8-6 afternoon win over the Astros, sat helplessly on the tarmac with a flat tire.
Not a bad analogy for the state of baseball on this 12th day of August.
With no talks planned or scheduled, the extraordinary 1994 season came to an abrupt stop with players packing up their belongings and fans seeking entertainment alternatives.
Obviously the "STRIKE" headlines obscured the games, but there were some notable performances on what could have been the season's final day.
- Greg Maddux continued his domination of NL hitters and pursuit of an unprecedented third straight Cy Young Award with a three-hit shutout at Colorado. With the Rockies' planned move to Coors Field next season, it was possibly the final baseball game at Mile High Stadium.
- Tony Gwynn, trying to become baseball's first .400 hitter since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, went 3-for-5 in Houston to raise his average to .394. He needed a 6-for-6 performance to reach .400.
Dodgers 2, Reds 0
At Cincinnati, Ramon Martinez (12-7) beat Cincinnati for the third time this season and Tim Wallach homered for the Dodgers.
Martinez pitched a seven-hitter for his third shutout and struck out seven as the Dodgers won their fifth in six games.
Padres 8, Astros 6
At Houston, the Astros, playing their first game without Jeff Bagwell, blew a chance to move into first place in the NL Central.
The Astros remained one-half game behind Cincinnati. Bagwell, leading the majors with 116 RBI, is out 3-5 weeks after breaking his hand when he was hit by a pitch Wednesday.
Braves 13, Rockies 0
At Denver, Fred McGriff hit his 34th homer and David Justice hit his 19th and drove in four runs as the Braves pounded out 20 hits to back Maddux.
Maddux lowered his major league-leading ERA to 1.56 with his third shutout.
Pirates 4, Expos 0
At Pittsburgh, the Expos hardly looked like the team with the best record in baseball, going quietly into the strike by losing to Zane Smith.
Cardinals 8, Marlins 6
At Miami, Tom Pagnozzi hit a home run for the third consecutive game and three teammates also homered, giving St. Louis a rain-shortened victory.
Phillies 2, Mets 1, 15 innings
At Philadelphia, the last four innings were played in a steady light rain.
Only about 5,000 of the original 37,605 fans remained when Billy Hatcher scored the winning run on Ricky Jordan's single in the bottom of the 15th.