Brad Penny is now one of a select group of St. Louis Cardinals pitchers with a grand slam. Bob Gibson, who watched Penny’s shot Friday night, has two.
It only seemed fitting.
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson was in the house at Busch Stadium Friday night to commemorate the fan giveaway of a replica statue of his likeness.
When Brad Penny shot a bases loaded home run over the outfield wall in the third inning, it was the ninth grand slam by a Cardinals pitcher since at least 1952. Only one man has two and he happened to be in the FOX Sports Midwest booth at the time – Gibson. Upon questioning, he was quite aware of his feat.
Gibson’s first grand slam was in 1965 with the other in 1973. The latter was the last of his 24 career long balls. Gibson retired in 1975.
Oddly, the most recent two St. Louis pitcher grand slams came against former Cardinals starters. Joel Pineiro was Penny’s victim Friday night while Kip Wells served up Chris Carpenter‘s shot last October 1. Prior to Carpenter’s home run, it had been over 11 years since it had been done.
St. Louis Cardinals grand slams, pitcher, 1952-current
| Date | Batter | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | Out | RBI |
| 5/21/2010 | Brad Penny | ANA | Joel Piniero | tied 4-4 | b 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 10/1/2009 | Chris Carpenter | @CIN | Kip Wells | ahead 1-0 | t 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 9/2/1998 | Kent Mercker | @FLA | Jesus Sanchez | ahead 3-0 | t 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 9/7/1996 | Donovan Osborne | SDP | Andy Ashby | tied 1-1 | b 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 8/10/1986 | Bob Forsch | PIT | Mike Bielecki | ahead 1-0 | b 5 | 0 | 4 |
| 5/15/1984 | Joaquin Andujar | ATL | Jeff Dedmon | ahead 5-1 | b 8 | 2 | 4 |
| 8/21/1973 | Rick Wise | @ATL | Roric Harrison | ahead 3-0 | t 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 7/26/1973 (1) | Bob Gibson | NYM | John Strohmayer | ahead 6-1 | b 5 | 0 | 4 |
| 9/29/1965 | Bob Gibson | @SFG | Gaylord Perry | ahead 4-0 | t 8 | 1 | 4 |
Since 1952, Cardinals pitchers have hit 106 home runs.
| Type | Number |
| Grand slam | 9 |
| Three-run | 14 |
| Two-run | 20 |
| Bases-empty | 63 |
| total | 106 |
| Pitcher HR leaders | Home runs | Grand slams |
| Bob Gibson | 24 | 2 |
| Bob Forsch | 12 | 1 |
| Adam Wainwright | 5 | 0 |
| Rick Wise | 4 | 1 |
| Joe Magrane | 4 | 0 |
Thanks to statistician Tom Orf for pulling the detailed data summarized above.
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