On September 6, 1988, Jose DeLeon outdueled Montreal's Dennis Martinez in a 1-0 win over the Expos at Busch. DeLeon scattered three hits, struck out twelve, and scored the lone run of the contest. The run came in the third inning after DeLeon doubled off of Martinez then was knocked in by Vince Coleman. Whitey Herzog pointed out two key defensive plays that kept the Expos from doing any damage, the first was a diving stop by second baseman Jose Oquendo in the seventh that kept a runner from scoring. Then catcher Tony Pena nailed Rex Hudler who was trying to steal a base in the eighth to stop any momentum the Montreal squad thought they had. It was a true duel at Busch as Martinez matched DeLeon by giving up only three hits, the Cardinals pitcher picked up two of those three. DeLeon's 12 strikeouts were the most for a Cardinals pitcher since Pete Vuckovich recorded the same amount in June of '79 and they brought his strikeout total to 178 on the season. DeLeon would finish the '88 campaign with a total of 208 K's, it was the first time a pitcher had reached the 200 strikeout mark since Bob Gibson struck out 208 men in 1972. DeLeon followed it up with 201 strikeouts in '89.Check out the box score: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198809060.shtml
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