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August 10, 1972 Montreal GazetteBy Ian MacDonald Montreal Gazette August 10, 1972 CHICAGO, IL: Mike Marshall maintains that there isn’t any great secret to becoming a great pitcher--which he is. “You must know what you have to do, know what you can do,” Marshall says, “and then go out and do it. There’s nothing else you can do. What happens will happen.” What happened yesterday here yesterday is what has been taking place every time that Marshall has run to the mound for better than a month. The best that Marshall has is too much for the opposition, and when the game is close with Marshall on the mound, school is out for the other side. Manager Gene Mauch called on Marshall under rather precarious circumstances this time, but Mike was master of the challenge. Spurred by Marshall’s sterling work, the offense came alive and the Expos went on to take a “laugher,” 8-2 from this city’s stunned Cubs. “He’s the best around,” Cubs’ shortstop star Don Kessinger said. “I don’t know of anybody better. He makes you do what he wants.” Kessinger was an interesting person to discuss the subject with because he was the first man to face Marshall when Mike was summoned with one run in and the score tied at two, runners on first and third and nobody out in the seventh. Kessinger fanned. Jose Cardenal then grounded between first and second, but Ron Fairly made a fine grab and forced Glenn Beckert at the plate. Then Marshall picked Carmen Fanzone off second to end the threat. “That was a great play by Fairly,” Marshall said. “That relieved the pressure.” “And Tim Foli calls the pickoff play. It’s all his doing, I just throw the ball. Give Tim the blame--or credit in this case.” The Expos went on to score an unearned go-ahead run in the eighth, and after Marshall mowed the Cubs down again, Mauch’s men wreaked havoc on the Cubbies’ bullpen with a six-hit, five-run outburst that saw 11 men come to bat. “Mike Marshall is the best relief pitcher that I have ever seen,” Mauch told newsmen after the reliever took over second place on the entire mound staff with 10 wins. ,br> “I’m not qualifying that at all. He’s the best I’ve ever seen. “He has the best pickoff moves in the league. He is an outstanding fielder. And he has superior quality pitches.” “Marshall has a weapon for every batter in the league. That isn’t to say that he will get every batter out, but he knows what he has to do against every batter and he can do it.” Marshall has now gone 34 2/3 innings in 16 appearances without allowing an earned run. Though he walked two and hit a batter in his three-inning stint, he allowed only one ball to be hit out of the infield and that was a lazy fly by Ron Santo to left. Tim McCarver contributed another fine performance behind the plate. Tim scored the Expos first two runs and drove home what proved to be the winner in the seventh with his second single. And he blocked the plate perfectly when Fairly made that important throw to squelch the budding rally. It was easy to talk about Marshall only on this occasion as the 29-year-old screwball thrower lowered his ERA to an unbelievable 1.34. Mike has 12 saves to go along with his 10-3 record, and therefore has figured in 22 of the Expos’ 45 victories. |
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