David Palmer was at the tail end of a slightly above-average decade-long career as a major league starter, mostly for the Montreal Expos, when he came to the Phillies. His biggest accomplishment had been throwing an unofficial perfect game for the Expos in '84, when he allowed no baserunners through five innings of a game that was eventually called for rain. Pitching for the Phillies against the St. Louis Cardinals on August 2nd, 1988, he wasn't quite perfect--Palmer walked three batters and gave up a single hit--but he went all nine innings this time, with an RBI double from Mike Schmidt and a Juan Samuel run on an errant throw being all the support he needed. The Phillies beat St. Louis 2-0, to move out of last place in the NL East with a 46-59 record.
""I could throw the same way against other teams and the balls find the holes," said Palmer, a vet obviously too experienced for self-delusion. "Tonight, they were right at guys. Tonight, I just went right at the Cardinals. I didn't fight myself." Pitching coach Claude Osteen similarly found it hard to feel too impressed, as the once-proud Cardinals were the team the Phils dropped into last with their win, and they'd scored just one run in their past three games.: "He was making lots of good pitches...of course, when you're going against a team that isn't hitting, it's hard to tell."
Palmer finished the season with a 7-5 record and a 4.47 ERA for the Phillies, who eventually did land in the cellar for good with a 65-96 record, ten and a half games back even of the Cardinals. Palmer signed with the Tigers the next season, starting just five games before his 7.79 ERA saw him yanked from the rotation for good.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/08/to...
