Lasorda Pitches to Clark

October 16, 1985, Game 6 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium, attendance 55,208. The Dodgers led, 5–4, in the ninth. Tom Niedenfuer was in to protect the lead and force a seventh game. Tommy Lasorda had him walk Ozzie Smith. A groundout left runners on second and third with two out. First base was open. Jack Clark was the hitter. Andy Van Slyke, who had not been the threat Clark was in the series, was on deck.

Lasorda had ordered Clark walked the last three times he had come up with a runner in scoring position and first base open. This time he pitched to him. Clark hit the first pitch, a fastball, into the left-field bleachers. The Cardinals won, 7–5, and the pennant, four games to two. Niedenfuer took the loss.

Lasorda said afterward that it was the easiest thing in the world, after the fact, to say he should have walked Clark, and that a deep fly caught for the third out would have produced the opposite argument. The decision is in the entry because it was a choice, stated at the time, between an open base and a hitter. The home run is what the choice became.