On April 7, 1970, the Phillies hosted the  Chicago Cubs in a memorable opening day game featuring a classic pitching duel — lefthander Chris Short going for the Phils and Ferguson Jenkins for the Cubs.

Short was on the downside of a career during which he was part of a potent the one-two tandum with Hall of Famer Jim Bunning from 1964-1967 with his best years being 1964-66.

Jenkins got his start with the Phils in 1965 and 1966 before going to the Cubs.  Jenkins was a perennial 20 game winner and ace of the Cubs staff between 1967 and 1973.

The Phils scored single runs off of Jenkins in the 3rd and 7th innings as winning pitcher Short pitched a complete game shutout giving up but 5 hits while walking 2 and striking out 3.   Jenkins, who was charged with the loss, gave up 8 hits, the 2 runs while walking 1 and striking out 3.  Cubs reliever  Phil Regan pitched the 8th inning.

Although winning on opening day, Chris Short finished up the 1970 season with a 9-16 and a 4.30 ERA for a Phillies team which finished in 5th place in the NL East, 1/2 game ahead of the last-place Montreal Expos.

Fergie Jenkins, who started the season by losing this game, finished with a 22-16 mark, a 3.39 ERA and 24 complete games for a Cubs team which finished in 2nd place in the NL East, 5 games behind the division winning Pittsburgh Pirates.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 6:41 pm and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, All Time Team Highlights, All Time Pitching Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.