This is the fourth in FOXSportsWisconsin.com's five-part series on the 25th anniversary of the Milwaukee Brewers' 13-0 start to the 1987 season.
Sunday: 13-0 still special 25 years later
Monday: Juan Nieves' no-hitter makes it 9-0
Tuesday: The Easter Sunday Game
Today: 13-1. Now what?
Thursday: Free George Webb hamburgers for everyone!
The general mood of the Milwaukee Brewers players inside their clubhouse following the most improbable victory in franchise history contained a mixture of joy, relief and disbelief.
Had they really just scored five ninth-inning runs to rally for a 6-4 Easter Sunday victory against the Texas Rangers? How in the world had this team won 12 consecutive games to open the 1987 season? And when would this magical journey end?
Sorting out all the answers could come later. In the immediate aftermath of victory No. 12, the Brewers were simply happy to still be on top of the baseball world.
Brewers rookie starting pitcher Mark Ciardi distinctly recalls fellow starter Mike Birkbeck running into the clubhouse and pretending to throw a monkey off his back. Birkbeck had been in line for the loss on Easter before the ninth-inning rally that changed history.
While Ciardi was in high spirits, he also recognized that Birkbeck's celebration meant the weight of the winning streak might fall directly on his right arm soon.
"He was laughing because I had to pitch, so he knew all the pressure was going to be on me," Ciardi said.
When Ciardi received his opportunity to continue the winning streak two days later, the pressure of the moment proved too much. On April 21, 1987, the 25-year-old rookie fifth starter with four years of minor league success buckled, and the Chicago White Sox cruised to a 7-1 victory against Milwaukee in Old Comiskey Park.
Two days after the Easter Sunday miracle, the league record-tying 13-game winning streak to start a season was over.
"I was very nervous," said Ciardi, who now co-owns a movie production company in California. "It's a lot more before the game. You're nervous at every game. But that was a lot of pressure. I just didn't throw well. Once I got out there, all my pitches were high."
Ciardi opened the game by striking out White Sox leadoff hitter Gary Redus looking.
"And it was downhill from there," Ciardi said. "It was like a World Series atmosphere."
White Sox second baseman Donnie Hill launched a solo home run one batter later, and Ciardi and the Brewers never recovered. Ciardi lasted 2 1/3 innings and was roughed up for five runs — all earned — on seven hits with three strikeouts and a walk. By the end of the third inning, Milwaukee trailed, 5-0.
"We always had trouble with the White Sox," former Brewers manager Tom Trebelhorn said. "All you had to do was put a White Sox uniform on and we were in trouble. We could beat Toronto, Detroit, Boston. But we always had trouble with the White Sox. I cannot figure it out to this day."
Even for a Brewers team that had shown an uncanny ability to produce late-game turnarounds, the early five-run hole was enough to put it away for good.
Milwaukee ended the day 13-1 and still held a two-game lead for first place in the American League East.
"It was devastating," then-Brewers outfielder Rob Deer said of the loss. "It really was. It wasn't like, 'Oh, we're 13-1 now.' I was crushed that we lost the game. It was weird because we didn't know what that felt like. We were so up.
"I remember the last out, we were like, 'Wow, this is so weird.' It was really surreal to walk back up to the clubhouse knowing we had lost a game. We were in first place and the world knew about us."
The mood in the clubhouse following the loss represented a stark contrast from the Easter Sunday celebration two days earlier, when Deer hit a game-tying three-run home run and Dale Sveum launched a two-run walk-off homer.
Ciardi, who earned his only major league victory during the 13-game winning streak, said he received words of encouragement from his teammates.
"With baseball, you never think something is going to last forever," Ciardi said. "We tied a major league record. It's the start of the season. No one is going to think you're going to go undefeated. Unfortunately, I was thrown front and center and had to pitch that 14th game. There were a lot of veterans, and they picked me up."
Ciardi would appear in just one more game for the Brewers. One week later, on April 28, he surrendered four runs on 11 hits in five innings of work and received a no-decision. He had allowed 17 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings in four appearances, and with his ERA at 9.37, the Brewers sent Ciardi down to Triple-A Denver.
Although he had shown promise in his first four minor league seasons, going 44-24, Ciardi never again reached the big leagues. He retired following the 1988 season when he realized his dream of returning to the majors was likely over.
"There was a part during the middle of the (1987) season when they were going to call me up, and then I hurt my back and I finished up pretty well in Denver," Ciardi said. "I thought I was going to get called up at the end of the year. Then I didn't. I kind of knew maybe I wasn't in their plans.
"That season was still amazing. I wish I would have known I wasn't going to be up there that long. I would have grabbed some uniforms or something."
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