A consistently effective starter and occasional reliever for the Padres for over five seasons, Dravecky was traded to the Giants in mid-1987 in a seven-player swap that included Mark Davis, Kevin Mitchell, and Craig Lefferts. He was outstanding in the 1987 LCS, tossing a two-hit shutout in Game Two and running his LCS scoreless-inning string to a record-tying 16, but he made only seven starts in 1988 before going on the DL with what turned out to be a career- and life-threatening cancerous tumor in his pitching arm. He made a surprisingly successful comeback attempt in mid-1989, winning two games before his weakened arm snapped as he threw a pitch. He rebroke it during the Giants’ LCS victory celebration.
