To make matters worse, on May 12, 1973, he was hit by a pitch this time from Ramón Hernández of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite playing with pain due to the injury, he still led the team in RBIs. In the National League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Staub hit three home runs and had five runs batted in. In Game 4 he made an outstanding play defensively, when he robbed Dan Driessen of an extra-base hit in the 11th inning. But while making the catch in right field, he crashed into the fence and separated his right shoulder. The injury forced him out of the lineup for Game 5. The Mets went on to beat the heavily favored Reds to win the National League Pennant in 5 games. In the World Series the shoulder injury forced him out of Game 1. But he returned to the lineup for Game 2, but had to throw underhanded and weakly for the remainder of the World Series. Despite the injury, he batted .423 against the Oakland Athletics including a home run and six runs batted in. For the 1973 postseason he batted .341 with 4 home runs and 11 runs batted in and was noted for making 2 catches colliding into the wall in game 4 of the NLCS 9 Oct 73. The collisions were impetus to apply padding to the outfield walls at all ball parks.