After an eight-year run of success that included a World Series title in 1980 and a National League pennant in 1983, the Phillies had slipped to .500 and then below over the last couple seasons. In 1986, the Phils started the season looking like the downward trend was going to continue. But they turned it around, played some nice baseball and even though a behemoth in their own division kept them from real contention, the 1986 Philadelphia Phillies ended up a winning team who would have made the playoffs by the more lenient standards of the modern era.
Mike Schmidt was the key to the lineup for the Phillies and the Hall of Fame third baseman won the last of his three MVP awards in 1986. Schmidt’s 37 home runs, 119 RBIs and .547 slugging percentage all led the National League. His on-base percentage was a sparkling .390. It was a magnificent performance by any standard, and even more so considering Schmidt was now 36-years-old.
On the other side of the infield was Von Hayes. The first baseman posted a stat line of .379 on-base percentage/.480 slugging percentage. He scored 107 runs and drove in 98 more. Gary Redus played left field and finished with a .343 OBP. The Phillie lineup was not deep—Juan Samuel was still coming into his own at second base. The same went for young center fielder Milt Thompson. But the combination of Schmidt and Hayes was enough for Philadelphia to finish second in the National League in runs scored.
The pitching staff underwent a makeover in the offseason. The Phils traded John Denny, who had won the Cy Young Award in 1983, but was on the downside of his career. It proved a good move. Denny continued his decline in Cincinnati. In return Philadelphia got both Redus, along with relief pitcher Tom Hume, and Hume finished with a 2.77 ERA in 1986.
But that deal paled in comparison to the theft the Philly front office pulled off against Atlanta. The Phils gave up two players, the best of whom was a respectable catcher in Ozzie Virgil. In return, they not only got Thompson back to play center, but added Steve Bedrosian for the bullpen. In 1986, Bedrosian saved 29 games with a 3.39 ERA. In 1987, he won the Cy Young Award. Yes, that deal worked out pretty well.
Bedrosian and Hume were part of a bullpen that included 39-year-old Kent Tekulve. Once the closer for a championship team in Pittsburgh, Tekulve was still effective in the setup role, working 110 innings with a 2.54 ERA. Don Carman was another valuable arm, going back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen and finishing with a 3.22 ERA.
It’s good the bullpen was deep and reliable, because the starting pitching was not. Kevin Gross was a workhorse at the top, making 36 starts and logging over 240 innings. But his 4.02 ERA was too high for a staff ace. No one else made more than thirty starts. Bruce Ruffin did good part-time work, going 9-4 with a 2.46 ERA in his twenty starts. Shane Rawley was respectable. But there was no depth or consistency.
Maybe the problems with the Phillies’ rotation can be underscored by this—the legendary Steve Carlton, a future Hall of Famer and ace of this franchise’s best teams in recent years, made 16 starts and ended with a 6.18 ERA. On June 24, the Phils had to part ways with the great lefthander. That departure was the most notable thing about the 1986 Phils’ starting rotation. The staff ERA ended up seventh in the 12-team National League.
The alignment of Major League Baseball prior to 1994 was that each league had just two divisions, an East and a West. Only the first-place team would advance to the postseason. If you were in a division that had a heavyweight you were out of luck. And in 1986, everyone in the NL East outside of Queens, New York was out of luck.
The Mets were a heavy favorite in the preseason and they validated that confidence. Philadelphia lost four of six to New York in the early going. Late in the spring, they were swept by Montreal and then went 2-7 on a West Coast road trip. By the time Memorial Day arrived, the Phillies were 15-24, in last place and 12 ½ games behind the Mets.
It was the early summer that things started to turn upward. When the same three West Coast teams—the Giants, Dodgers and Padres—made return trips East, the Phils got some payback. They went 8-1. Later in June, they went to St. Louis—who had won the NL East the year before—and took three straight. By the All-Star break, Philadelphia was 42-43. They were stuck 17 ½ games behind New York, but a winning season was now a possibility.
The Phils were slow out of the break and went 5-8 in a stretch of games against the Cardinals and Cubs. The mighty Mets came rolling into to the old Vet on August 11 for a three-game set. New York took the first game and then hit a leadoff home run off Gross to start the second game. But that proved to be another turning point.
Gross threw a complete-game, the bats got him three runs in the third and Philadelphia won 3-1. The following night, a two-run blast from Schmidt staked Ruffin to an early lead, the starter went eight strong innings and the Phils took the series with an 8-4 win. Then they ripped off 13 wins in their next 18 games.
On the final weekend of August, Philadelphia hosted San Francisco. The Giants had been out front in the NL West for a chunk of the summer, but were starting to fade. These were two teams going in the opposite direction and that’s what this series showed.
In Friday night’s opener, Hayes and catcher John Russell had three-hit nights to key a 6-4 win. Hayes, along with Schmidt, each homered on Saturday to lead the way to a 5-3 win. Schmidt homered one more time in the Sunday finale. Gross pitched six innings, left with a 4-3 lead and let Tekulve and Bedrosian tidy up the sweep.
The Phillies continued to play well in September. They won five of the six games against the Mets. And they gave the great Philadelphia fans some excitement in the final two games of the season. A Saturday night affair with the Expos went 14 innings. Three straight singles should have won it for the Phils, except that Schmidt was thrown out at the plate. No problem—Russell singled in the game-winner. Then Philadelphia won the finale 2-1 in extra innings, scoring the winning run on a passed ball.
It was a fitting and fun way to end the season. The Phillies finished 86-75. The fact the Mets won 108 kept that under the radar. But Schmidt’s individual season did not go unnoticed. And the Phils’ record was the third-best in the National League. By the standards of today, they would have been a hot team going into the playoffs as a wild-card. By the standards of 1986, they were simply a good baseball team that deserves recognition.
Two teams with very different histories met in the 1993 World Series. The Toronto Blue Jays might have been an expansion franchise, but they had become baseball’s most consistent team over the last decade and were looking to seal a dynasty by winning a second consecutive championship. The Philadelphia Phillies were one of the game’s oldest and most traditional organizations. But the Phils were the surprise team in this Fall Classic, having jumped out of nowhere after a decade of irrelevance.
You can more about the season-long paths the Jays and Phillies took to win their respective division titles, their key players and game-by-game narratives of their triumphs in the League Championship Series at the links below. This article will focus strictly on the games of the 1993 World Series.
The ’93 World Series opened up on a Saturday night at Skydome, the name Toronto’s Rogers Centre used to go by. Both teams had their aces lined up to pitch Game 1. Juan Guzman, fresh of two wins in the ALCS, was going for Toronto. A 26-year-old Curt Schilling, making his first appearance in the postseason, was looking to build on his NLCS MVP performance for Philadelphia.
A potent Phillie offense wasted no time. Lenny Dykstra led off with a walk, stole second and scored on an opposite field base hit from John Kruk. After another walk by Guzman, Darren Daulton delivered an RBI single. It was 2-0 and there were still runners on the corners and none out. Guzman buckled down to strike out Jim Eisenreich and Ricky Jordan and end the inning.
Toronto made their first move on Schilling on the bottom of the second. Joe Carter and John Olerud started the frame with singles. After a wild pitch moved them both up, Paul Molitor singled in both runs to tie the game.
More back and forth followed in the third. This time it was Mariano Duncan getting aboard for the Phils, stealing second and coming home on an RBI base hit from Kruk. But in the bottom of the inning, an error by Philadelphia left fielder Milt Thompson set up Carter to tie it back up with a sac fly.
The fifth inning was more of the same. Duncan tripled and scored on a wild pitch to give the Phillies the lead. Devon White answered in the bottom of the inning with a two-out home run. We had a 4-4 tie.
By rights, Philadelphia should have scored in the sixth when they got three singles and a walk. But in between all that, Thompson’s rough night continued when he grounded into a double play. A young Al Leiter, on in relief of Guzman, escaped unscathed. And when Olerud homered off Schilling in the inning’s bottom half, the Blue Jays had a 5-4 lead.
The Phils turned to their own bullpen, but David West could not keep the score tight. Pat Borders and Rickey Henderson hit one-out singles in the seventh. White and Roberto Alomar doubled. It was 8-4 and the game was broken open. Philadelphia picked up a run in the ninth, but the 8-5 final did not get tight again.
Toronto now held command position. Their #2 arm, Dave Stewart, was fresh off winning ALCS MVP and was one of the great big-game pitchers of his time. Philadelphia had to answer Stewart with lefty Terry Mulholland.
After a couple scoreless innings, the Phillies again drew first blood and again it started with a Dykstra walk. This one was followed by a Duncan walk. Kruk blooped a single to bring in one run. Dave Hollins singled and it was 2-0. Daulton grounded out. The runners moved up to second and third. That didn’t matter, because Eisenreich unloaded with a three-run blast. The Phils had made Stewart bleed and had a 5-0 lead.
Toronto’s lineup was deep and there was still a lot of game left. Molitor started the bottom of the fourth with a single and Carter hit a home run of his own. In the bottom of the sixth, Alomar knocked a two-out single and scored when Tony Fernandez doubled into the left field gap. Mulholland was chased and at 5-3 we had a ballgame going into the final three innings.
The Blue Jays were into their bullpen and Dykstra homered in the seventh to push the lead to 6-3. The Phils loaded the bases with one out in the eighth and had a chance to break it open for good. But Mike Timlin came out of the Toronto pen, struck out Duncan and held the score right there.
Timlin’s clutch work looked even bigger when Molitor doubled to lead off the eighth, stole third and scored on a sac fly. Alomar worked a walk and stole second. The Phils had turned to closer Mitch Williams, but the relief pitcher known as “The Wild Thing” had a way of putting his team and their fans on a roller-coaster.
But tonight he picked off Alomar and finished the eighth. Even though Fernandez walked in the ninth, Williams finished the game by getting a double play ground ball. With the 6-4 win, the Phillies had a road split and were heading back home for the next three games.
On Tuesday night, Philadelphia was on fire for the first World Series game at the old Vet since 1983. Danny Jackson, who pitched a gem in a must-win NLCS spot, was on the mound. Pat Hentgen—steady, consistent and a future Cy Young Award winner, was going for Toronto.
Jackson didn’t have the same stuff he’d enjoyed in his NLCS start. Henderson singled to start the game. White walked. Molitor tripled both runners in, then scored on a sac fly from Carter. Just like that, it was 3-0 Jays.
The Phils were primed to immediately get back in it when Duncan and Kruk singled, then moved up on a throwing error by Carter. With runners on second and third and one out, Hollins and Daulton both struck out.
It set the tone for the night. Molitor homered in the third to make it 4-0. A leadoff double from Kruk in the bottom of the fourth was wasted. Alomar led off the top of the sixth, stole both second and third and scored on a sac fly from Fernandez.
Eisenreich came up with a two-out RBI single to make it 5-1 after six, but the Blue Jay bats just piled on for more. Henderson doubled and White tripled in the seventh, keying a three-run rally. The final ended up 10-3, with Alomar adding an RBI triple to complete his four-hit night.
Wednesday night’s Game 4 would become one of the most famous in World Series history, at least among games that didn’t clinch a title. To say the bats were rolling…well, it would have been an understatement.
Tommy Greene was the Phils’ #2 starter and pitched extremely well in the clinching game of the NLCS. But the Blue Jays were on him from the outset. Henderson led the game off with a double. White worked a walk. Carter beat out an infield hit. The bases were loaded with one out. Greene got Olerud to pop out and was in position to escape. But Molitor walked, forcing in a run, Fernandez hit a two-run single and for the second straight night, the Phillie bats were down 3-0 before getting to the plate.
But Toronto starter Todd Stottlemyre was wild. He walked four men in the first inning. With a run in, the bases loaded and two outs, the Phils got a hit of their own—a triple from Thompson that cleared the bases and put Philadelphia up 4-3. And the night was still very young.
The lead was extended to 6-3 in the second when Greene helped himself with a single and Dykstra homered down the rightfield line. But Greene was better with the bat tonight then he was with his arm. A walk, followed by consecutive singles from Molitor, Fernandez and Borders cut the lead to 6-5.
With runners still on first and second, Philadelphia manager Jim Fregosi went to his bullpen for Roger Mason. It didn’t help. After a two-out walk to Henderson, White’s line drive single to center plated two more runs. The Blue Jays had the lead and a double steal moved two more runs into scoring position. Finally, Mason struck out Alomar to end the inning.
Leiter came out of the Toronto bullpen. With two outs, Dykstra doubled, Duncan picked him up with an RBI single and we were tied at a touchdown apiece just four innings in.
The Phillie offense had another burst in the fifth, using the strategy of letting small ball lead to big ball. Hollins bunted for a hit to start the inning. Daulton went to the opposite field for a home run and a 9-7 lead. Eisenreich bunted for a hit. Thompson promptly ripped an RBI double. With two outs, Dykstra homered. It was 12-7.
Was this enough? West came out of the Phillie bullpen. To no avail. White greeted him with a double and scored on a base hit from Alomar. Olerud singled to put runners on the corners with one out. A productive ground ball from Fernandez made it 12-9.
The Phillie bats just kept coming. Hollins led off the sixth with a double and scored on a single by Thompson. In the seventh, Duncan’s infield hit was followed by two walks and a hit batsman. With the bases loaded and one out, Eisenreich popped out. The score stayed at 14-9. But with six outs to go, surely this had to be enough.
Larry Andersen was on in relief, having set down the side in the seventh and looking like someone who could finally stabilize this game. He got Alomar to start the eighth.
Then, as though we hadn’t seen enough, all hell really broke loose. Carter singled. Olerud walked. Molitor doubled to left. The score was 14-10 and there were runners on second and third. Williams came out of the bullpen.
Fernandez singled. 14-11, runners on first and third and still only one out. Borders came to the plate as the tying run. The Wild Thing walked him. He struck out Ed Sprague and got to the brink of closing out the inning. But the top of the order was up.
Henderson’s single scored two and made it 14-13. White tripled. Two more runs came in. A stunned crowd now saw the home team trailing 15-14. The Blue Jays also found some relief help. Timlin and closer Duane Ward set down the next six batters in order. One of the wildest nights the World Series had ever seen was over.
So, it seemed, was this particular World Series. Toronto had a 3-1 series lead and two home games still in the bank.
The aces rematched on Thursday night. After all the offense of Game 4, some good old-fashioned pitching helped everyone catch their breath. The Phils were able to grab a quick run in the first when Dykstra walked, stole second, took third on a bad throw and came home on Kruk’s productive groundball. They added another run in the second with doubles from Daulton and Kevin Stocker.
Guzman got settled in. But Schilling was locked in. The Philadelphia ace delivered a complete-game five-hitter. The Phils won 3-1 and extended the series.
The win seemed more like a stay of execution for the Phillies then a real avenue toward coming back. That sense was heightened in the first inning of Game 6. Toronto came out swinging against Mulholland. After White walked, Molitor tripled and then scored on a sac fly from Carter. With two outs, Olerud doubled, Alomar came up with a two-out RBI single and Stewart had a quick 3-0 lead.
The Phillies picked up a run in the fourth when Daulton’s two-out double was followed by Eisenreich’s RBI single. But the Blue Jays immediately answered when Alomar doubled and came around on consecutive productive outs. A Molitor home run in the fifth made it 5-1. That score held to the seventh. The night was shaping up to be one long party in Toronto.
Not so fast. In the blink of an eye in the top of the seventh, Stocker walked, Mickey Morandini singled and Dykstra homered. It was 5-4 and Stewart was gone. Danny Cox came on, but Philadelphia kept hitting. Duncan singled and then stole second with one out. Hollins’ RBI single tied the game. Put the champagne on hold.
Another walk and an infield hit loaded the bases. Leiter came on. A sac fly from Pete Incaviglia gave the Phils a 6-5 lead. When the bullpen combination of Mason, West and Andersen held that score to the ninth, the ultimate outcome of this Series was finally back in doubt.
It’s worth noting though that Philadelphia missed a big chance in the top of the eighth when they were gifted two walks and a hit batsman, but failed to add on. The way this particular World Series was shaping up, you could never have too many runs.
And with The Wild Thing now on the mound you could never get comfortable. Williams walked Henderson to start the ninth. After White flied out, Molitor hit a hard line drive to center for a base hit. There were runners on first and second. Skydome was alive. Joe Carter came to the plate.
The count ran to two balls and two strikes. Williams threw a pitch that he appeared to be trying to hit the inside corner with. It was left out too far over the plate. Carter deposited it in the left field stands. For just the second time in history, a World Series had ended on a walk off home run.
It was a fitting end to a Series where offense had been so prominent and the back-and-forth between the lineups so frequent. Molitor was named World Series MVP, with a brilliant 12-for-24 showing at the plate, including two home runs, eight RBIs and ten runs scored. Alomar was almost as good, going 12-for-25. Carter drove in eight runs, including the three that ended the Series.
The Phillie lineup had players who met the moment in October. Dykstra homered four times and had a .500 on-base percentage. Kruk went 8-for-23 and consistently drove in big runs. On the pitching side, Mason quietly did very good work out of the bullpen, going 7.2 innings and allowing just one run. Schilling’s Game 5 gem remains a well-remembered part of the postseason portfolio he would develop over his career.
But ultimately, the story was the Toronto Blue Jays. This was a franchise that was now on eleven consecutive winning seasons. For much of that period, the “can’t win the big one tag” followed them around. They shed that label in 1992. And in 1993, it was replaced with a new tag—one that read “Dynasty.”
The Atlanta Braves came into the 1993 NLCS as the clear favorite. The Braves had won this round in both 1991and 1992and were hungry to take the final step and win a World Series. They had won one of the great pennant races of all-time to get to this point. The Philadelphia Phillies were just a plucky underdog that should have been just happy to be here. But that’s not how it worked out.
You can read more about the season-long paths the Braves and Phillies each took to win their respective division titles and about their key players, at the links below. This article will focus exclusively on the games of the 1993 National League Championship Series.
Major League Baseball used a rotation system to determine homefield advantage for postseason play. So even though the Braves, with 104 wins, had the best record in the game, they went on the road to old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia to open up on a Wednesday night.
Curt Schilling would eventually become synonymous with big-game pitching. In 1993, he was just 26-years-old and making his first appearance on the October stage, starting Game 1 for the Phillies. Atlanta’s Steve Avery was only 23-years-old, but already an accomplished postseason performer and MVP of the ’91 NLCS.
Lenny Dykstra, unimpressed by Avery’s resume, greeted him with a double to start the home half of the first. An infield hit and a productive groundball from John Kruk put the Phils on the board. The Braves answered in the third when Avery helped his cause with a double down the left field line. Nixon followed him with another two-bagger and it was 1-1.
The teams exchanged runs in the fourth. After Schilling walked Ron Gant, Fred McGriff singled to set up runners on the corners with no outs. Dave Justice gave Atlanta the lead with a sac fly. Pete Incaviglia tied it right up back up for Philadelphia with a two-out solo blast in the bottom of the frame.
With one out in the sixth, Kruk worked a walk. Dave Hollins doubled and there were runners on second and third. An intentional walk brought Incaviglia to the plate again. But before Avery struck him out, he also threw a wild pitch that gave the Phils a 3-2 lead. Schilling worked through eight innings and handed that lead to closer Mitch Williams for the ninth.
A walk and an error immediately gave Atlanta life, and a Nixon groundball was able to tie the game. The night was shaping up to be a big missed opportunity for Philadelphia as we went to extra innings.
The Braves had a chance in the tenth, when Terry Pendelton singled and Greg Olson doubled. There were two outs and runners on second and third. Tony Tarasco came to the plate.
Tarasco would one day be a part of one of the more infamous plays in LCS history with the Baltimore Orioles in 1996. Tonight, he simply struck out and the threat was over. When Kruk and Kim Batiste hit back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the 10th, the Phils had a 4-3 win.
Atlanta was always loaded with pitching and sent future Hall of Famer and eventual Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux to the mound for Thursday night’s Game 2. Philadelphia answered with Tommy Greene.
Greene had enjoyed a strong year in ’93, but today didn’t go well. McGriff hit a two-run blast in the first to give Maddux some early breathing room. In the third, the game completely got away from the Phillies’ starter.
Nixon started it with a single. Even though he was cut down trying to steal, Jeff Blauser immediately homered. A double from Gant, single by McGriff and a walk to Justice loaded up the bases. Pendleton singled to drive in two runs, make the score 5-0 and chase Greene. Damon Berryhill hit a three-run jack. The score was 8-0 and the rout was on.
Maddux went seven solid innings, Pendleton homered, Gant drove in three more runs and the final ended up 14-3. Atlanta had secured a road split and was going home for the next three games.
Tom Glavine, the Hall of Fame lefty, was on the mound for Saturday afternoon’s three o’clock start. With the popular Georgia Bulldogs football team off to a woeful 1-4 start, it was up to the Braves to make an October Saturday worthwhile for local sports fans.
For the first part of the game though, it was Philadelphia’s Terry Mulholland delivering the pitching brilliance. He cruised through five shutout innings. The Phils got on the board in the fourth when Mariano Duncan and Kruk hit back-to-back triples to start the inning. But Glavine bore down and Kruk never made it home. Even though the Phillie first baseman hit a sixth-inning home run to make it 2-0, the Braves were still very much in this game.
And in the sixth, they got to Mulholland. In order, Blauser beat out an infield hit, Gant walked, McGriff and Pendleton singled, then Justice slashed an opposite-field double into the gap. In the blink of an eye, Atlanta was ahead 4-2 and Mulholland was gone.
Duncan made an error that extended the lead to 5-2. In the bottom of the seventh, the Braves kept coming. They scored four runs, the big blow being a bases-loaded double with two outs from second baseman Mark Lemke. Even though the Phils picked up a couple runs and Kruk added another RBI, Atlanta won 9-4.
There wasn’t much reason for the great sports fans of Philadelphia to be in a good mood by Sunday night. The Eagles, after a 4-0 start, lost to the Bears and started a decline that ended up with the city’s football team missing the playoffs. And on the baseball field, yet another Hall of Fame pitcher was rolling off the Atlanta assembly line. The Phillies had to face John Smoltz.
Then the Braves put immediate pressure on Philadelphia’s Danny Jackson in the second inning. McGriff and Justice each singled to right. With two outs, Lemke doubled in a run and Smoltz was staked to an early lead.
But Jackson had some experience pitching in tough postseason spots. With the Kansas City Royals in 1985, he had pitched gems in must-win Game 5s in both the ALCSand World Series. Both times, Jackson’s efforts spurred a three-game win streak that turned the series around. So it would be again. He settled in.
An error by Lemke opened the top of the fourth and then Milt Thompson doubled to put runners on second and third with one out. After a sac fly tied the game, Jackson showed he could do some clutch work with his bat—a two-out single that gave the Phils a 2-1 lead.
Jackson and Smoltz were in a classic duel. Each pitcher turned back two-on/one-out threats in the fifth and seventh innings. The 2-1 score held into the eighth. Jackson got the first two men out. When the Braves hit consecutive singles, Phils’ manager Jim Fregosi summoned Mitch Williams. The closer got Lemke to fly to left.
But the closer known as “The Wild Thing” never let his team get too comfortable and the bottom of the ninth got interesting. A pinch-hit single by Bill Pecota was followed by a bunt from Nixon. Williams booted the bunt. There were runners on first and second and still no one out.
Blauser came up and dropped down another bunt. This time Williams not only made the play, he got the out at third base. When Gant hit a ground ball to short, the Phils turned a 6-4-3 double play and evened the series at two games apiece.
Schilling and Avery were back on the mound for a late Monday afternoon Game 5. The Phils got the early lead when Duncan hit a one-out single and Kruk delivered an opposite-field RBI double down the rightfield line. Philadelphia added to the lead in the fourth when a dropped fly ball set up an unearned run. With Schilling churning his way through eight innings and Daulton adding a solo home run, Philadelphia took a 3-0 lead into the ninth.
Blauser worked a walk and then an error by Hollins prompted Fregosi to call for The Wild Thing. A base hit from McGriff brought in one run and put runners on the corners. A sac fly from Justice cut the lead to 3-2, but Wlliams had the first out and the only runner was on first base. He was poised to get out of the jam.
But Pendleton singled. Francisco Cabrera, the hero of the 1992 NLCS came to the plate and delivered again. A game-tying single left Schilling again with a no-decision after eight innings of brilliance.
Of more immediate concern was that Atlanta was now poised to win this game, with runners on the corners and still only one out. But Williams struck out Lemke and escaped.
It would be a rerun of Game 1—Philadelphia immediately scored in the 10th, this time on a home run from Dykstra. Veteran reliever Larry Andersen came out of the bullpen and put the side down in order. The Phils had a 4-3 win for the game and a 3-2 lead for the series. They were going home needing just one win for a pennant.
The Vet was alive on Wednesday night, but there were still reasons to be nervous. The pitching matchups that hadn’t worked well for Philadelphia—Greene v Maddux tonight and Mulholland v Glavine potentially tomorrow night were what the Phils would have to navigate.
Greene got out of an early Brave threat by getting a double-play groundball off the bat of Berryhill. Then the Phillies’ starter led off the bottom of the third by working a walk of his own. Dykstra followed with a base hit that gave Philadelphia their first scoring opportunity of the night.
Maddux got a couple outs, while walking Hollins to load the bases. Daulton came to the plate. The catcher hit one into the rightfield gap, plating two runs and giving Greene a lead.
The Phillie lefty kept that 2-0 lead to the fifth when the Braves again threatened. After a one-out walk, Maddux dropped down a sac bunt. A two-out single from Blauser cut the lead in half. But the Philadelphia offense had an immediate response. Hollins made a Lemke error hurt by ripping a two-run blast to make it 4-1.
The Phillies got more in the sixth. Thompson beat out an infield single. With one out, Greene bunted him up. After the hot Dykstra was walked, second baseman Mickey Morandini lashed a two-out double. Maddux was gone. Philadelphia led 6-1 and was just nine outs from the pennant.
Atlanta nudged closer in the seventh when Nixon legged out a bunt base hit with two outs and Blauser homered. Greene handed the 6-3 lead to the bullpen. No one in Philadelphia could be blamed for being excessively nervous about the relief pitching. But not tonight. Setup man David West took care of the eighth. And Williams set down the side in order in the ninth. When The Wild Thing struck out Bill Pecota, the party could start in Philadelphia.
Schilling’s brilliant two starts might have left him winless, but he was rewarded with NLCS MVP honors. Williams, for his ups and downs, still ended up with a 1.69 ERA in his five-plus innings of work in this series. Jackson’s big-time start in Game 4 is a forgotten moment in the annals of history.
Offensively, Dykstra and Kruk led the way, combining for 13 hits. Daulton was 5-for-19, but also worked six walks. And while Hollins’ 4-for-20 performance wasn’t good, the third baseman did hit two home runs, including the Game 6 bomb that put the Phils in command.
Philadelphia came up short in the World Series against the defending champion Toronto Blue Jays. Playing with fire in the bullpen finally caught up to them with a wild 15-14 loss in Game 4. Williams then let a 6-5 lead get away in Game 6 and this Fall Classic ended in dramatic fashion—a walkoff home run and a celebration in Toronto.
It had been a dry ten years for baseball in Philadelphia. Since a great eight-year run from 1976-83 that saw the Phillies win five NL East titles, two National League pennants and the World Series in 1980, the Phils had fallen off the radar. Over the next decade they had just one winning season and never seriously contended. The 1993 Philadelphia Phillies were a delightful surprise, coming out of nowhere, winning with flair and color and putting the franchise back into the World Series.
Success started with an offense that scored more runs than anyone in the National League. First baseman John Kruk’s stat line included a dazzling .430 on-base percentage and a .475 slugging percentage. Centerfielder Lenny Dykstra had a final line of .420/482 and stole 37 bases in the process.
Dykstra set the table and Kruk cleaned it up (in both figurative baseball terms and quite literally at the dinner table). But they weren’t alone. Darren Daulton was a productive catcher, hitting 24 home runs and driving in 105 runs. Dave Hollins played third and his stat line was .372/.442. Jim Eisenreich was in rightfield and the final numbers read .363/.445.
Pete Incaviglia officially came off the bench, but the outfielder got plenty of at-bats and he hit 24 homers of his own. Wes Chamberlain provided more depth with a .493 slugging percentage. Kevin Stocker and Mariano Duncan handled platoon duties at short, with Stocker’s OBP coming in at .409. The Phillie lineup was deep, they hit for average, hit for power, hit the ball in the alleys and drew walks. There was nothing not to like.
The pitching wasn’t quite as dominant, but was still reliable. Curt Schilling was at the top of the rotation and Schilling was still just coming into his own. He won 16 games, but the 4.02 ERA was a touch high. Danny Jackson, who had enjoyed some big years in Kansas City and Cincinnati, came to Philly for 1993 and won 12 games with a 3.77 ERA. The best overall ERA was Terry Mulholland’s 3.25 and the best overall statistical line belonged to Tommy Greene, who went 16-4 with a 3.42 ERA in thirty starts.
Manager Jim Fregosi had two reliable setup men in David West and Larry Andersen, each of whom posted sub-3.00 ERAs. And the closer Mitch Williams? Well, “reliable” is probably not the word to describe a loose cannon whose nickname was “The Wild Thing.” But even though Williams could give everyone heart failure, he still saved 43 games and the final ERA of 3.33 was respectable. Philadelphia’s staff ERA was sixth in the 14-team National League.
1993 marked a threshold year for major league baseball. For the past 25 years, each league had been split into just two divisions, an East and a West. Only the first-place finisher went to the postseason. Next season would usher in the current three-divisional alignment and a wild-card. But for now, ’93 would be the last season of the old, more stringent order.
That meant the Phils shared the NL East with not only current members in the New York Mets, Florida Marlins (an expansion team in ’93), Montreal Expos (today’s Washington Nationals), but with future Central Division members in the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs. The Atlanta Braves were in the NL West under the geographically tortured alignment of the day.
Pittsburgh had won the NL East for three straight years, but gradual free agent losses reached their apex when the infamous Barry Bonds left for San Francisco prior to 1993. No one was looking at Philadelphia to step up, but there was a clear vacuum at the top and everyone in baseball knew it coming into the season.
The Phils wasted no time in making their mark. They won eight of their first nine games. By Memorial Day, they were a staggering 34-14, seven games ahead of the Expos and plus-nine on the Cubs and Cardinals.
When Philadelphia swept New York four straight in mid-June, the lead in the NL East soared as high as 11 ½ games. The Phils finally started to slow down when they lost a series in Montreal and dropped three of four in St. Louis. Both the Expos and Cardinals played well enough to at least keep in shouting distance of Philadelphia. By the All-Star break, the Phillies were sitting on a 57-32 record. But the Cards were only five back and the Expos still in striking distance at 8 ½ out.
When Philadelphia went to lowly San Diego out of the break and lost three straight, the NL East lead was trimmed to three games. It nudged back up to a four-game margin when St. Louis came to old Veterans Stadium for a three-game series at the end of July.
The Phillie bats were ready. On Tuesday night, Kruk went 5-for-5, Philadelphia was up 7-1 by the second inning and won 10-7. Wednesday night saw the Phils trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh. With Dykstra and Duncan each having three-hit nights at the top of the order, Philadelphia scored nine runs in the late innings and won 14-6.
Thursday afternoon’s getaway day finale wasn’t quite as dramatic, but the end result was the same. In a 4-4 tie in the eighth, Incaviglia and Chamberlain each worked walks. A sac bunt and intentional walk loaded the bases. Dykstra dumped a bloop single over the infield for two runs and a 6-4 win.
Philadelphia’s lead was back up to a comfortable seven games and they went on to sweep Montreal in mid-August. By Labor Day, the Phils were in complete control, 9 ½ ahead of the Expos and up 11 on the Cardinals. But this race was going to get interesting before it was over.
A week at home against the mediocre Cubs and Astros should have been a time to deliver a knockout blow. Instead, the Phillies lost five of seven. The Expos took advantage and sliced the lead down to five games. By the time Philadelphia got to Montreal for a three-game weekend series on September 16, the lead was at four.
Philadelphia grabbed a 7-3 lead in the sixth inning on Friday night, but the bullpen melted down and lost 8-7 in twelve innings. On Saturday night, behind three hits from Stocker and good pitching from Greene, the Phils led 5-1 in the eighth. A three-run homer cut the lead to 5-4 before West and Williams finally closed out the win. On Sunday, a 5-4 lead in the ninth, thanks to a big home run from Hollins, ended up a 6-5 loss.
A series that could have easily been a sweep—or at least two of three—had instead tightened the race further. Philadelphia was plus-three with two weeks to play.
The expansion Marlins were a needed schedule breather and Philadelphia won three straight. They lost a series to Atlanta, who was waging an epic pennant race battle with San Francisco over in the NL West. But Montreal stumbled. When the final week arrived, the Phils were back ahead by five games.
They were in Pittsburgh to open the week with the chance for a symbolic changing-of-the-guard clinching. The Phils won 6-4 on Monday. When the Expos lost, at least a tie for first was assured. On Tuesday, with a Duncan grand slam leading the way, Philadelphia won 10-7. The champagne could finally flow.
To the surprise of most baseball fans, Philadelphia was not done pouring champagne. They went into the National League Championship Series against Atlanta as a clear underdog to the Braves, who had 104 wins and back-to-back pennants. Instead, with Schilling pitching brilliantly and Jackson delivering a clutch performance, the Phils took home the pennant in six games.
Philadelphia was an underdog again in the World Series against the defending champion Toronto Blue Jays. The Phils had their opportunities to win this one, but the play-with-fire qualities of the pitching staff—especially Williams—finally caught up to them. They lost a wild 15-14 game in Game 4. In Game 6, three outs from forcing a seventh game, Williams gave up a walkoff home run to Toronto’s Joe Carter.
The ’93 Phillies were still an unqualified success and this colorful cast of characters, especially Kruk, made them fun to follow and root for fans beyond the eastern Pennsylvania market. What they didn’t have was staying power. The Phillies disappeared from the scene as fast as they had arrived. Their next winning season wasn’t until 2001. And their next playoff appearance didn’t come until 2007, when they finally began another sustained run of success.
The 1982 Philadelphia Phillies were coming off a stretch where they won four NL East titles in six years and the World Series in 1980. Even 1981, a non-division title year, still saw them make the playoffs under baseball’s strange split-season format in a strike year. Thus, even though the ’82 Phils were a contender and would have made the playoffs by the standards of today, their season was a mild disappointment.
There was a new manager in town. Dallas Green, architect of the ’80 champs, was gone and Pat Corrales was in charge. Other notable changes took place in the lineup. Bob Boone, the veteran catcher, was sold to the California Angels. The Phils then worked a three-team deal with Cleveland and St. Louis that netted them a solid catcher in Bo Diaz, but came at the cost of Lonnie Smith.
Larry Bowa was another mainstay of the championship team and dealt to the Cubs for Ivan de Jesus in a swap of shortstops. Bake McBride, a good rightfielder was shipped to the Indians in a deal for relief pitcher Sid Monge. Neither of those trades worked out and holding back on either one might have made the difference in 1982.
Diaz had a nice year at the plate and slugged .450. Pete Rose, now 41-years-old, had a .345 on-base percentage. Gary Matthews’ OBP was .345. And the batting order always came around to Mike Schmidt. The Hall of Fame third baseman had another vintage year with a stat line of .403 on-base percentage/.547 slugging percentage and 35 home runs. But the offense, the hallmark of the Phils’ success in this era, only ranked ninth in the National League in runs scored.
Pitching was often up and down for the Phils during this period of success, but one man you could always count on was Steve Carlton. The 37-year-old lefthander was on his way to the Hall of Fame and he won the fourth Cy Young Award of his career in 1982. Carlton made 38 starts, went 23-11 and posted a 3.10 ERA.
The rest of the rotation was respectable. Larry Christensen and Dick Ruthven each made 30-plus starts and finished with ERAs in the 3s. So did Mike Krukow, who the Phils had picked up in the offseason from the Cubs. Ron Reed saved 14 games with a 2.66 ERA. The problem was depth. Philadelphia pitching was respectable, but ranking sixth in the 12-team National League for staff ERA wasn’t going to make up for the unexpected offensive shortcomings.
The Phillies started slow and didn’t win a series until early May. They were heavy on losses to key NL East rivals in the Montreal Expos (today’s Washington Nationals) and the St. Louis Cardinals (an NL East team prior to the realignment of 1994). Philadelphia faced a quick 8 ½ game hole and the rules of the time did not allow for a wild-card team. You had to win the division to go directly to the League Championship Series.
A change in the schedule to face teams from the NL West brought a quick change. The Phils went 14-2 in a stretch that included games with contenders from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Philadelphia chipped the margin down to 4 ½ games by Memorial Day. The Cardinals were out in front, the Phils were in fourth and the Mets and Expos were in between.
The Mets were not a good team and the Phils facilitated their downfall by sweeping a five-game series. Philadelphia won four of seven games in a pair of series with St. Louis. The Phils grabbed two of three from the Dodgers.
By the All-Star break, Philadelphia was 47-38 and had pulled into a first-place tie with St. Louis. Pittsburgh, a contender who had won the World Series as recently as 1979 had gotten back into the race and was 2 ½ back. Montreal was four games out.
The Phils kept playing well out of the break, going 8-4 on a road trip that included San Francisco, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia took three of four from Montreal and nudged out to a two-game lead in the NL East.
A trip to Wrigley Field to play the lowly Cubs resulted in a three-game sweep and three losses in a five-game series with the Expos brought the Phils back to earth. But on September 12 they were only a half-game behind St. Louis. Montreal was in close pursuit at 2 ½ back, with Pittsburgh 3 ½ off the pace. It was time for a decisive stretch of games with the Cardinals.
Carlton took the ball for a Monday night home game and spun a 2-0 shutout for his 20th win. Philadelphia was in first place. But little did anyone know that it was downhill from here.
Krukow pitched well the next night, but lost 2-0. Another shutout loss followed, this one 8-0. In those two games the Phils mustered just eight hits and all were singles. The Pirates came into town over the weekend and took two of three, including a loss where Carlton pitched. Philadelphia was reeling when they made a return visit to St. Louis the following Monday.
The offense picked up where they left off—aimlessly hitting scattered singles—and lost 4-1. The Philly stars stepped up the next night—Schmidt homered and Carlton pitched a complete game to win 5-2. But the two-game split was too little too late. The Phils were 4 ½ out. The Pirates and Expos had also fallen by the wayside. The Cardinals cruised home to the playoffs and eventually won the World Series.
Philadelphia rebounded and played well enough to down the stretch to finish 89-73 and take second place. It was a good season. But it wasn’t what this organization had become accustomed to. More personnel changes followed, Corrales was replaced midway through 1983 and by the end of that season, the Phils were back in the World Series.
The National League Championship Series was becoming old hat for the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. They had already played in 1977 and 1978. The Phillies had been here in 1976 and 1980, with the Dodgers also playing this round in 1981. The two best National League teams of their era hooked up again in the 1983 NLCS.
You can read more about the regular season paths that Philadelphia and Los Angeles took to the playoffs, and the years enjoyed by their key players, at the links below. This article focuses on the games of the 1983 NLCS.
The League Championship Series was best-of-five until 1985 and homefield advantage was determined on a rotation basis. This series would be begin on a pair of games in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then go to Philadelphia for the duration over the weekend.
Two veteran lefthanders took the mound in the opener. Steve Carlton was one of the game’s all-time greats, a lefty with a nasty slider who would win more than 300 games and make the Hall of Fame. He was on the mound for Philadelphia. Jerry Reuss didn’t have anything close to Carlton’s resume, but Reuss was a very steady pitcher in his own right.
Philadelphia jumped on top quick when Mike Schmidt hit a two-out home run in the first inning. The two pitchers then settled into a great duel. Philly put runners on first and second with none out in the fourth, but couldn’t score. In the sixth, the Dodgers got speedy Steve Sax to third base with one out. But Carlton got Dusty Baker to pop up and escaped.
In the bottom of the eighth, the score still 1-0, Los Angeles loaded the bases with two outs. Philadelphia closer Al Holland was summoned and induced a fly ball to right from Mike Marshall. Holland closed out the ninth without incident and the Phillies, with three home games still in the bank, were in control of the series.
Another big-time pitching matchup was set for Game 2. Fernando Valenzuela, the 22-year-old Dodger lefty, had won the Cy Young Award as a rookie two years earlier and won 15 games in 1983. The Phillies had the soon-to-be named Cy Young winner for 1983 to come back with, in John Denny.
With two outs in the bottom of the first, the Dodgers finally got on the board, with help from the Philly defense. Shortstop Ivan DeJesus booted a play that should have ended the inning. A hit batsman set up Ken Landreaux’s RBI single. The Phils didn’t wait long to answer—Gary Matthews hit a leadoff home run to start the second.
Los Angeles manager Tom Lasorda got aggressive in the bottom of the fourth and it blew up. With runners on first and third with one out, a double steal didn’t work, as Mike Marshall was nailed at third. But what the Dodgers couldn’t create for themselves, the Phillies again gave them in the fifth inning.
Gary Maddox, one of the great defensive centerfielders of his era, muffed a fly ball off the bat of Valenzuela to start the inning. Ironically, it wasn’t the first time Maddox had made a big error in Dodger Stadium in October—the 1978 NLCS had ended when he let a single skip through his legs and the winning run came around.
This error resulted in Valenzuela getting all the way to third. When he was thrown out at the plate on a one-out ground ball, it looked like Denny might escape. But with two outs, Baker drew a walk and then Pedro Guerrero lashed a two-run triple to make it 3-1.
Valenzuela was locked in and he got an insurance run in the eighth when Bill Russell drew a walk, stole second and scored on a base hit. In the top of the ninth, the Phillies finally showed signs of offensive life. Matthews singled and Greg Gross drew a walk to start the inning. Valenzuela was removed for Tom Niedenfuer, who blew right through the 7-8-9 spots in the order with a couple strikeouts. The series was tied.
After a day off for travel, Philadelphia sent out Charles Hudson to pitch in front of the home fans, while Los Angeles answered with Bob Welch. Lasorda had little patience for Welch though, and after consecutive one-out walks in the second, the manager went to Alejandro Pena, the fourth starter who had a nice season. A passed ball, another walk and a productive out from catcher Bo Diaz still resulted in the Phils grabbing a couple runs without the benefit of a hit.
Philadelphia had two old members of the great Big Red Machine in Joe Morgan and Pete Rose. They each singled and a sac fly from Joe Lefebvre made it a 3-0 game after three innings.
Los Angeles struck back in the top of the fourth when Baker singled and Marshall homered. But Matthews again had an immediate answer—a home run to start the bottom half of the inning and it was 4-2. That was it for Pena and Lasorda turned to lefthander Rick Honeycutt.
The pitching change didn’t work. Rose again got a rally going with a one-out single in the fifth. Schmidt doubled to put runners on second and third. Lasorda summoned Joe Beckwith, who struck out Sixto Lezcano. But Matthews was next, and he singled to right to score both runs and then stole second for good measure.
He didn’t make it around, but it was 6-2 and Matthews had more one more RBI single coming, this one in the seventh. Hudson went the distance and with the 7-2 win, the Phillies had two chances to close out a pennant on their home field.
Saturday saw Carlton and Reuss back on the mound. It didn’t take long for Philadelphia to amp up the pressure on LA and once again it was Matthews doing the damage. In the bottom of the first, Schmidt and Lezcano hit consecutive two-out singles. Matthews unloaded with a three-run blast and it was quickly 3-0.
After rolling through three innings, Carlton finally showed a crack in his armor. Baker led off the fourth with a home run. Mike Marshall followed with a double. But Carlton picked him off second, then struck out Landreaux and Derrell Thomas to keep it 3-1. And the Phils struck back in the fifth when Rose singled and scored on a double by Schmidt. After Schmidt was bunted to third, Lasorda ordered Matthews intentionally walked, but Maddox still picked up the run with an RBI ground ball.
With a 5-1 lead, Carlton was in firm control, but to remove any doubt, Lezcano followed a Schmidt single with a two-run blast in the sixth inning. The Dodgers got a run in the eight and Holland came on for Carlton, who had been masterful in what would prove to his final year in the postseason. The closer got the last five outs, striking out Russell to clinch the pennant.
Matthews and Carlton were both worthy choices for NLCS MVP. Matthews went 6-for-14, homered three times and drove in eight runs. Furthermore, those hits all came at key times, often answering Dodger successes, making their ultimate impact seem even greater. Carlton got two of his team’s three wins, pitching 13 2/3 innings and giving up one run. Matthews was the one chosen as series MVP.
Other strong performances came from Rose and Schmidt, who combined for 13 hits while Lezcano went 4-for-13. On the Dodger side, only Baker’s 5-for-14 hitting was at all noteworthy.
Philadelphia briefly kept the momentum going by taking Game 1 of the World Series in Baltimore, but that was their last win as the Orioles took over and won the World Series.
This was the last run for a great stretch of Phillies baseball. They didn’t make it back to the postseason until 1993 with a completely different cast. The Dodgers still had some winning ahead of them, reaching the NLCS again in 1985and winning the World Series in 1988.
The late 1970s and early 1980s was a great time in Philadelphia Phillies history. The franchise, after more than a decade of irrelevance, had come back in 1975 as a contender and in 1976 they returned to postseason play. It started an eight-year stretch where they won five NL East titles, two National League pennants and a World Series. The links below capture the heart of this great era for Phillie fans.
Philadelphia fans experienced the full gamut of emotions. They won 101 games in 1976 and were probably the second-best team in baseball, behind only the powerful Big Red Machine of Cincinnati that won the World Series. The Phils returned to NLCS in 1977 and 1978, but suffered tough losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 1980 was the breakthrough.
The 1980 Phils won a de facto playoff against the Montreal Expos, a three-game weekend series to end the regular season, with the teams tied for first. The Phillies won the greatest League Championship Series ever played, the 1980 NLCS, and they won an exciting six-game World Series over the Kansas City Royals.
Philadelphia returned to the playoffs in the split season of 1981, though they lost the NL East divisional round to Montreal. It looked like the run might be over, but the Phils signed a couple veterans of the Big Red Machine and made one more run to a National League pennant before losing to the Baltimore Orioles.
The articles below celebrate all the great moments of the 1976-83 high point. From the greatness of third baseman Mike Schmidt and starting pitcher Steve Carlton. To the power of Greg Luzinski, to the scrappiness of Larry Bowa, to the defensive wizardry of Garry Maddox to the bullpens anchored by the colorful Tug McGraw to the consistency of “The Sarge”, Gary Mathews. They’re all here, as are many more.
Read through the narratives of the regular season and the game-by-game breakdowns of the postseason, all included below. READ MORE ABOUT THE 1980 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES READ MORE ABOUT THE 1976 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES READ MORE ABOUT THE 1977 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES READ MORE ABOUT THE 1978 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES READ MORE ABOUT THE 1981 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES READ MORE ABOUT THE 1983 PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES
The Philadelphia Phillies were already one of the most successful organizations in baseball in the early 1980s. Since 1976, they had gone to the postseason five times and won the World Series in 1980. They decided to turn back the clock even more, reuniting three key players of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine that won the World Series in 1975 and 1976. Joe Morgan and Tony Perez joined Pete Rose, and the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies returned to the World Series.
Rose had been in Philadelphia since 1979, and though his best days were long behind him, the 42-year-old still provided vital intangibles at first base. Morgan, age 39, was acquired from the San Francisco Giants and brought a keen batting eye—he drew 89 walks and turned a .230 batting average into a sparkling .370 on-base percentage. Perez, 41-years-old, was signed and was the least productive of the trio, with his power gone in 253 at-bats.
Morgan’s approach of drawing a lot of walks set the tone for the team. The Phillies led the National League in taking free passes, and it’s the reason they ranked third in the NL in runs scored. The power, a staple of the late 1970s success, was mostly gone, save third baseman Mike Schmidt, who blasted 40 home runs and finished with 109 RBIs.
But even Schmidt knew how to get a walk (and pitchers undoubtedly were willing to oblige). He drew 128 walks and his .255 batting average ended up as a .399 OBP. Leftfielder Gary Matthews finished with a .352 OBP, but his power was down. Greg Gross was a reserve outfielder who provided valuable part-time punch with .385 OBP.
The big offseason move was a blockbuster with the Cleveland Indians. The Tribe had one of the coveted young players in the game, outfielder Von Hayes. Philadelphia wanted him so badly that they dealt five players to get Hayes. Those players included Manny Trillo, the second baseman who had been MVP of the 1980 NLCS, a reliable role player in George Vuckovich and a good young player in Julio Franco.
Hayes finished with a .337 on-base percentage, hit for little power and never turned into what scouts expected. A trade that worked better for Philadelphia was acquiring Joe Lefebvre from the San Diego Padres, and Lefebvre finished with a .388 OPB/.543 slugging percentage.
Those weren’t the only trades in what was an active offseason and early summer. As part of the Morgan deal with San Francisco, the Phils gave up starting pitcher Mike Krukow, a good young arm in Mark Davis and also got closer Al Holland back in return.
Holland saved 25 games with a 2.26 ERA and anchored a good veteran bullpen. Ron Reed worked 95 innings at age 40 and finished with a 3.48 ERA. Willie Hernandez finished with 3.29 ERA and also worked 95 frames. Tug McGraw was no longer the bullpen centerpiece, as he’d been for the World Series year, but he still finished with a 3.56 ERA.
And the starting rotation provided leads to work with. John Denny had the best year of his career, winning 19 games with a 2.37 ERA and he won the NL Cy Young Award. Steve Carlton, the future Hall of Famer at age 38, worked over 280 innings and finished with a 3.11 ERA. Charles Hudson worked 169 innings and posted a 3.35 ERA. The Phils finished second in the National League in ERA.
Philadelphia won 16 of their first 25 games, but they lost nine of eleven, and a road trip west produced a further 1-6 stretch. By Memorial Day, the were barely over .500, at 20-18, but no one in the NL East taking control, so the Phils were only 2 ½ games back of the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, and the Montreal Expos.
The early part of the summer didn’t see a turnaround though The Phils lost five of seven games with the Cardinals and Expos before rebounding to take three of four at home from Montreal and they crawled back over .500, at 37-36, by the All-Star break. No one in the NL East could get traction, so this mediocre performance had them just one game out and packed in a four-team race that now included the Chicago Cubs.
Pat Corrales was in his second year of managing the Phillies and though he’d gone 89-73 in 1982, he hadn’t won the division, which is something that Philadelphia had become accustomed to. When the Phils continued to be sluggish out of the break, splitting the first twelve games of the second half, Corrales was fired and replaced with Paul Owen.
It still wasn’t until July 28 that Philadelphia got over .500 for good They took four of five from the Cubs, who were starting to fade. The Phils lost two of three from the Pirates, who were starting to come on. Philadelphia then won seven of nine in games against St. Louis and Pittsburgh and took a two-game lead in the division. That was followed by a 6-13 run in a home-and-home sequence against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Padres and Giants.
The Philadelphia record was 69-66 on Labor Day and Pittsburgh was now in first place by a game, with Montreal and St. Louis still in the mix.
Philly took two of three from the Pirates and nudged into the lead by a half-game. Then the Phillies won a series with the Expos and swept the Cardinals. It was enough to push St. Louis out of the race and give Philadelphia a two-game lead on both Pittsburgh and Montreal.
With two weeks left in the season, the Phils made their decisive push. They swept a makeup doubleheader with the Expos in Montreal, again swept the Cardinals and pulled out to a four-game lead with a week left. They clinched on the final Wednesday of the season, with four days to spare.
It was a familiar foe awaiting in the 1983 NLCS—the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had eliminated Philadelphia in this round in 1977 and 1978. The Phils had vindicated themselves with the 1980 title, but they hadn’t had the chance to settle their business with the Dodgers.
The best-of-five series opened with two games in Los Angeles. Schmidt homered in the first inning of Game 1 and then Carlton outdueled fellow veteran Jerry Reuss in a 1-0 win. Denny took the mound for Game 2 with a chance to put a quick stranglehold on the series, but he lost 4-1 to another recent Cy Young winner, the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela.
Philadelphia would host the balance of the series in front of the home crowd, the Phils took over. More accurately, Matthews took over. In Game 3, he had three hits, four RBI and a home run, keying a 7-2 win. In the Carlton-Reuss rematch of Game 4, Matthews hit an early three-run bomb and the end result was another 7-2 win and a return to the World Series.
Matthews was named 1983 NLCS MVP, going 6-for-14 with the three home runs. Carlton’s two wins were also notable, and Rose went 6-for-16 to key the victory.
The World Series was a local affair, as the Phils had only to travel an hour-plus south on I-95 to open the Fall Classic with the Baltimore Orioles. Denny pitched brilliantly in winning the opener and the Phils got the road win they needed. But they couldn’t do anything at home—Philadelphia lost one-run games in Games 3 & 4 and then Baltimore cruised to an easy Game 5 win and a championship.
Philadelphia parted ways with the Big Red Machine trio at the end of the season. It was one last great ride for everyone, as the Phils would not return to the postseason until 1993, at which time they had a completely different cast.
The Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Phillies were both nearing the end of the line when they met in the 1983 World Series. Both teams were filled with veterans. In the case of the Phillies, they were looking for one more ring. In the case of the Orioles, they were looking for a long-sought ring.
You can read more about the regular season paths that Baltimore and Philadelphia took to the playoffs, and the years enjoyed by their key players, at the links below. This article focuses on the games of the 1983 World Series.
Philadelphia had enjoyed a strong run from 1976-81 and won a World Series in 1980. They had three members of the old Big Red Machine (1975-76 champions). The Orioles had enjoyed a lot of success, but their last title had been in 1970, a championship almost none of the ’83 team had been around for.
Homefield advantage for the World Series was done by a rotation system, and this year was the American League’s turn to open. The format of this era meant that National League rules—no DH—would apply. The Series opened in Baltimore on a Tuesday night.
John Denny won the NL Cy Young Award and was Philadelphia’s starter in Game 1. Baltimore answered with their ace, Scott McGregor. In the ALCS, McGregor lost a pitcher’s duel to the AL Cy Young winner, Chicago’s Lamar Hoyt. This game would be deja vu for the Oriole lefty.
Baltimore got on the board right away when Jim Dwyer homered in the bottom of the first and McGregor cruised through five innings. But Denny was completely shutting down the Orioles and the Phils tied the game on a solo home run by Joe Morgan in the sixth. Then in the eighth, Gary Maddox hit a solo home run. Those three hits were the only real action of the entire night, and the Phils won 2-1.
Mike Boddicker had been in a similar situation in the ALCS—a must-win game at home—and the young Oriole righthander had pitched a shutout. He was almost as good in Game 2 of the World Series against the Phillies’ Charles Hudson.
The game was scoreless through three, when Philadelphia got a soft run in the fourth. Morgan beat out an infield hit and stole second. He took third on an error by first baseman Eddie Murray and scored on a sac fly. The Baltimore offense finally got untracked in the bottom of the fifth when John Lowenstein homered to tie the game 1-1.
Baltimore kept coming in the fifth, with a single by Rich Dauer and Todd Cruz bunting his way on. Rick Dempsey ripped a double to make it 2-1 and put runners on second and third. Boddicker then did it with his bat—his line drive to left was caught, but it picked up the run. Baltimore added another run in the seventh on successive singles from John Shelby, Dan Ford and Cal Ripken and Boddicker cruised to a 4-1 win.
The “I-95 World Series” was in cities only an hour-plus apart, so everyone just took a quick ride north for the weekend in Philadelphia .On Friday night, two lefties with Cy Young Awards in their trophy case took the mound. Baltimore starter Mike Flanagan won the award in 1979. Philadelphia had Steve Carlton, with three Cy Youngs, over 300 career wins, a future place in Cooperstown and one of the best pitchers of his generation, at age 38.
Philadelphia got the early lead. Gary Matthews, hero of the NLCS win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit a solo shot in the second. Morgan did the same to lead off the third. Not until the fourth, did Baltimore start chipping at Carlton. A single and two walks loaded the bases with none out. But the veteran lefty got Murray to pop up and then induced Gary Roenicke to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Flanagan came out for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth and Baltimore brought out their own three-time Cy Young winner and future Hall of Famer. Jim Palmer, at age 37, was no longer his old self and was pitching out of the bullpen, but he put up zeroes in the fifth and sixth and enabled his team to rally.
Ford homered in the sixth to cut the lead in half. In the seventh, with two outs, Dempsey doubled. Benny Ayala came up to pinch-hit for Palmer and drove him in with a single. Carlton was removed for closer Al Holland.
Shelby singled, and then a huge error by shortstop Ivan de Jesus gave the Orioles the lead run. The Baltimore relief corps, Sammy Stewart and Tippy Martinez, slammed the door over the last three innings and the Orioles prevailed 3-2.
Saturday afternoon was sunny in Philadelphia and this World Series game was always played in the early afternoon prior to 1985, when all Series games had to be played in prime-time. With the Phils trailing, they went back to Denny on three days’ rest, while the Orioles used their #4 starter, Storm Davis.
It was scoreless through three innings, and the Baltimore started the fourth with three straight singles from Dwyer, Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray to load the bases. With one out, Rich Dauer singled in two runs and moved Murray to third. Denny bore down and struck out Todd Cruz, escaping the inning with the score still 2-0.
The Phils immediately answered in their own half of the fourth. With one out, Rose singled and Mike Schmidt dropped a blooper into left field. Joe Lefebvre doubled to score a run and set up second and third. After an intentional walk, Davis got a big double play grounder from Greg Gross and kept the 2-1 lead.
But Philadelphia kept coming in the fifth. Bo Diaz doubled to lead off the inning and Denny aided his own cause with a one-out single, taking second when the throw home went awry. With two outs, Rose doubled in Denny and Philly was up 3-2.
Now it was Baltimore’s turn to punch back. A one-out single by Lowenstein was followed by a Dauer double and an intentional walk. Ken Singleton, normally the Oriole DH, was available to pinch-hit for Dempsey. Singleton drew a walk and the game was tied. Shelby picked up the lead run with a sac fly. One inning later, Dauer had another clutch hit, a two-out RBI single to drive in Dwyer, who had doubled.
Stewart and Martinez were again controlling the late innings, though the Phils made a move in the ninth. Diaz singled, was pinch-ran for by Bob Dernier, who took second on a ground ball out and scored on a two-out single. Morgan came up and hit a line drive, but Dauer capped off his big game by pulling it in and Baltimore’s 5-4 victory had them one win from a title.
The Orioles had been here before though—in 1979, they won Games 3 & 4 on the road in Pittsburgh to take a 3-1 series lead. They lost Game 5 to the Pirates and then lost two straight at home. Not until the 2014 San Francisco Giants did another home team lose a seventh game, and the ’79 Orioles are the last team to lose both Games 6 & 7 at home. They weren’t fitting themselves for rings just yet.
McGregor had suffered two hard-luck losses in this postseason and was just as ready to make good. After losing two straight pitchers’ duels, the finesse-throwing lefty apparently decided the only way to be sure was to just give up nothing. And he dominated. Meanwhile, some quiet Baltimore bats opened up.
Eddie Murray had not been hitting in this Series, a subject of no small press attention, giving his disappearance in the final three games of the 1979 World Series. The pressure was growing on Murray, and he answered with a mammoth home run off Hudson in the second inning of Game 5. Dempsey homered in the third. After a Ripken walk started the fourth inning, Murray again unloaded a home run. Both of these were massive blasts that may not have come down until they arrived back in Baltimore.
Dempsey led off the fifth with a double, chasing Hudson, and then scored on a wild pitch and Bumbry sac fly. It was 5-0, and the 1983 World Series was all but over. McGregor went the distance and when Maddox hit a soft liner to Ripken to end the ninth inning, the party could start in Baltimore.
The 1983 World Series MVP honor went to Dempsey, for his 5-for-13 hitting and two home runs. Lowenstein also went 5-for-13 and homered, while McGregor worked 17 innings and gave up just two runs, including a clinching shutout. But I want to look somewhere else for Series MVP–how about Sammy Stewart?
The biggest difference in this World Series was that Stewart and Martinez controlled the last three innings in the close games of Games 3 & 4, and Stewart in particular threw five shutout innings in the Series overall He got 4.1 of those innings in the Friday and Saturday games that all but secured the title. There was no one standout offensive performer–remember, Dempsey was pinch-hit for at the big moment of Game 4–and as well as McGregor pitched, he wasn’t able to win Game 1. I’d give Stewart a narrow edge for this award.
The 1983 World Series would be the last time partying would take place in either city for a while. Even though Ripken was young and Murray was in his prime, the rest of the Orioles were older, and they did not return to contention until 1989, and have not made it back to the World Series since. The Phillies disappeared for a decade before winning the NL pennant in 1993, but not until 2008 did they win the World Series again.
1983 saw a lot of great players come together on the October stage one last time, and the end result was something they still call “Oriole Magic” in Baltimore.
The city of Philadelphia was coming off an amazing sports year in 1980, one in which their teams reached the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals and Super Bowl—and no team went higher than the beloved Phillies, who won the World Series. The 1981 Philadelphia Phillies came out swinging the bats well and returned to the postseason, but pitching problems and the chaos of a year broken up by a long players’ strike led to an early exit.
Philadelphia returned to its offense-heavy ways of the late 1970s, and went to extremes that even some of those division-winning teams never imagined. The Phils had the best offense in the National League, but the worst pitching.
Mike Schmidt won the MVP award and in a season were barely more than a hundred games were played, the third baseman hit 31 home runs and batted .316. Pete Rose was now 40-years-old, but the first baseman could still hit and he batted .325. Gary Matthews hit .301, while middle infielders Manny Trillo and Larry Bowa found ways to keep getting on base. Manager Dallas Green also worked young outfielder Lonnie Smith into the mix frequently, and Smith hit .324.
Steve Carlton, the great lefthanded pitcher and perhaps the best starting pitcher of his era, was still reliable at the top of the rotation, going 13-4 with a 2.42 ERA. Tug McGraw, the feisty lefthander in the bullpen was still good, with a 2.66 ERA and ten saves. It was the depth that killed Philadelphia’s pitching.
Dick Ruthven, the #2 starter, struggled to a 5.15 ERA and new starter Nino Espinosa was even worse, at 6.11. The bullpen had problems, and neither Dickie Noles, nor Sparky Lyle, a veteran retread from the New York Yankee championship teams of the late 1970s, could give any consistency.
Green found a little bit of stability with veteran Larry Christenson, who had 3.54 ERA, but only won four games. An experiment in giving Marty Bystrom nine starts worked reasonably well, while another experiment with Mark Davis was less effective.
The Phils still started the season well, and from April 24 to May 5, they went 9-2. From that point forward, they stayed within a game or two of first place in the old NL East, with the St. Louis Cardinals leading and the Montreal Expos not far behind.
On May 31, Philadelphia tied for first and then went 7-2 to start the month of June. This included a three-game home sweep of the Houston Astros, the first meeting between the two teams since their incredible 1980 NLCS battle. Normally, this would be just a nice June run into the division lead, and not anything major in the historical record. In the world of 1981 MLB, it was decisive.
The players went on strike on June 12, and when they returned in mid-August, MLB decided they would change the playoff format. At the time, each league was two divisions with the winners going directly to the LCS. 1981 would see a “split-season” be introduced.
MLB’s split-season format declared the teams leading at the strike to be champions. They would play whichever team won the “second half”, in which everyone would start from scratch and play out the balance of the schedule.
And what if the same team won both halves? Instead of allowing teams like the Phillies to play their way directly into the LCS by winning both halves, MLB ruled that the inaugural Division Series must go on. In that event, the runner-up from the second half would play the winner of the first half.
The only reward Philadelphia had to chase during the second half, was the prospect of one extra home game in the Division Series—instead of playing two on the road to open, they would only play one. That’s not a lot of incentive when other teams are fighting for their lives, and the Phils played like it. They lost 13 of 19 after the strike and finished the second-half 25-27.
Philadelphia met up with Montreal in the Division Series, the same team they had battled to the wire in 1980. The Phils lost the first two games in Montreal, before rallying to win the next two and setting up Carlton to pitch the decisive Game 5. But on a nice Sunday afternoon in Philly, the bid for a repeat title ended and Montreal advanced.
The good news for the city of Philadelphia is that they wouldn’t have to wait long for October baseball to come back. In 1983, they won the NL East and then beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The bad news is that would be 2008 before they won the whole thing again, losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the 1983 World Series and the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.
1981 was the foreshadowing of a new era in baseball, with the introduction of the Division Series. The circumstances weren’t ideal—a players’ strike from mid-June to mid-August pushed MLB to the idea of declaring the teams in first place at the strike to be in the playoffs, where they would then play the teams that won “the second half” after starting from scratch. The 1981 NLDS gave baseball good reasons to like the idea, with both series going the full five games.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers were leading the East & West at the strike (there was no Central Division until the realignment of 1994). The Montreal Expos and Houston Astros won the respective second halves. You can read more about all four teams regular season paths, the key players and decisive moments in their push to October at the links below. This article will focus on going day-by-day through the Division Series.
The series opened in Houston & Montreal for the first two games, and then went to Los Angeles and Philly for the balance of the set.
GAME 1
Los Angeles-Houston: Fernando Valenzuela, the 20-year-old Cy Young winner took the mound for the Dodgers, against the veteran Nolan Ryan and neither pitcher disappointed. No one even threatened until the bottom of the sixth. With two outs, the Astros got a single from Terry Puhl, a walk by Phil Garner and an RBI base hit from Tony Scott for a 1-0 lead. But the Dodgers immediately countered in the seventh with Steve Garvey’s two-out solo home run to tie it.
Houston missed a chance in their own half of the seventh when Cesar Cedeno doubled and stole third to begin the frame. Two flyball outs were too short to get the run home and Fernando escaped.
Valenzuela was pinch-hit for in the eighth. The move made sense—it was to lead off the inning and the player off the bench was Jay Johnstone, a good hitter even before he made his 1989 cameo appearance in The Naked Gun. But it didn’t produce a run, and Los Angeles turned to 24-year-old Dave Stewart to continue the game.
Stewart got the first two outs, but light-hitting Craig Reynolds singled. The Astros weren’t a team noted for home runs in the deep expanse of the Astrodome, but they got on here—Alan Ashby homered and Houston took the opener 3-1.
Philadelphia-Montreal: It was a battle of aces with the Phillies’ sending their future Hall of Fame lefty Steve Carlton to the mound. The Expos had their own #1, Steve Rogers, ready to go. Montreal got to Carlton immediately with a first-inning single from Warren Cromartie. After Jerry White hit into a force out, he stole second, and scored on a hit by Gary Carter, a future Hall of Famer himself.
The Phils quickly tied it in the second on a home run by Keith Moreland, but the Expos peppered Carlton again the second, with consecutive doubles from Tim Wallach and Chris Speier. Wallach had the chance to do more damage in the third when he came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out, but he popped out and Carlton escaped with the score still 2-1.
Montreal just kept coming in the fourth. Speier drew a walk, was bunted over by Rogers and scored on a double by Cromartie. In the fifth, they had a chance to add to the lead when Andre Dawson led off with a triple. But Carlton got Carter and Larry Parrish, escaped the inning and it was still 3-1.
The missed chances might have haunted Montreal, given Carlton finally settled down and the Expos didn’t threaten again. But Rogers was locked in.
Not until two outs in the ninth, when Moreland and George Vuckovich each singled, did the pitcher finally lose it. He was lifted for the talented young closer in Jeff Reardon, who got Manny Trillo to line out to left. It was another 3-1 final, again going to the home team.
GAME 2
Los Angeles-Houston: The names changed on the mound, with two veterans, Jerry Reuss for the Dodgers and Joe Niekro for the Astros. But the results didn’t change. The pitchers kept dominating. Nothing even resembling a threat happened until the seventh, when LA’s Davey Lopes doubled to lead off and was bunted to third. But Niekro got Dusty Baker and Garvey to ground out, and the game went to extra innings scoreless.
It went to the 11th inning and the Dodgers again went to Stewart. By the end of the decade, Stewart would be renowned as one of baseball’s great big-game pitchers. Right now, he was still learning, and Garner and Scott each touched him for singles and there were runners on the corners.
Veteran Terry Forster was summoned to create a lefty-lefty matchup with Jose Cruz. Forster got Cruz on a fly ball too short to pick up the run. Los Angeles manager Tom Lasorda again made a pitching change, calling in Tom Niedenfuer to deal with the right-handed Art Howe.
Niedenfuer got a strike out and the Dodgers were poised to escape. But Denny Walling—a lefty hitter, with no response move left for Lasorda—singled to right and Houston was one win from the NL West title.
Philadelphia-Montreal: The Expos had a deep rotation in 1981 and Bill Gullickson had an even better ERA than Rogers when he took the mound for Game 2. The Phils’ #2 was Dick Ruthven, who had a good career, but ’81 was a rougher year for him.
Montreal capitalized on an error by Mike Schmidt and the pesky Speier drove in an unearned run in the second inning. In the third, Cromartie doubled, Carter homered and the Expos had an early 3-0 lead.
Gullickson picked up where Rogers left off and dominated. Not until the eighth did the Phils start to mount a threat. With two outs, Lonnie Smith doubled and scored on a single by Pete Rose. Bake McBride doubled, and with runners on second and third, Expo fans had reason to be nervous.
Reardon was again summoned. After intentionally walking Schmidt—the MVP third baseman was so feared that it was worth putting him aboard as the lead run—Reardon got Gary Matthews to pop out. The ninth went without incident and it was another 3-1 final.
Both of the home teams, Montreal and Houston, now needed just one road victory in three tries to triumph over the teams that had, for the most part, set the pace in these divisions starting in the late 1970s.
GAME 3
Houston-Los Angeles: The Dodgers played like a desperate team in front of their home fans and wasted little time getting after Astro lefty Bob Knepper. Lopes walked and was bunted up to start the game. Baker doubled the run in, and then Garvey unloaded with a home run. It was 3-0 and that was all Burt Hooton needed.
Houston got a solo shot from Art Howe in the third, but never scored again. Knepper settled in, but in the eighth, Los Angeles broke it open with four singles that produced three wins. The series had its first drama-free ending as the Dodgers stayed alive 6-1.
Montreal-Philadelphia: The Expos looked ready to continue their momentum when they scored first, in the second inning off Larry Christenson. Once again, the normally light-hitting Speier came through, with an RBI single that followed a double by Carter. But in the bottom of the inning, the Phils began to awaken.
Matthews and Moreland started with singles off of Ray Burris. Trillo tied it with a one-out single, and a throwing error on Dawson brought in a second run. The game settled in and went to the sixth still at 2-1 Philadelphia. The Phils then got some breathing room.
Moreland singled, after which a bunt and intentional walk ended Burris’ day. Montreal went to veteran lefthander Bill Lee, once a cornerstone of the rotation for the 1975 Boston Red Sox. Lee couldn’t get Vuckovich in the lefty-lefty matchup, as a single made it 3-1. Rose tacked on another base hit for a 4-1 lead.
Montreal threatened in the seventh, getting two on with one out against Sparky Lyle, a former Cy Young winner for the New York Yankees, but now nearing the end of his career. Lyle still had some veteran moxie and he got a double play ball to escape the inning
Schmidt doubled in the bottom of the seventh off Elias Sosa and it started a two-run inning that put the game out of reach. Montreal got a run in the eighth, but never made it interesting in a 6-2 final.
GAME 4
Houston-Los Angeles: Valenzuela was back on three days’ rest. The Astros, with breathing room, went to their #4 starter Vern Ruhle, although we should note that the Houston rotation was deep and Ruhle, while not having the career of a Ryan or Niekro, was at or close to their level in 1981. And he pitched like it matching Fernando with goose eggs for four innings.
Los Angeles finally broke through in the fifth, with Pedro Guerrero hit a two-out homer. It stayed 1-0 into the seventh when Garvey singled, was bunted up and scored on another big two-out hit, this one a single from Bill Russell.
Houston made a little noise in the ninth, when Puhl doubled. With two outs, Scott kept the game alive with a single that got the Astros a run. But Jose Cruz fouled out. This series was going to a Game 5.
Montreal-Philadelphia: In an NLDS round that produced a lot of good games, but mostly pitchers’ duels. Game 4 of the Expos-Phillies was the best back-and-forth game of this round, a great matchup on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Philly.
The Phils got after Scott Sanderson quickly, doing everything after two outs in the first inning. McBride singled and Schmidt homered for a 2-zip lead. Philadelphia got two more in the third. After Rose singled and Schmidt walked, a double play grounder appeared ready to get Sanderson out of it. But second baseman Jerry Manuel didn’t handle the exchange and while he got one out at first, there were runners on second and third. Moreland, never a great player in his career, but having a great series, singled with two outs and it was 4-0.
Montreal began coming back off Dickie Noles in the fourth when Carter homered. When two walks followed, Philly manager Dallas Green quickly went to his bullpen and Warren Brusstar kept it 4-1. Speier made things happen in the fifth, hitting a leadoff double and scoring a sac fly from White.
The Expos pulled even in the sixth. Parrish singled and then Speier—who else—singled with two outs. John Milner came on to pinch-hit and cut the lead to 4-3 with a base hit. Lyle came out of the bullpen, but another pinch-hit single, this one by Wallace Johnson, tied the game 4-4.
Philadelphia got the lead back in the sixth. Montreal was already on their fourth pitcher, Woodie Fryman, who had been brilliant all year long. But Matthews got Fryman for a solo home run. Montreal immediately tied it when White drew a walk off Ron Reed and scored on a double from Carter.
The Phils looked ready to get the lead right back in the seventh with a runner on third, one out and Schmidt at the plate. But Reardon came out of the pen and got Schmidt to pop out.
Reardon stayed in, while Phils’ closer Tug McGraw came on in the eighth. McGraw worked three scoreless innings and it was still 5-5 in the bottom of the 10th. Reardon had worked 2.2 IP of scoreless ball himself when the Vuckovich came to the plate. This was too much to ask, and Vuckovich lined a home run into the rightfield seats and with the 6-5 win, another Game 5 on Sunday would go down.
Major league baseball had been playing pre-World Series playoff rounds since 1969 in a best-of-five format and no team had ever lost the first two and come back to win. Both the Phillies and Dodgers—along with the Milwaukee Brewers who would attempt the same thing on Sunday in the 1981 ALDS—had the chance.
GAME 5
Houston-Los Angeles: Nolan Ryan had the best year of his career in 1981 and it was left to him to try and save the Astros, with Reuss pitching for the Dodgers. It was another pitchers’ duel—Ryan escaped a jam in the third when he got Baker to pop out with one out and Lopes on third-but the game went to the sixth inning scoreless.
Los Angeles broke through when Baker drew a one-out walk and Garvey singled, setting up runners on the corners. With two outs, Rick Monday singled for the game’s first run. It was all Reuss was going to need, but the Dodgers got more. Mike Scioscia singled in another run, and then an error brought in a third run.
The Houston bats, never very good to begin with, were completely silence and they never put together anything that could be called a serious threat. Garvey tripled in an insurance run in the seventh and with their 4-0 win, Los Angeles had made history.
Montreal-Philadelphia: It was a Rogers-Carlton matchup. Over the scope of their careers, there was no question that Carlton was the vastly superior pitcher, but in the specific year of 1981, it was much closer and this was Rogers’ moment.
In the top of the fourth, after a leadoff single by Parrish and walks by Wallach and Manuel, Rogers came to the plate with one out. It was Carlton’s chance to get a punch-out and escape. But Rogers slapped a single back through the middle it was 2-0.
That was all Rogers was going to need, as he put his team on his back. In the sixth, the Expos added another run to make it 3-0. The Phils mounted their one threat in the bottom of that inning, with two on one out and Schmidt at the plate.
Rogers got the MVP to hit into a double play ball. It was all over but the shouting. Montreal turned back Philadelphia’s bid at history and with the 3-0 win, the Expos were NL East champs for the first time.
1981 DIVISION SERIES MVPS
Major league baseball has never given an official Division Series MVP award, either then or after this round was permanently instituted in the realignment of 1994. It’s an omission I think should be rectified, and that’s what we’ll do here.
Let’s start with the easy one—Steve Rogers would have to be the choice for Montreal. The Expos ace won two games against the best starting pitcher of his generation in Carlton, including the decisive game on the road, and got Game 5’s biggest hit to boot.
There’s three worthwhile candidates for the Dodgers. Garvey went 7-for-19 and homered twice, an in a series that was starving for offense that certainly stands out. But it seems to me that since Houston only scored six runs in five games and Los Angele starters worked deep into games, perhaps we should look at the starting rotation.
That leads us Valenzuela and Reuss. Fernando worked 17 innings, allowed just one run and won Game 4. But Reuss was even better—18 innings, no runs and a shutout against Ryan in the decisive Game 5. I’d take Reuss for this honor.
AFTERMATH FOR THE VANQUISHED
Houston fell off the radar following the collapse of 1981, went into rebuilding mode and didn’t return to contention until they won the NL West again five years later. Philadelphia continued to contend, and returned to the World Series in 1983, though they never won it all again until 2008.
AFTERMATH FOR THE VICTORS
Los Angeles and Montreal continued the five-game fun in the 1981 NLCS, and the Dodgers continued the comeback pattern. They trailed 2-1 in games and were on the road in Montreal for the final two games. Both games were tied in the eighth inning, and a big home run was the difference each time.
Garvey went deep in the eighth inning of Game 4 to break that one open. Rick Monday’s shot in Game 5 was even bigger—it broke a 1-1 tie with two outs in the top of the ninth and won the pennant.
The Dodgers met the New York Yankees in the World Series, and it was one more round of comebacks for Lasorda’s Dodgers. They lost the first two games in the Bronx, and then never lost again. Three straight one-run wins followed at home, and then Los Angeles blew out New York in Yankee Stadium to seal a title in Game 6.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals each had been through their share of trials to get the World Series. The Phils and Royals made the League Championship Series each year from 1976-78, and lost all three times. They both broke through together and it was the Phillies who took the final step in the 1980 World Series.
You can read more about the paths the Phillies and Royals took to reach the World Series, and the seasons enjoyed by their key players, at the links below. This article will focus strictly on the games of the 1980 World Series.
Homefield advantage for the World Series belonged to Philadelphia, as the National League was on the right side of the rotation system this year. It would also be the first all-artificial turf World Series.
Kansas City had swept the ALCS so their rotation was fresh, with aces Dennis Leonard and Larry Gura set to go for the first two games. Philadelphia played a draining NLCS with the Houston Astros were the last four games went extra innings, and they sent lightly regarded Bob Walk to the mound.
The Royals took advantage early as veteran Royal centerfielder Amos Otis hit a two-run homer and first baseman Willie Mays Aikens hit another as Kansas City built a 4-0 lead. Aikens would not have a long career in baseball, but he was a tough out in this series, as this early home run indicated.
The Phils’ comeback capacity was already becoming a national story though, and they did it in Game 1. In the bottom of the third, Larry Bowa singled with one out, stole second and scored on a double from Bob Boone. Lonnie Smith drove in Boone and the lead was quickly cut in half. Even though Smith was out trying to stretch a hit into a double, the rally continued. Pete Rose was hit by a pitch, Mike Schmidt drew a walk and Bake McBride homered to right. Philadelphia was suddenly ahead 5-4.
Leonard couldn’t recover and he gave way early to Renie Martin. The Phillies added runs in the fourth, on a two-out RBI double from Boone, and in the fifth, McBride singled and eventually came around on a sac fly from Garry Maddox.
Kansas City tried to get back in it—George Brett doubled and Aikens homered again to cut the lead to 7-6, but Philadelphia closer Tug McGraw came on and closed the door on the Game 1 win.
It was the battle of lefthanders for Game 2, as the Phils sent their ace, Steve Carlton to the mound, with his nasty slider. The Royals countered with 18-game winner Larry Gura, a finesse pitcher who could get groundball outs as well as anyone. Both pitchers controlled the game early, before Trillo delivered a key hit that gave the Phils a 2-0 lead in the fifth.
What Trillo, the MVP of the NLCS had given with his bat, he quickly gave back with his glove. An error on a ball hit by Aikens created an unearned run for KC. In the seventh, the Royals got a bases-loaded double from Otis, scored three times and turned the game over to their excellent submarine-throwing closer Dan Quisenberry.
The closer would be no mystery to Philadelphia throughout this series though, and consecutive doubles from McBride and Schmidt keyed a four-run eighth. The game ended 6-4 and Philly had held serve at the Vet.
One of the more amusing stories in this series was that Brett was suffering from a case of hemorrhoids and it was wondered if he would be able to play. He had to leave in the sixth inning of Game 2 due to the pain. The third baseman said he would be in the lineup and joined the national chorus of jokes by saying “All my troubles are behind me.”
Brett proved it with a home run in the first inning of Game 3 in Royals Stadium, but Philadelphia immediately answered in the second inning with singles from Trillo and Bowa, with Smith ultimately tying the game with an RBI groundout.
The punch-counterpunch dynamic stayed all the way through the game. Aikens tripled and scored in the fifth to put the Royals up 2-1. Schmidt homered to lead off the fifth and tie it. Otis hit a solo home in the seventh. Bowa singled with one out in the eighth, and with two outs, stole second and scored on a base hit by Rose. The game went to extra innings tied 3-3.
U.L. Washington led off the home half of the tenth inning with a single off McGraw. Willie Wilson drew a walk, but Washington was quickly wiped out trying to steal third. The inning was going to get away from Kansas City when Wilson stole second with two outs. Aikens singled to score the winning run and this time the rules prevented the Phils from immediately tying it back up.
The sun splashed over Kansas City for Game 4, as prior to 1985, Games 4 & 5 were day games on Saturday/Sunday, in the early afternoon and late afternoon respectively. For Royal fans, the start to Game 4 added to the sunshine.
Philadelphia starter Larry Christenson had nothing and only got one out, after Wilson singled to start the bottom of the first. After that, Brett tripled and Aikens homered for a 3-0 lead. Hal McRae and Otis hit back-to-back doubles and Kansas City had staked Leonard to a 4-0 lead.
One pattern didn’t stop, it was the inability of Royal pitchers to have a shutdown inning Philadelphia got a run back in the second. A throwing error on a double play attempt moved Trillo to scoring position and Bowa singled him in with two outs. But Aikens homered again in the bottom of the second and Leonard settled in.
To the credit of Phillies’ long reliever Dickie Noles, the game stayed at 5-1 into the seventh. The Phils picked up a run in the seventh, when Trillo doubled and came around on a sac fly from Boone. In the eighth, Rose doubled and Quisenberry came in for Leonard. The run scored thanks to productive outs, but Quisenberry closed the door on the 5-3 win without further incident. It set the stage for a pivotal Game 5 on Sunday.
Marty Bystrom pitched for Philadelphia, while Gura followed Leonard in taking the ball on short rest. The Royals missed a chance in the third inning, when they had runners on first and second, no outs and the top of the order up. But Wilson, Frank White and Brett couldn’t get the job done. In the top of the fourth, a defensive miscue by Kansas City was costly—Aikens made an error at first and Schmidt hit a two-run shot the other way for a 2-0 Philly lead.
The Royals manufactured a run in the fifth, with singles from Washington and Wilson, a sac bunt from White and an RBI groundout from Brett. KC tied it an inning later the easy way—a home run from Otis. Then they took the lead when Clint Hurdle and Darrell Porter singled and Washington hit a sac fly. But another Kansas City mistake came when Wilson doubled to right and Porter was thrown out at the plate.
Quisenberry came on early, with one out in the seventh inning. Schmidt beat out an infield hit, and then Del Unser ripped a double into the rightfield corner that tied the game. He was bunted over to third. With two outs, Trillo then beat out an infield hit. With only one ball hit into the outfield, the Phils had scored two runs and taken a 4-3 lead.
McGraw was on for the save and he made sure it got interesting. He went walk/out/walk/out/walk, to give Jose Cardenal a chance to be a hero for Kansas City. McGraw struck him out and the Phils were going home with two chances to clinch the World Series.
Game 6 shaped up as Philadelphia’s best shot—Carlton was pitching on full rest against Kansas City’s Rich Gale, a decent starter who had done well in Game 3, but certainly not in Carlton’s class. The Royals would turn to Leonard in Game 7 and could probably squeeze a couple innings out of Gura if they needed. The Phillies had to see Tuesday night as their moment.
Carlton was razor sharp and for seven innings, the Royals never seriously threatened scoring. Schmidt delivered a two-run single in the third for the game’s first runs. In the fifth, Smith doubled and scored on a successive productive outs. In the sixth, with Gale out and lefty Paul Splitorff in, Bowa doubled and scored on a single from Boone.
Kansas City started to make headway in the eighth. John Wathan walked and Cardenal singled. Carlton was removed for McGraw. White fouled out, but Wilson walked to load the bases and Washington picked up the first KC run with a sac fly. In a key moment, Brett singled, but Cardenal had to stop at third. Consequently, McGraw was able to get McRae and keep the game 4-1.
In the top of the ninth, Aikens worked a walk with one out. Wathan singled, ensuring Kansas City had two chances with the tying run at the plate. Cardenal singled. The security police were lined up around Veterans Stadium on horses to keep the crowd from celebrating. Was it really possible that Kansas City would do the work for Philly’s finest?
White was at the plate and he popped up behind home plate. Boone moved behind it. The ball popped out of his mitt. This is normally the kind of moment that haunts a franchise. But not when an alert player likes Rose in effect “backs up” his catcher. Rose was near the play and he snagged the ball before it hit the ground. McGraw struck out Wilson, the record 12th strikeout for the Royal leadoff hitter and the Phillies were champions.
It was a long wait fulfilled for the Phillie Faithful, the first title in their long history. The Royals would eventually reward their own fans as well—five years later, in 1985, Kansas City won the first, and to date only, World Series championship in franchise history.
