MLB Classic: Wrigley Field unconfined – Phillies 23, Cubs 22

MLB Classic: Wrigley Field Unconfined

Where the Oddities Began

And they didn’t end when Phillies starting pitcher Randy Lerch finished their first-inning carnage with a solo home run… only to get knocked out of the box in the bottom of the inning.

Pete Rose in his first Philadelphia season passed Mickey Mantle on the all-time list for runs scored by switch hitters when he came home on Schmidt’s first-inning loft onto the left-field catwalk. Phillies center fielder Garry Maddox was 4-for-4 with a single, two doubles, and a home run—but his second double forced him out of the game when he injured himself sliding into second.

Two ill-fated 1986 postseason performers-to-be played this game as Cubs teammates. First baseman Bill Buckner went 4-for-7 with seven RBIs… and the four steaks in the middle came when he smashed a grand slam to start the seven-run Cub fifth that started eradicating the Phillies’ twelve-run lead.

Relief pitcher Donnie Moore took over for starter Dennis Lamp in that crazy enough first and finished the Cubs coming back to 7-6 in the bottom of the inning with an RBI triple. He pitched a scoreless second but got pried for four runs in the top of the third. Then, he yielded to future (1984) American League Cy Young Award/Most Valuable Player winner  Willie Hernandez—who got pried for a run-scoring ground out and then Maddox’s three-run homer.

You wonder if Hernandez was either taking one for the team or in manager Herman Franks’s doghouse. He pitched two and two-thirds innings total and got strafed for two runs charged to Moore and eight runs on his own nickels.

Only two of the day’s eleven pitchers (six for the Cubs, five for the Phillies) surrendered no runs while they were on the mound despite being prospective target practice—Ray Burris for the Cubs (a scoreless inning and two-thirds) and Rawly Eastwick (scoreless ninth and tenth and, while he was at it, credit for the win).

Eastwick, once a bullpen capacitor for the former Big Red Machine, was also the only pitcher on the day to retire the side in order, doing it both innings he worked.

Name the one pitcher who got into the game and didn’t throw a pitch but did swing the bat? Nino Espinosa, Phillies, relief pitcher… who was sent out to pinch run for fifth-inning leadoff pinch hitter Greg Luzinski, the Phillies’ slugger still shaking off a leg injury. Espinosa ended up the tenth man to bat in the inning… and grounded out for the side.

“I was glad I pinch-run,” Espinosa would remember. “That meant I didn’t have to pitch.” Translation: He thinks he escaped with his life.

Phillies manager Danny Ozark decided to send former Mets relief star Tug McGraw out to the mound instead. Whoops. McGraw might be seen closing out the World Series in the Phillies’ favor the following season, but on this afternoon he was seen surrendering a bases-loaded walk, Buckner’s salami, and a three-run homer by Cub center fielder Jerry Martin… all in the fifth.

“I gave up seven runs in one-third of an inning,” McGraw said long after the fact. “It took me the rest of the year to get my ERA back into [three] digits.”