May 8th, 1993: It's Been Rheal

 May 8th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (20-7) vs  St. Louis Cardinals (15-13)

It’s Been Rheal

An Introduction…

I’m the guy who gets over the excruciating existential crisis that was the end of the Sixers postseason by diving deep into the 1993 Phillies. Now that the 2021 season has begun, my attention has returned to the current Phillies, but as too the heartbreak of being a fan of this franchise has also begun, I’ve decided once more to go back in time and revisit the greatest season of baseball of my childhood, the 1993 Phillies.  Thanks to the internet and more specifically the saint who runs the ClassicPhilliesTV youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWb6dGkCnKBlrQLJAjZ-4-w), I’m going back and watching every 1993 Phillies I can find just like if it was 28 years ago (but with the internet)... Previously I attempted to go day for day with every Phillies game in the month of June, which was a bold idea but proved to be futile. Now the plan is to start from the beginning of the season and attempt 1 game recap per week until we get to game 5 of the 1993 World series and then decide if I really want to torture myself with game 6. Come along for the ride to reminisce about the legends of John Kruk, Mitch Williams, and Darren Daulton, to mix the knowledge we have now, with jokes of how dumb things were then.  

Where We Last Left Our Intrepid Heroes (and Villains)

After returning to Philadelphia with a 5-2 record on their West Coast swing, the Phillies opened their series against the St. Louis Cardinals last night (28 years ago) with a 4-3 victory thanks to a 2 run home run by Dave Hollins and seven strong innings from Tommy Greene. The win pushed the Cardinals into third place in the NL East behind the Montreal Expos who are now 4½ games behind the Phillies with the Cards 5½ out. Almost 30 games into the season, the Phillies have uncharacteristically been playing a majority of their games out of division, playing only 10 games against their NL East foes. Which makes their start only the more impressive as the West is a far tougher division in 1993.   

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a weird place as a franchise, they’re now 11 years removed from their last World Series victory and 13 years till their next (which is the longest drought in the much ballyhooed franchise). They still have stalwart shortstop Ozzie Smith, but the rest of the team is full of question marks and oddly enough future Philadelphia Phillies. Pitching for the Red Birds is Rheal Cormier (whom I’ll delve into more so in the pitching section), playing third is Todd Zeile, who in his one season with the Phils had a Jayson Werth-esque 20 Homer 80 RBI line which was enough to become trade bait and sent to the Baltimore Orioles (with Pete Incaviglia) in one of those last minute waiver wire trades that are now barred. At first base is almost-Lenny-Dykstra Gregg Jefferies, the most perpetually over-hyped crappy player of my childhood, and in left field is Mark Whiten, a personal favorite of my memories because of the dope ass nickname “Hard Hittin’” Mark Whiten. Now while the 93 Phillies were analytically ahead of their time with their ability to get on base and score runs with “spare part” players, it’s important to note that the Phillies organization was not ever leading the charge in that actual direction. To better articulate the argument look no further at the Phillie careers of Gregg Jefferies and Mark Whiten. The Phils signed Jefferies in the 94 offseason for 4 years and 20 million dollars (4/20 bruh), Whiten was traded to the Phils from Seattle in exchange for Dave Hollins in the middle of the 1995 season. In 120 games (July 95 to June 96) on the team Mark Whiten had a .361 OBP, hit 18 home runs, stole 20 bases, and garnered an above average 113 wRC+. In the three full seasons (and the 125 games of 1998) Jefferies was a Phillie, Gregg never had an OBP higher than .348, never hit more than 11 home runs, never got higher than 108 wRC+ (averaging 95.5 wRC+) and only stole more than 12 bases once when he stole 20 in 1996. Jefferies was eventually traded for a player to be later after starting for his entire tenure with the team, Mark Whiten was unceremoniously released in June of 1996, then signed by the Braves where he hit 3 home runs and 17 RBI before being traded for a prospect (The Phillies released him for NOTHING). Why did the Phillies front office stick with Jefferies (who was also the inferior defensive outfielder) and not Whiten? Because Jefferies always had a better batting average. Mark Whiten, with cool nickname, was supposed to be a power hitter for the Phillies after he made a name for himself bashing 4 home runs in one game (in 1993), but when he didn’t get enough RBIs (which are luck based and strongly influenced by Greg Jefferies’ inability to get on base in the batting position in front of Whiten), and only hit .243 (with a .360 OBP! 29th best in the NL), the Phillies brass decided to cut bait from the (checks notes) 800,000 dollars (Jefferies made 5.5 million in 96). Long story short, the Cardinals aren’t very good and the Phillies are idiots who decided to take ⅓ of the Cardinals lineup and try it 3 years later. Joe Torre is the coach of the Cardinals in 1993, which is pretty weird to see.  

Today’s Game:

Tonight is Saturday, May 8th 1993 at Veteran’s stadium, where the Phillies are 11-3 to start the season. Once again the broadcast is on PRISM’s weird little brother Sportschannel where Andy Musser and Kent Tekulve will do the full 9 innings in the booth. Over forty thousand fans are in attendance tonight as it’s boy scout night where all those tiny kids in the uniforms get in for free. 

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiI_CYXYYcE (watch out the first 7 minutes repeat)

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra .

SS Mariano Duncan

1B John Kruk 4th in NL in Runs

3B Dave Hollins Batting .400 Left Handed

C Darren Daulton  

LF Pete Incaviglia

RF Wes Chamberlain

2B Mickey Morandini 

SP Terry Mulholland

On the Mound:

Once again manning the bump for the home team is ace of the staff Terry Mulholland, coming off a complete game 9-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, Terry Mo is now 3-3 with 2.60 ERA. While Mulholland is one of the better pitchers of the early 90’s (as chronicled quite a bit in previous posts), he had one skill that was unrelated to his pitching ability that was elite. Terry Mulholland had arguably the greatest pick off move in the history of baseball. If you were to create a baseball pitching Frankenstein’s monster, he would have Terry Mulholland’s pickoff move (because the pitching Frankenstein’s monster would inevitably be left handed). Mulholland had this amazing ability to go from looking at ease to whip snap throwing to first base in what seemed instantaneously.  In 1992, Terry Mulholland picked off 15 runners trying to steal bases, at this point in 93, base runners were basically terrified of even trying to take a lead, which affected Mulholland’s place in history. Other than 92, Terry never accumulated huge numbers in pickoffs because no one was stupid enough to try him.  Steve Carlton, who leads all pitchers in pickoffs all time (because players ran way more in the 70s), only had 15 or more 3 times in his career. Neither Mark Buehrle and Andy Pettite who are the modern answer for best pickoff move (ranked 2nd and 3rd all time behind Carlton in pickoffs, respectively) were ever able to achieve 15 pickoffs in one season.  

Pitching for the visiting St. Louis Cardinals is the aforementioned Rheal Cormier, who is 8 years away from joining Philadelphia himself and becoming an above average reliever on some very fun if not particularly successful Phillies teams. A former 6th round pick in the 1988 amateur draft, the Canadian Cormier was brought through the St. Louis system as a starter and found some success in 1992 while going 10-10 with a 3.68 ERA and 3.19 FIP over 186 innings and accruing 3.0 WAR. Sadly for his starting pitching career, Cormier would never be able to replicate those numbers. So far in 1993, Cormier is 1-2 with a 3.53 ERA over 35⅔ innings, but hasn’t won since his first start on April 7th. It wouldn’t be until Cormier was traded from the Montreal Expos to the Boston Red Sox in 1999 that he would fully be converted to the bullpen, and become a highly adequate reliever. In 2001 the Phillies signed Rheal to a four year deal that went so well they retained his service for another one and half years before finally moving Cormier to the Reds in 2006. During his time with the Phillies Cormier found arguably his most success in the majors, in 2003, with 84⅓  innings pitched, he had a microscopic 1.70 ERA and 2.98 FIP. He’s also the answer to the trivia question “What pitcher won the last game for the Phillies at Veteran’s Stadium, and won the first game for the Phillies at Citizen’s Bank Park?”. Cormier would lose his major league job in 2007, but decided instead to focus on making the Canadian Olympic team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. he had previously represented his country in the Pan-American games of 1987 and the 1988 Olympics (when Baseball was just a demonstration sport) as well as the first World Baseball Classic in 2006. Despite not being able to secure a job in the Majors, Cormier made the Canadian roster and at 41 years old was the oldest player in the Baseball event ar. In 2012, Cormier was elected into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Sadly, Rheal Cormier passed away in March of 2021 due to Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 53.  

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

LOW- Early hole- Top 2nd

The Cardinals have scored 24 runs in the first inning this season, but it’s not till the 2nd when they are able to get on the board tonight. Mulholland is in an early jam with the bases loaded with one out with back-up catcher and coolest looking player I’ve ever seen Hector Villanueva at the plate.

Hector hits a grounder to Dave Hollins who attempts to turn two by going to second, but the slow roller makes the second out impossible, allowing a run to score. This is 1 of 9 RBIs for Villanueva in the 1993 season, his last year in the majors (fun fact he won the Triple Crown during the 1991 Puerto Rico Winter Baseball season). One pitch later, Mulholland induced a double play to end the threat. 1-0 STL 

HIGH- Evening it up- Bottom 5th

Cormier has been mowing down the Phillies so far in the game allowing just one hit (to Wes Chamberlain) through the first four innings, but finally has a hiccup in the 5th. Pete Incaviglia gets a one out double to bring Wes Chamberlain back up to the plate. Chamberlain had been once thought of as a future asset for the Phillies after a strong 1991 season, but his 1992 campaign led to the acquiring of Jim Eisenreich for the 1993 season to create a platoon. Still Chamberlain had gained enough trust with the coaching staff to be named the opening day Right Fielder, but a faulty alarm caused Chamberlain to show up late to the field and push Manager Jim Fregosi to start Jim Eisenreich in Chamberlain’s stead. At this point in the season, Chamberlain is still trying to get out of Fregosi’s doghouse as well as earn back the respect of his veteran (and extremely judgmental) teammates. Chamberlain earned some points with the team by knocking in Inky with a single to tie up the game 1-1. It would be the only run allowed by Cormier all day.

HIGH- Terry’s Move- Top 6 and Top 8

As stated above, Terry Mulholland had one of the more devastating pickoff moves in all of baseball, and while he doesn’t pickoff any one this game, the move is highly important. With one out in the 6th and future Phillie Mark Whiten on first, Mulholland attempts to snag Whiten multiple times to keep him close to the base while working a 2-2 count to Ray Lankford. On the fifth pitch of the count, Mulholland gets Lankford to swing through a fastball, and Darren Daulton throws out Mark Whiten trying to steal second to end the 6th inning. Two innings later, Mulholland finds himself in the same situation with future Phillie Gregg Jefferies on first base  with one out. This time Mulholland strikes out future Phillie Todd Zeile on a fastball, and Darren Daulton throws out Greg Jefferies trying to steal to end the 8th inning. The Cardinals have been famous for years as “the running Red Birds”, but Mulholland’s ability to keep them honest while taking leads directly affected the outcome of this game.

Wild Rides

In a tied 1-1 ball game, both managers send out their starters to work the 9th inning, and each starter comes through. Mulholland retired the Cards in order and Cormier gave up his first walk of the game but immediately wiped the mistake away by forcing a double play, sending this game into extra innings. 

Extra Wild Rides

Sitting at something like 107 pitches (an estimation since no one mentions pitch count during these games), Fregosi sends out Terry Mulholland for the top of the 10th inning, as one is wont to do. Mulholland continues to do what he’s done all night by allowing one batter to reach base (his first walk of the game), but retiring the side in short order. For the game Terry Mo has 10IP 10 hits 1 ER 1 walk and 6 strikeouts, while throwing 119 pitches (72 strikes) and lowering his ERA on the season to 2.29. 

With Rheal Cormier’s spot in the line-up up, Joe Torre decides to lift him for a pinch hitter (who Mulholland got out on one pitch) so that Rheal finished with 9 IP 1 ER 5 hits 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. Incaviglia starts off the bottom of the 10th with a grounder to Todd Zeile who throws too low for Gregg Jefferies allowing Inky to reach on error. After Milt Thompson comes in as a pinch runner (and steals second base), Ricky Jordan is brought in as a pinch hitter for Terry Mulholland with one out, and he delivers a little magic.

The Phillies win on a walk off Ricky Jordan single.   

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 2 (21-7) St Louis Cardinals (15-14) 1

Words of Wisdom from Musser and Tek

“Gregg Jefferies is not a good thrower” Musser explains why Gregg Jefferies was moved to First base. The Phillies would of course move Jefferies to the outfield 2 years later.

“Just about perfect here” Musser describes the night at the Vet. I bet it was.

“The day and age of the computer, those numbers are available to anyone” Musser mentions after Tek says that Torre is going with Zeile at the clean-up spot today because he’s batting .458 against Mulholland. Not really Musser, but you’re getting there. 

Final Conclusions

The Phillies take the first two games of the homestand and the first two games of the series against the Cardinals.  If you enjoyed this wonderful blast from the past please feel free to share, like, or comment on it. The hope is to have more people watching 93 Phillies games on youtube and talking about it. So hit me up @Kevin_Seamus on twitter or @loudphilliesguy on Instagram. Tomorrow (in 1993) the Cardinals and the Phillies play a game on mother’s day, a mother’s day game that lives forever in Phillies lore. 

April 28, 1993: Ricky Tikki Tavi

 April 28th, 1993: Philadelphia Phillies (14-5) vs  San Diego Padres (9-10)

Ricky Tikki Tavi

An Introduction…

I’m the guy that cries every time he watches the intro to the 2008 World Series DVD.  It’s crazy, but the Major League Baseball season was actually played in 2020, and the Phillies have again done everything they could do to try to ruin my fanhood. So I’ve decided once more to go back in time and revisit the greatest season of baseball of my childhood, the 1993 Phillies.  Thanks to the internet and more specifically the saint who runs the ClassicPhilliesTV youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWb6dGkCnKBlrQLJAjZ-4-w), I’m going back and watching every 1993 Phillies I can find just like if it was 27 years ago (but with the internet)... Previously I attempted to go day for day with every Phillies game in the month of June, which was a bold idea but proved to be futile. Now the plan is to start from the beginning of the season and attempt 1-2 game recaps per week until we get to game 5 of the 1993 World series and then decide if I really want to torture myself with game 6. Come along for the ride to reminisce about the legends of John Kruk, Mitch Williams, and Darren Daulton, to mix the knowledge we have now, with jokes of how dumb things were then.  

Where We Last Left Our Intrepid Heroes (and Villains)

After falling behind 8-0 in the first game of the series against the San Francisco Giants, the Phillies fell behind 6-0 to the Giants in the second game of the series, but unlike in game 1, the Phillies were unable to come back against the boys from the Bay and lost 6-3. The split against the Giants leaves the Phillies record at 14-5.  

The San Diego Padres, (almost the San Diego Gorillas) as a franchise have always dealt with an uphill battle. Their problem is that San Diego is arguably the greatest place to live in America, and no one cares to go to Baseball games, when everywhere around you is beautiful. As Kruk puts it in his book, “In San Diego, there’s so much else to do. It’s like, ‘it’s six-thirty. What do you want to do? How about we go watch the Padres?’ It’s almost like an accident that they come to games.” Or as Jack Clark, perennial baseball asshole, meanly put it, “Everything that they should cheer for they’d boo for, and everything they should boo for they’d cheer for … and the town is so stupid that they can’t see.” Thus it became more and more difficult to field competitive teams when you could not profit off of them, so the Padres always had the demeanor of a penny pinching franchise. But in 1992, they’re scrap heaping, high draft picking ways, seemingly paid off for them. Going into spring of that year, the Padres looked to field a team that was stacked with talent, a season in which San Diego would host the All Star Game had them field 5 All Stars. Perennial Superstar Tony Gwynn led the way for a wrecking crew that included Benito Santiago, Fred McGriff, Derek Bell, and former Brewer cast-off Gary Sheffield, along with a decent starter group that included Andy Benes and almost World Series MVP Bruce Hurst, the Padres seemed to be the team to beat in the West. Yet as you plan, God laughs, and the Padres stumbled throughout the 1992 season, with no particular help from their manager Greg Riddoch. Riddoch, a former utility infielder, became manager for the Padres in 1990 when Jack McKeon fired himself from the job to return to only being the General Manager for the team, after gaining the job the Padres lost 11 of their next 12 and Riddoch lost a reported 22 pounds from stress. By midway through 1992, Riddoch had lost more than weight as  the veterans were reported to have voted to not play for him (I can’t find a primary source for this story, but multiple offhand remarks about it happening, sadly the database for 1992 newspaper articles is not as accessible as one might hope), and the owner decided to fire him with 12 games left, while the Padres were 4 games back in the NL West, which is WILD. Brought in to replace him is Jim Riggleman, who would eventually make a career of being a replacement coach, Rigs was unable to turn the team around in the last 12 games, with the Padres finishing a disappointing 82-80 and 4th in the NL West. Subsequently the Padres went on a fire sale the like of which the MLB has never seen before, one might argue that it directly effected the next 5 World Series. The first piece moved was Catcher Benito Santiago (Santiago in 92 had won an arbitration case against the team and was the highest paid catcher in baseball that season) when he was released to go to the Marlins, next was the release of Larry Andersen who would play a pivotal role for the 93 Phillies. The Padres then traded Tony Fernandez to the New York Mets, who a month into the 93 season would be traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where in the 93 World Series Fernandez would knock in 9 runs in the 6 game series. Also traded during the 93 season were First baseman Fred McGriff to the Atlanta Braves, where he would help them win 108 games in 93, as well as the 1995 World Series, and aid them to the 1996 World Series. And finally is Gary Sheffield, a then third baseman, was traded to the Florida Marlins, he would go on to lead those Marlins to the 1997 World Series, in return the Padres got a relief pitcher named Trevor Hoffman who would help lead the Padres to the 1998 World Series. Though some of those players remain at this point in the 1993 season, the signs are on the wall that this Padres team, currently at 9-10, is going to get much worse.     

Today’s Game:

It is Wednesday April 28th, 1993 and the Phillies have just flew across the country to play a two game set at Jack Murphy Stadium. Remember when stadiums were named after people and things (hi the Vet) instead of sold to the highest bidder (hey Enron!). The stadium is named after the sportswriter who built up local support to get the stadium to be built. That’s kind of nice.  The television broadcast is brought to you on Sportschannel, PRISM’s weird little brother, and all nine innings are with Andy Musser and Kent “Tek” Tekulve. 

  

Watch for yourself at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wL_fiyWd7E&t=686s

The Line-up

CF Lenny Dykstra .

2B Mickey Morandini

1B Ricky Jordan 20 game hitting streak as a starter

3B Dave Hollins

C Darren Daulton Has hit a home run in every NL park but SD

RF Pete Incaviglia

LF Milt Thompson

SS Mariano Duncan

SP Curt Schilling

On the Mound:

Coming off a game where he pitched a complete game 5-hit shutout versus the Dodgers, Curt Schilling is in the midst of a sizzling first half that bursts him into an elite starting pitcher. We know now that Schilling will never be in the Hall of Fame, not because he wasn’t good enough, but because he’s a terrible human being, like no debate about it, no excuses, Curt Schilling is a no good, evil intended, soulless, rotting piece of human flesh. Yet in 1993, I waited with my sister and Dad in a line outside a sporting good store for four hours to get his autograph and my picture taken. In 1993, he’s one of the best, most surprisingly great pitchers in all of baseball with a 3-1 record, a 2.59 ERA, and 21 strikeouts vs 7 walks on the season. Schilling tells the broadcast teams that he attributes his turnaround to a talk from Roger Clemens in which Clemens told him, “You should work harder.” Inspiring words from the Rocket. 

Taking the ball for the San Diego Padres is Greg Harris, that’s Greg W. Harris, not Greg A. Harris who currently (1993) pitches for the Boston Red Sox. I bring this up, because the broadcast mentions it, as well as his wikipedia page, and every article I could find about the man on the internet. Harris became a starting pitcher midway through the 1991 season (unhappily, apparently) and quickly became one of the hottest young pitchers in the league, going 8-4 with a 2.11 ERA over 16 starts. Harris used this half season as leverage for a 2 year 3 million dollar deal. He enters today’s contest with a 1 win and 4 loss record and a 5.4 ERA, he also leads the league in most home runs allowed with 5, for his career up to this point he is 1 and 4 against the Phillies. If you didn’t understand the whole firesale aspect of the Padres, you’d be surprised to learn that Harris too would not be long with the Padres, eventually traded to the Rockies. The Rockies were looking for any pitching and ignored the danger of small sample sizes to trade for Harris just days after Harris threw a complete game 1 run effort against the Rockies. Harris would have a disastrous tour in Colorado and eventually need surgery on his shoulder which is where it gets really interesting for Harris. To quote another blogger and his post, Remembering Greg Harris, the Colorado Rockies' first pitching casualty  what happened was, “Harris had been set up by his agent, an accountant, and a doctor in San Diego. His career ended prematurely not because of on-field events, but rather a questionable financial arrangement. The agent, accountant, and doctor were in on a scam behind Harris' back that involved a $40,000 payment when the agent, David Morway, funneled the pitcher to the doctor, Gary Losse, for shoulder surgery.” Harris would eventually win 10 million dollars in the legal case, so he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.   

Highs (Hopes) and Lows

High- Top 4th- Ricky Jordan

Ricky Jordan is starting at first base for the second game in a row following John Kruk’s quad pull during the San Fran comeback. Jordan is often acknowledged by the broadcast team for being such a quality back-up first baseman, and coming into today’s game he is batting .500 (5 for 10) with 3 walks over the first month of the young season. Jordan is a former first round pick of the Phillies from the 1983 amateur draft, and at one point had seemed like a cornerstone for the franchise. In his first at-bat in the 1998 season, Jordan homered, and the next night he hit another one. During his rookie season of 88 over 69 games, Jordan hit 12 home runs, and batted .308, more than enough to gain the starting job at first base for the 1989 season. The 89 season saw a regression for Jordan in all areas, particularly for a right handed first baseman, and with the acquisition of John Kruk, Jordan went from future first basemen of the 90’s to decent back-up. Yesterday in his first start of the season, Jordan went 3-4 with a home run and began today’s game off with a single and in the fourth inning singled and later scored on a Dave Hollins double. Hollins would also scored thanks to Pete Incaviglia’s 9th RBI in 5 games 2-0 PHI

High- Bottom 5th- What are we doing, San Diego?

Schilling cruises through his first four innings in classic Schilling fashion, quick work and short pitch counts. His first hiccup comes in the bottom of the fifth when he gives up a double to Jeff Gardner with no outs. It’s notable only because it highlights the stupidity in which multi sport stadiums are designed. The coolest thing in the world for a city to have in the 1970’s was a multi-sport stadium, which would provide ample opportunity for locals to hold events as well as to be home to both a baseball and football team. These concrete circles started popping up all across the lower 48 states, like the Vet or Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, or Jack Murphy in San Diego. These “flexible” spaces gave little thought on where bullpens should be put permanently which tended to leave them in very awkward places. The Padres solved this problem by making a cove behind the 3rd base bleachers, thinking that obviously there’s no way a ball could be hit in fair territory and reach that cover. That’s exactly where Gardner’s double goes, as Milt Thompson must run past the scurrying San Diego Padre relief pitchers, find the ball amongst their equipment and then throw the ball into play by making sure he clears the fans in the stands on the third base line. It’s wild.

One pitch later, Ricky Jordan appears out of nowhere to snag a line drive to get the first out of the inning, allowing Schilling to calm down and strike out the next two Padres to get out of the inning unscathed 2-0 PHI.  

Mids- Bottom 6th- Ouch

As Lenny Dykstra says in Whatever It Takes Dude “And now you can see why I had nightmares about Inky running full speed right at me for a ball in the gap”

High- Top 7th- Hit Me Jordan One More Time

With Dykstra on base after his second single of day (raising his average back over the Mendoza line), Ricky Jordan smashed a double to centerfield to score Dykstra. Jordan scores 2 pitches later on a 2nd RBI double by Dave Hollins, Hollins’ 14th RBI of the season 4-0 Phillies.

Low- Bottom 8- Over Trusting Pitchers

Jim Fregosi sends out Curt Schilling with 4-0 lead into the 8th inning. He’s sitting at 105 pitches, but just breezed through the 7th inning. The 6th inning was a different story as Schilling gace multiple hard hits up the middle as it seemingly felt that the Padres hitters were starting to get to him. This matters not to Fregosi, who puts all faith and trust behind his starting pitchers, and Schilling loads the bases after giving up 2 singles and a walk. Fregosi finally gets Larry Andersen and David West to start warming up as Curt Schilling faces off against Fred McGriff. Maybe it’s good that Schilling got an intense at bat against McGriff in April, and gets the Crime Dog to hit a sacrifice fly to Right Field to score a run. Fregosi still doesn’t bring in a relief pitcher as Schilling is now up to 120 pitches to face pinch hitter Guillermo Velasquez (who I googled just to make sure he’s not related to Vince), and surrenders a single that scored another run to narrow the score 4-2. Finally, Fregosi brings in Larry Andersen, who induces a ground out to short to end the inning. 4-2 PHI

 

Wild Rides

The Phillies scored an insurance run thanks to a single by Mariano Duncan, but forced Fregosi to use a pinch hitter for Andersen, so out came Mitch Williams for the save. After allowing a single,  Tekulve casually mentions how Mitch Williams hasn’t been living up to his “Wild Thing” moniker this year by only allowing one walk so far, and Mitch proceeds to walk the bases loaded with no outs.

Now I don’t expect Mitch Williams to be perfect during this adventure through the 93 season, so it was really quite wonderful to feel these feelings again. The anger I had at Mitch’s inability to throw a strike, the depressingly familiar sense of disappointment in a Phillies player, it all was exhilarating to achieve in February during a pandemic. Musser mentions, “Phils 2nd and short are playing for a double play.” Tek adds, “Mitch doesn’t get many double plays.”

And to my utter surprise and excitement, Mitch got Phil Clark to ground into a 5-3 double play, allowing 1 run but causing two outs. Williams then earned the save with a grounder to Mariano Duncan to finish the off the Padres. 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 5 (15-5) San Diego Padres 3 (9-11)

Words of Wisdom from Andy and Tek

“The hits are just around the corner”- Milt Thompson told Andy Musser before the game. It’s tough to think about how Milt Thompson is on the back 9 of his career and is currently not hitting very well. Just trying to hang on for one or two more seasons. He has to say stuff like this to growing concerns if he has anything left. He does.

“Fregosi won’t be criticized for this” Tek argues that Fregosi is making the right move to go to the bullpen after Schilling gives up two runs. I don’t know Tek, maybe Fregosi should have pulled Schilling after getting 7 strong innings instead of praying for an 8th? I’ve got a couple complaints. 

Final Conclusions

The Phillies win their first of a pair against the San Diego Padres, thanks to Ricky Jordan’s convenient hitting and another strong effort by Curt Schilling. If you enjoyed this wonderful blast from the past please feel free to share, like, or comment on it. The hope is to have more people watching 93 Phillies games on youtube and talking about it. So hit me up @Kevin_Seamus on twitter or @loudphilliesguy on Instagram. Tomorrow’s game in 1993 against the Padres is supposed to be one of the better games of the season (according to the books) but it doesn’t seem to be on the youtube page, so we’ll be moving on to Los Angeles to face off against Tommy Lasorda on his home turf for the last game of April.