The 1993 Philles: Behind the Baseball
It was October 20, 1993. The Phillies appeared to have game 4 of the World Series sewn up with a five run lead going into the late innings. A Phillies win would have tied up the series at 2, with one game left in Philadelphia, and potentially 2 more in Toronto. But in the top of the eighth, all hell broke loose, robbing Phillies fans of much of their hope of capping off what had been an incredible season with the franchise’s second World Series win in its 110 year history in the major leagues.
Phillies fever swept through the Delaware Valley in the summer of 1993. That season Phillies fans felt a whole panoply of emotions, from pleasantly surprised, to deeply euphoric, to nervous anxiety, to bitter anger, and then finally to resigned acceptance.
Our Phillies came out of the starting box at full throttle. And they just wouldn’t let up. We all knew they were playing over their heads. Heck, the year before they finished in last place in the National League East. So we expected that at some point they’d come crashing down to Earth.
But during the regular season, that didn’t happen. In fact, it seemed like they were finding ways to win games they had no business winning. Maybe it was the extra innings heroics in the third game of the season to sweep the opening series in Houston. Maybe it was an extra inning Dave Hollins home run in Chicago after blowing the lead in the bottom of the ninth. Or maybe it was the Mariano Duncan grand slam in the bottom of the eighth against Lee Smith on May 8th that put that game away, after being down by three. Or maybe it was the way they could come from behind to score 5 runs in the 7th to put away the Mets in a 7-6 victory. The thing was, we just believed they could win that season, even if they were behind in the late innings. Harry Kalas had a number of nicknames for this team. From the cardiac kids, to the team of blue collar throwback players.
Embed from Getty Images
And everybody in and around the city was excited about the Phillies that summer. Even Pierre Robert, local radio DJ with a mid-day show, who was not known for being a sports fan, put on a segment where he taught those members of his audience who weren’t sports-oriented, how to fake it. If someone starts a conversation with, “Hey, how about them Phils. Aren’t they something this year?” Robert taught his listeners that the proper response was, “Yeah, if the bullpen holds up,” even if you had no idea what a bullpen was.
Wild Thing
The anchor of the Phillies’ bullpen was Mitch Williams. Williams was nicknamed the Wild Thing because he basically had two pitches: a blazing fast ball right down the middle, and DUCK!
The fact is, with a fast ball in the high nineties, but a lack on control, when Williams came in the close a game, batters were reluctant to dig in.
In April of 1991, the Phillies acquired the Wild Thing from the Cubs, in exchange for pitchers Chuck McElroy and Bob Scanlan. Williams was a former All-Star, and even came in the top 10 in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 1989. But, his lack of control meant he had a high walks per nine innings ratio of 6.8 in 1990, even if his strikeouts per nine innings was a healthy 7.5.
Yet, Williams was able to keep his ERA relatively low. Thus, even though he had a tendency to walk many batters, he seemed to find a way to get the outs he needed to earn the save.
Embed from Getty Images
As Williams racked up 30 saves in 1991, then 29 in 1992, and finally 43 saves in 1993, Phillies fans got used to watching the ninth inning with their heart in their throat as Williams allowed the base runners, but then feeling the great release when that final batter struck out.
Career Seasons
Meanwhile, many of the Phillies regulars seemed to have the best season of their major league careers. The core Phillies players, like John Kruk, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, and Dave Hollins, were in their prime, and posting some of the best numbers of their career.
Jim Fregosi demonstrated amazing skill in managing the outfield, creating platoons to take advantage of different pitching combinations the Phillies faced. Milt Thompson handled the righties, while Pete Incaviglia posted the best batting average of his career, facing off mostly against lefties. Likewise, Jim Eisenreich hit over .300 facing mostly righties, while Wes Chamberlain hit a healthy .282, facing mostly lefties.
The team’s biggest hole, shortstop, seemed to be filled when rookie Kevin Stocker appeared on the scene, making his debut on July 7th, and batting .324 for the rest of the season.
Pitching-wise, Curt Schilling and Tommy Greene both won 16 games, while Terry Mulholland led the team with an ERA of 3.25.
Chinks in the Armor
After a fast start, the Phils found themselves with a record of 52-25 at the end of June, good enough for a six ½ game lead over their division rival Cardinals.
But they lost some steam in July, going 14-14 that month. Still no team in the East challenged them, as the Phils maintained a 6 game lead in the standings. They increased that to a 9 game lead over Montreal after regaining their winning edge in August, and would eventually clinch the division with five games to go in September.
But as good as the Phillies were, there were two teams in the National League that were better. While the Phils were having a relatively easy time in the NL East, the Braves and the Giants were engaged in an epic battle in the NL West, a battle that went down to the last day, as Atlanta edged out San Francisco by one game. Because baseball’s playoff system at the time only pitted the two division winners against each other, the team with the second best record in the National League were forced to sit the postseason out.
NLCS
Going into the 1993 NLCS, the Phillies were the clear underdogs. The Braves, with their 104 victories, were in their third year of a fourteen season run at winning their division.
Embed from Getty Images
Indeed, after the Phils eked out an extra inning win in game 1, the Braves’ powerful offense blew the Phillies out in games 2 and 3. But the team that somehow found a way to win all season, did exactly that in the first round of the playoffs. The Phils edged out the Braves in two one run affairs, including an extra inning affairs that involved late inning heroics by Lenny Dykstra. And that was all the Phillies needed to wake up their bats, as they wrapped the series up in a 6-3 contest in game 6.
Prelude to Problems
But those watching the 1993 NLCS closely could see the impending downfall. The MVP of the series was Curt Schilling, who mowed down the powerful Braves line-up. Over the course of 16 innings, Schilling had given up a total of 3 earned runs, while striking out 19. In two outings, Schilling went eight innings both times, and both times handed off a lead to the bullpen. Yet, Schilling won the MVP Award in spite of the fact that he didn’t earn a single win in the series.
Rather, in game 1, after the Wild thing made his appearance, a walk and an error in the ninth allowed the Braves to tie up the ball game. Williams further gave up a single and double in the tenth, but miraculously got out of the inning without giving up a run. Thus setting up Kim Batiste’s redeeming walk-off RBI in the bottom of the tenth.
In game 5, Schilling had shut the Braves out through 9 ⅔ innings, handing off a three run lead to Williams with 2 men on base. Williams promptly gave up 3 runs, one of which was charged to Schilling.
After Dykstra’s home run, it was left to Larry Andersen, who retired the Braves in order in the bottom of the tenth.
As Schilling could be seen in the dugout, with a towel over his head so he wouldn’t have to watch his pitching marvel come unraveled, he embodied the emotions of all Phillies fans whenever Mitch Williams game into a game in a save situation.
The Wild Thing, who had made a career out of over powering tired batters in the late innings, was running out of gas.
The Bottom Falls Out
Which brings us to October 20, 1993. At the time, the Phillies were down 2 games to 1 against the Blue Jays. But the World Series was hardly out of reach. Playing in Philadelphia, a win would have tied up the series, and give the Phillies a fighting chance with three games to go.
But game four began under auspicious circumstances. Tommy Greene gave up seven runs, and didn’t make it out of the third inning.
Embed from Getty Images
Yet, Phillies batters were giving as good as they got. Teeing off Todd Stottlemyre, the Phils scored four runs in the first to take the lead, and then forced Stottlemyre out of the game after 2 innings. After tying the game in the fourth, the Phils seemed to be in the driving seat, scoring five runs off Al Leiter in the fifth. And while David West gave up 2 in the top of the sixth, the Phils got one back in the bottom of the sixth. When Tony Castillo loaded the bases, and then forced in a run by hitting Darren Daulton, the Phils regained a five run lead after 7.
But there were two innings left. In the eighth, Larry Andersen failed to nail things down, as he gave up a run, and left two menon after one out for Mitch Williams, coming on for the five out save. But Williams immediately gave up an RBI hit to Tony Fernandez, a run charged to Andersen. Williams continued by giving up a walk, before getting a strike out, only to give up a two run single to Rickey Henderson. That followed up by a two run triple to Devon White. So, while two runs were technically charged to Larry Andersen, five runs were scored after Williams came into the game. Five runs, and the lead, as the Phillies were now down by a run.
For the last six outs, the Phillies batters could not regain their footage, as they were retired in order two innings in a row. When the dust cleared, the Phillies had lost a heartbreaker by the score of 15-14. Instead of tying the series, the Phils now had their backs against wall, down 3 games to 1. At the time, only five teams had ever come back from such a deficit in the World Series.
Epilogue
The Phillies had a little more life left. In game 5, Curt Schilling refused to let Williams blow a good pitching performing, pitching a complete game shut-out in front of the home town fans.
And then in game 6, the Phillies once again gave fans hope, as they took a one run lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. But in a story all too common for the postseason, manager Jim Fregosi went with the arm that got him to this point, and paid the price as Williams again put enough ducks on the pond to let Joe Carter play the role of hero.
In the winter of 1993, the Phillies traded Williams to Houston, mercifully sparing him from facing disgruntled Phillies fans at the beginning of the season.
It would be another fourteen years until the Phillies would be a situation to contend for a World Championship.
By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
Show pride in your
hometown baseball history by checking out our merch store! Now offering
stylish Phillies-themed face masks!! Protect the health of you and
your family, while showing Phillies pride. https://www.teepublic.com/user/philadelphia-baseball-history
Check out our YouTube Channel at: YouTube.com/c/PhiladelphiaBaseballHistory
You can also find us on Twitter, @PhilBaseballHis, and Instagram.
Comments
Post a Comment