Phillies' pennant clinches
The Phillies advanced to their sixth World Series with last night's 5-1 victory at Dodger Stadium. Here's a look at the games that got them into the previous five Fall Classics:
Sept. 29, 1915: Phillies 5, Boston Braves 0
A long, long time ago ... before there was anything called a "League Championship Series" ... there were two eight-team leagues and one long season to determine the victor in each.
Grover Alexander tossed a one-hitter and Gavvy Cravath launched a three-run home run in the first inning as the visiting Phillies won for the 18th time in 22 games and moved eight games ahead of the Braves with a week to play.
The Phillies, who started the season 8-0 and 11-1, had just a one-game lead through games of Sept. 7 before they caught fire down the stretch.
Oct. 1, 1950: Phillies 4, Dodgers 1
If you thought trying to forget the 1964 collapse was bad, consider this: The 1950 Phillies had a 7-game lead with 11 games to play and, but for the grace of Richie Ashburn's arm and Dick Sisler's bat, would have been headed to a three-game playoff.
The Phils held a one-game lead over the Dodgers when the season finale at Ebbets Field got under way. Robin Roberts , starting for the fifth time in 13 days, battled Don Newcombe to a 1-1 tie entering the bottom of the ninth.
With runners on first and second and no outs, Duke Snider laced a single to center, where the shallow-playing Ashburn fielded it and rifled a perfect throw to the plate to nail Cal Abrams.
Roberts got out of the inning, and then led off the 10th with a single. After another single, Roberts was erased at third on an attempted sacrifice, but Sisler, with a badly sprained wrist, belted a 1-2 fastball into the leftfield stands, his fourth hit of the game sending the Phillies to their second World Series.
Oct. 12, 1980: Phillies 8, Astros 7
Handing Nolan Ryan a three-run lead with six outs to go is not the easy way to end a 30-year World Series drought. But the Phils did it anyway.
Larry Bowa started the five-run eighth-inning rally. Ryan stayed around long enough to allow two more singles to load the bases and a walk to Pete Rose for the first run of the inning. Keith Moreland's groundout plated another and Del Unser tied it with a single. Manny Trillo capped off his LCS MVP performance with a triple, scoring the two runs the Astros would match in bottom of the inning.
Unser doubled with one out in the 10th and Garry Maddox answered with a two-out, two-bagger of his own. Maddox would then supply the pennant-winning fielding honors, recording the final two putouts in centerfield.
Oct. 8, 1983: Phillies 7, Dodgers 2
Gary Matthews was hot; Jerry Reuss was not.
After the Dodgers managed to squeeze a walk, a single and a double into scoreless top of the first, the Phillies wasted little time in getting their points - and three runs across.
With two outs, Mike Schmidt and Sixto Lezcano singled off Reuss, the Dodgers lefthander who entered the game 0-5 in five career LCS starts.
Matthews, with five hits (two homers) in his previous eight at-bats, then started Reuss off to his sixth LCS loss by depositing a low fastball over Veterans Stadium's fence in left-center.
The Phils added pairs of runs in the fifth and sixth to cruise to their fourth World Series appearance and second in 4 years.
Oct. 13, 1993: Phillies 6, Braves 3
You could make a case that this pennant was essentially won two days earlier, when Lenny Dykstra answered Atlanta's three-run, bottom-of-the-ninth-inning, game-tying rally by turning on a Mark Wolhers 3-2 fastball and clanging it off the football seats tucked away just below the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium rightfield scoreboard.
Oh, sure, the Phillies had to go through the actuality of winning Game 6:
Darren Daulton lashed a two-run double in a third-inning rally begun by a walk to pitcher Tommy Greene. David Hollins answered a fifth-inning Braves run with a two-run homer in the bottom half and Mickey Morandini tripled home two more an inning later.
That was more than enough breathing room for Mitch Williams , who would close it out with his only 1-2-3 inning of the 1993 postseason.
