MLB Greatest Games #18: 1980 NLCS Game 5

welcome once again to MLB network's countdown of the 20 greatest games of the last 50 seasons with Tom Verducci I'm Bob Costas number 20 on the countdown came from the 1970s that crazy 2322 game between the Phillies and Cubs from 1979 number 19 a little more recent 2003 NLDS and an exciting win by the Marlins over the Giants so now we're up to number 18 and this one comes from 1980 Game five NLCS the Phillies and the Astros not only was this a great game in and of itself but it was the culmination of an incredible series in which for the five games win extra innings controversies all kinds of comebacks this thing had everything including great players Pete Rose Joe Morgan Nolan Ryan Mike Schmidt pretty nice cast so here we go game number 18 on the countdown coming up [Music] well Tom people are going to begin to think through the first few installments of the series that Larry bow is a regular he was with us for number 20 as the Phillies shortstop in that 23 22 game at Wrigley in 79 and now a game not quite as crazy still crazy but much more significant because the pennant is on the line game five at the Astrodome in 1980 your fills on the Astros well the noise in that place was deafening it was unbelievable you couldn't hear yourself talk couldn't hear yourself think and to see Nolan Ryan and and Marty by strim go against each other obviously the odds weren't in our favor but as this game turns out we we ended up having a pretty good ballgame some background is necessary here your Phillies had lost the LCS no divisions that no division series then two divisions per league so you went right from winning your division into one step from the World Series you lost to the Reds in 76 the Dodgers in 77 and again in 78 now here you are in 80 this is getting old for you guys it's getting real old because we had read all summer that if we didn't get the next step they were gonna break up our ballclub the owners knew we had a decent team but there was something missing and we'd come up short all those years but we've we read all summer long that if this year doesn't get it done then they're gonna break up the ballclub well there was nothing old about postseason baseball in Houston Texas this actually is the first series ever postseason baseball in Texas and the Astros are a team that enjoyed a home-field advantage all year long and that spacious ballpark 55 wins at home they gave up only 22 home runs all year at home and you talked about the noise those people have been waiting a long time to see postseason baseball well the fact is that they had great pitching and people don't realize how good that pitching staff was and at that time the fences in the dome there were there weren't short fences you had to hit it out of the ballpark and it was a huge ballpark and their ballclub had great defense and good pitching and we knew we were gonna have our hands filled the format was 2 3 so the first two games were in Philadelphia games 3 4 5 were in Houston that were no home runs hit by either team in those three games in fact there was only one home run in the whole series Greg luzinski essentially one game in Philadelphia with a Holman Mike Schmidt led the National League with 48 homeruns he was blanked in that respect this was kind of a throwback series I mean after all Houston's home run leader for the year was Terry Puhl with 13 exactly and the thing about schmitty he probably had the worst series that he had in the last ten years that he'd been playing it was her it was a bad series for him and he I think he put so much pressure on himself because he had such a great year but as it turned out after us winning this ballgame he had a great world series a word about how the Astros got there they went into Dodger Stadium up on the Dodgers by three with three to play end of the season the Dodgers swept the series and forced a one game playoff also in LA the next day the Monday after the conclusion of the regular season behind Joe Niekro the Astros won that game seven to one so they've been on the brink for a week plus oh they get used to playing low-scoring games all year long but you're right they're playing under the gun now for a two-week stretch remember to one of their best arms on the staff jr. Richard is not in this postseason in fact as it turned out his major-league career is over after suffering a stroke and you're talking about someone who had an ER a under to the up that year one of the most feared strikeout pitchers in baseball at the time and I think in more recent terms we think of Schilling in Johnson with the old one Diamondbacks if you had Ryan and Richard back-to-back in the Astros rotations they'd be even more formidable let me tell you if Richard doesn't have the stroke he might have said all kinds of pitching records this guy was a dominating right-hander I know our two guys in the middle of the lineup Lozinski and Schmidt hated facing him and him not being in that rotation was definitely a plus for us going into this series how about if they came at you with Richard or Ryan first then Joe Niekro flutter balling and then back with the other fireball or third your head to be spinning oh it was an unbelievable team to have to go up there and score runs against gummy we knew the runs were going to be at a premium we had to play a little ball we had to move runners and things of that nature but they were like that all year they had a great pitching staff speed and they had and they caught the ball exceptionally well quick recap game 1 Carlton starts for you guys Lozinski hits the Homer you win in Philadelphia game two they come back and win in ten innings seven two for Game three Negro pitches 10 shutout innings Joe Morgan it's a key triple in the 11th they win the game one nothing see you guys are down two games to one you go to Game four you start Carlton you're still losing to nothing going to the eighth you score three to take the lead the game goes to extra innings again third time in four games you gone extras you guys win that game in ten five to three but that game wasn't just extra innings that game had one of the strangest plays ever with the umpire Doug Harvey right in the middle of well there was a line drive back to the pitcher what it really wasn't a line drive he got jammed I think was Gary Maddox and the ball short hopped the pitcher and Doug Harvey at the time threw up his arms and the runners running but they didn't know what they what the call was out safe what so as it turned out it could have been a triple play but the umpires met together they ruled it a double play and back then you very seldom see umpires get together the umpire says it's my call I got it right eventually they got it right which helped us but at that time you're saying now what else could happen in this series because as you said every game was extra innings every team kept battling back you get behind the other team come up we'd go ahead they'd come up and tie us they'd go ahead we would tie them it was a back and forth it was really a dogfight the whole series so not only was the series tied 2-2 and this is the climactic game now in the best-of-five format but the nature of these four games to get it to this point as Larry just explained was already epic so at the beginning of Game five Game four was still the main talking point and here's how Keith Jackson opened up the broadcast of Game five on ABC [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's a bit of a period piece as well when you take a look at a booth shot they're all in those hideous canary-yellow ABC's signature jackets unbelievable keeps going with the man-mountain beard cosell is just being Cosell right getting ready for deer season Don Drysdales in there as well so this has a broadcast leaving the game aside as a broadcast is pretty darn entertaining we get a headline it says roses gamble pays off Rose what Pete was out by 20 feet I mean he ran through a stop sign and it just so happened the throw short out Bochy and he just plowed him over as Pete Rose would do and that was a big play for us at the time okay so the stage is set and when we come back it's Game five of the 1980 NLCS watching MLB's 20 greatest games let's take a look at the starting lineup for the Phillies Pete Rose at the top then bake McBride Schmidt who wound up 5 for 24 with six strikeouts in the series Lozinski in the cleanup spot Trillo who offensively and defensively was never better than in this five-game stretch the terrific defensive centerfielder Gary Maddox our Larry Bowa is at shortstop Bob Boone is the catcher Marty by strim not the youngest guy ever to start a postseason game but one of the most inexperienced brought up in September five starts won them all five and Oh still you're handing him the ball against Nolan Ryan well the pressure there obviously it had to be immense for him but without him we do not win our division this guy came up out of the minor leagues we knew he had good stuff we didn't know he's going to do what he did five and OH and then he he met 0 for 0 with with Ryan he went into the sixth inning I think and then Dallas had to take him out but without him we would have been watching the World Series Larry you talked about needing to play little ball in that ballpark that's a great Philadelphia lino second League in runs scored first and slugging first the total bases there was a lot of thump in that lineup we had a lot of thump well I mean we and we could do we can beat you two to one we could beat you ten to nine we caught the ball we had guys that could steal bases it was a complete lineup basically depth wise in the rotation might have been a little bit of a weakness we had a good back end of the bullpen and we knew we were pretty good but we just kept coming up short and we knew we had to win this series Dallas could have gone with dick Ruthven who had opposed Nolan Ryan in Game two so he like Ryan would have been going on three days rest he had had a very good year veteran pitcher but it must have been Dallas Greene's gut that this kid Marty bison was on a roll and he'd go with him well one thing about Dallas Green he wasn't afraid to use kids that whole month of September when we were scraping he brought up some guys to sort of he says wake up the veterans I remember bringing up Lonnie Smith Keith Moreland those guys played and he wasn't afraid to throw a rookie out there and obviously what vice chram did in the month of September he was going to reward him you know he said hey without you we're not here you get the ball Bill Virdon who found himself in the middle of some of the most memorable games in baseball history remember the Pirates in 1960 and that game seven he's the manager of the Houston Astros and here is his lineup Terry Puhl with the top enos Cabela's at third Joe Morgan Oh had his greatest years with Big Red Machine but is still a very valuable guy as the second baseman tending third Jose Cruz and the cleanup spot Denny walling art Howe Louise Pujols Craig Reynolds the shortstop and Nolan Ryan on the mound here's a guy who'd win more than 300 games pitched seven no-hitters the all-time leader in strikeouts he goes against Marty by script well we knew we had our work cut out for us we had faced Nolan Ryan a number of times not only in Houston but our ballclub faced him when he was with the Mets and we knew what a competitor he was we felt that it was going to be a very low-scoring game as it turned out it was for a while and then obviously the wheels fell off for both teams and both teams ended up scoring a lot of runs now Nolan Ryan is going on short rest in this game which is not even worth mentioning in 1980 right a it's a big deal Nolan Ryan made more than a third of his major league starts three days or fewer so they're not asking him to do anything that was anything out of the ordinary and he had only pitched into the seventh inning in Game seven so for him that's a relatively low pitch count Tama this guy was a horse I mean he never got tired he kept grunting when he threw you know fastball is 97 98 unbelievable curveball he would pitch inside use both sides of the plate he was he had a mean streak in him when he was on the mound so we knew that going in this was going to be a tough battle with our kid on the mound by Sturm we wanted to keep it close and it was a good ball game okay let's get it started top of the first inning Pete Rose leading off against Nolan Ryan these are two great competitors right here I mean Pete Pete didn't want to get let him get him out and Ryan didn't want him to get any hit so right from the start you can see the intensity with both these guys facing each other right there we thought it might be a long day because that if nolan Ryan's gonna get that pitch that's what the first thing Pete said he said if he gets that pitch there's gonna be a long day [Music] [Applause] this is off the plate that's a veteran umpire back there yeah Vargo we can watch the way pool halls pulls that ball back he knew it was outside they all knew it was on the outside all right so Ryan gets through the first without incident and now here's Marty by strim on the mound facing an astro lineup which by the way does not include perhaps their best all-around player C Tsar Cedeno who injured his ankle in Game three of this series and was done for the rest of the series so here's Terry Puhl starting it off well let me tell you about Terry Puhl this guy might have had the hottest series I've ever seen of any hitter it didn't matter what we threw him fastball curveball changeup sliders he hit the ball hard and often and he had a tremendous world suit playoff series so he leads off with a hit a batter later there's one out he's still at first and Joe Morgan is at the plate [Applause] even though Joe Morgan was towards the end of his career here he was at threat and our pitchers knew it and we had to pitch this guy very carefully because if he made a mistake he was going to hurt you it goes Poole came out very aggressive I mean they they're gonna test this rookie and try to put some people in motion now Joe hits this ball pretty well but this is the Astrodome it doesn't even make the truck not even close and he did hit that ball very well and you see the aggressiveness of Poole right there good speed he really made that ball club go so cool tags and advances and this brings up Jose Cruz who's in the cleanup spot man at third bottom of the first two out no score [Music] [Applause] right away the crowds into it exceptionally right there because scoring early Nolan Ryan on the mound and rookie on the mound I think they felt they had everything going in their direction right there you could see the intensity in their dugout they were all excited they probably knew they didn't have to score tumor he runs with Nolan Ryan on the mound you understand every game in this series the Phillies had to play uphill the Astros but the first run on the board in every game in this series and that's how it was the whole season for us it seemed like we were just climbing a mountain climbing a mountain and eventually it paid off so the Astros score first they take the early lead coming up the rare play that involves several Hall of Famers you're watching MLB's 20 greatest games on MLB Network welcome back with Tom Verducci and Larry Bowa Bob Costas as we review game 5 in the 1980 NLCS between the Phillies and the Astros the home team has scored in the bottom of the first Phillies come up top of the second with one out and nobody on Manny Trillo faces nolan ryan Manny Trillo probably was most underrated player that I've ever played with everyone known about his defensive powers that he had out there but this guy was a good offensive player and he had an unbelievable series against the Astros so Gary Maddox followed with a walk and that brings you up with two on and one out and I think no he jams the heck out of me here and might have been a double play ball but he bobbled a little bit [Applause] first you always choked up did you hook up more against Ryan yeah when he's throwing 97 98 I got up a little higher on the bat yes I knew I just tried to put it in play against him all right so now you got 2nd and 3rd the pitcher by storm is on deck there's two outs here's the number eight hitter boom the question is should they have pitch to him well we all said we were sitting there and he said they got to put him on but obviously it was anybody else but Nolan Ryan I think they would have put him on in the top of the second I just can't understand that with first base open in the pitcher up next that's what I was about to say when you talked about you love to have a pitch in the next inning that's another part of what I think of all smanos in baseball the ball was still had a little bit too much of the plate and he just fought it off it was good hitting on his part just a mistake that no one obviously cannot make in that situation a pitcher on deck he must feel like you've got found money it was unbelievable because we all look at each other before he even got the hit you know I was talking to somebody very Christensen and they said I said you got to walk him here don't you he goes oh yeah they're gonna walk him and lo and behold he's winding up and I went wow so it turned out great for us you know as you listen to this she can't help but smile you listen to Cosell whether he's making a great point as he often did or a pedestrian point you have to listen to it he says that's another example of the false bravado in baseball we'll just take care of this guy and leave the pitch at a lead off the next inning now that's been said a thousand times by a hundred baseball announcers but he makes it sound like a very important declaration loss bravado all day long I mean it was fun listening to him about watching the game to these uniforms you talk about telegenic a guy you guys in the baby blues the powder blues and the Astros had the rainbow they actually had hired an advertising firm to design these uniforms and it came out looking like laundry detergent yeah they weren't to look in uniforms on both sides believe me do get along with Howard yeah I did I really did couple of brash guys yeah but he you know one thing about Howard he whatever he said if he was on the field he would come right up to you if he ripped you the Davey for something I mean he would never hide or anything so you had to like the guy I told you the story first time I ever met him 1983 World Series he's wearing that jacket he's got that cigar it's about as big as a Louisville Slugger the tooth was just a precariously atop his head 83 World Series Phillies and Oreos I woke up I say mr. Cosell it's a pleasure to meet you my name is Bob Costas he says I know who you are you're the child who rhapsodize is about the infield fly rule I'm sure you'll have a fine career and he flicked the cigar and walked away anybody else you say what a schmuck I'm thinking this is great Howard consumed delivered a totally Cosell Ian Gorman's directed at me this is great I mean you felt like it was an honor when he talked to you because you know you're doing this Monday Night Football and everything I mean this guy was a star I mean it for him to come down and talk baseball with he was something special all right so here we go Cosell and Drysdale and Jackson are talking baseball and the Astros are now trailing two to one as they come up in the bottom of the second after an art Howe pop-up and a Lewis pool holes walk Craig Reynolds is at the plate facing Marty by star Greg Reynolds at the plate he's only hit the ball out of the infield once well let's as though that you've got two offensive units that are saying the same thing and that is when they grew up the home plate making throw strikes [Applause] it's [Applause] [Music] the plate slides he is well Trillo had a great arm but how about the catch and tag bye boo unbelievable and the play McBride make cutting off the ball but Manny Trillo had the strongest arm I've ever seen for a 2nd baseman and the only guy compared him to you right now is Robinson Cano but he did this all year long making relay throws like this and if you watch the catcher Boone this doesn't exist now catchers catch balls out in front of home plate he's blocking the plate he did this numerous times during this series and it was tough for that guy to score right there but this was a big play that Manny bake and Bob Boone all made that's as good of a relay throw from an infielder as you're ever going to see and you talked about trios arm we got so used to him making those underhanded throws but here completely overhand on the line to boom he had a great arm and the distance of the throw he's out in short right field normally you bounce it you use the turf and bounce it one hop he threw it all the way in Arlen fly all right so the Phillies lead is maintained at two to one after the great relay Pete Rose delivers a single bake McBride fans here Schmidt up against Ryan as they put up the RBI totals for the year and Schmidt also led the league in homers with 48 Mike had a great year for us that year you're not gonna catch up the fastball is up here and Rose trying to steal second tagged out [Applause] take a snapshot of this play here Bob it's a great slot Brian pitching Schmidt batting Rose running Morgan tagging the morning interception of some all-time greats on one play and this is an unbelievable slide but he didn't get his hand in there and Joe stayed with it that was a great play right put his legs and went to the side and I think he saw that before yeah people do anything he said to make havoc out there on the bases believe me so it's still a 2-1 game but this has had a whole lot of stuff already for a game it's just 2 to 1 well we you know Pizza wasn't really fast but we tried to make some things happen there we want to put Mearns in motion hopefully we'll get an extra base there but you know Dallas said let's listen you know we got to be aggressive here and people have to remember he rose in this game he's 39 years old you watch him play you would never guess this was someone late into his 30s 39 playing like he's 23 that's how he played every game we've gone through two and a half the score is two to one there are more runs and more action more controversy more things to talk about on the way this is MLB network's 20 greatest games [Applause] for the curve villains have turned away [Applause] no one has struck out the last laid-back five so far on the one to pick as you said near the beginning of the game if that Vargo is gonna give nolan ryan that pitch on the corner forget it i had no chance there i mean where he put that pitched at about ninety seven and I just walked away that that was a better pitch than the one they called Rose out on that had a chance to be in a borderline pitch but Ryan's the kind of guy that you have to get him early if he starts getting into a groove and he feels that the adrenaline and the fans are into it and they're and his teammates are into it he's tough to beat Bargo didn't give him that pitch really he hit the corner that was a perfect he made a perfect pitch I mean I just you know hey that's Nolan Ryan if I had to face him my whole career I would have had a short career believe me you can begin to hear and nothing you didn't in beginning but the crowd becoming a factor in this game you know we talked about the fact that this is the first time the Astros fans have seen postseason baseball now they're starting to smell it a little bit well as Ryan begins to settle into the game and the home field I thought really began to play into their hands and the middle innings of the game and and the fans very knowledgeable they could see that he was dominating our lineup in the middle of that ballgame and they could feel it the other team could feel it and and I'm not going to tell you that we gave up it at one time in that dugout I looked around and we weren't the happiest guys in the world because we knew what we were faced and it was an uphill climb but we still had some fight in us and we knew that we had to battle and scrap and see what happens I wonder how many of these fans had watched Game four the day before and then come back out for a football game at the Astrodome in between these games crazy kickoff for that game the Houston Cougars Texas A&M was that 1233 p.m. because Game four was almost eight hours long hey that's right 12:30 3:00 a.m. yeah it actually ended the football game ended at 2:41 a.m. I'm sure you stay up and watch the footage yeah right but you know what's amazing is you didn't know there was a football game because usually there's mark you know the lines are drawn everything they did a great job and get in converting the field back to baseball they scrubbed it down it looked like nothing that had existed after that ball game was over the day before this was really the heyday of the multi-purpose facility yes okay now as we go back to this game and as you say Nolan Ryan dominating in the middle innings keep in mind it's still Marty by stream with the lead with the help of his defense still with the lead at two to one this guy for his career was 29 and 26 5 and oh as a rookie in September of 1980 29 and 26 right now he's pretty much matching one of the greatest pitchers of all time he did a great job I mean we basically going in there we felt if he could give us five innings and we were close that we would be very satisfied because our starting pitchers were pretty much used up and we knew Carlton wasn't available we had to use Kristensen we knew that but we if we could have got five innings out of bites from which we did that's what we were hoping for okay the Astros are still down two run as we said despite the fact that Nolan Ryan is humming along we will pick it up in the bottom of the fifth enos Cobell facing bison [Applause] ninis Cobell finds the hole this could be and you know once you feel these fans starting you know I think it might have affected Marty a little bit I don't think he's pits on that kind of stage before I'm even though those games in September were important the magnitude of this ball game I'm sure he started to realize that hey I got a lead here I got to try to keep my team in it and they started getting some base hits Pete Rose makes an unbelievable play right here robbing his old teammate Joe Morgan so now Cobell advances to second he's there with two outs and people they never realized that that turf that turf was like playing on a runway of an airport it was exceptionally hard and for Pete to make a play like this this was a great play holding the watch rose he's called off the picture before he's popped up out of the dive I got it no problem Pete didn't make too many mental mistakes all right so the batter is josé Cruz he's the cleanup man for the Astros tying run is at second base no man he gets underneath this ball a little too much and the ball sails on Pete but the awareness of Pete knowing that the runner hadn't stopped it again Bob Boone blocking home plate like that is unbelievable but most first base was maybe would have dropped their head Pete was ready so he hits Trillo who seldom how to miss play but he pulls Pete off Pete takes a quick look back at the runner and here comes Cobell right and boonies right there blocking home plate no chance just the awareness of Pete in that situation is just remarkable never missed anything on a baseball ever most first baseman would drop your head say oh man we made a mistake he was ready bottom of the sixth year his Denny walling at the plate and Greg luzinski was a threat with the bat he was never a nominee for a Gold Glove ball came back to him and he just miss played it he just miss played it that was a big play right there you know you don't want to give that team extra outs you don't want to put runners in scoring position because you feel you got enough runs you're not gonna get that many more off Nolan Ryan and will just miss played it walling was the leadoff man so he's at second base now with nobody out in the bottom of the sixth and the Astros trailing two to one it's not a good start not a good start so here comes Alan Ashby to pinch-hit for Louise Pujols [Applause] this is a great throw by Maddox and again boonie right there he just beat it very nearly the third Astro cut down at the plate in this game it's remarkable we've had three plays at the plate and they've all been a matter of inches safe we're out exactly I mean this is I mean Gary Maddox came and got this ball on one hop two hops but he made a strong throw but boonie boonie is one of those guys that tried to deke him there a little bit and then it wasn't good enough because you know the runner walling just barely beat it well watch the slide by walling to talk about sliding through the base when you get to home plate not to it he has the power to get through the leg of Boone here yep there was a good slide straight in with the leg didn't do it with his hand like everybody does he came straight in so game fives tied at two but one of these teams is about to break through [Applause] this is MLB's 20 greatest games [Music] back now with Tom Verducci and Larry Bowa as we pick it up in the bottom of the seventh it's a 2-2 game Larry Christianson is on for the Phillips the top of the Houston batting order in the bottom of the seventh inning cool the Bell Morgan Houston when the run in the bottom of the first Philadelphia to run to the top of the second ryan gets Philadelphia top of a seven and now Poole is up to four three and Larrick Christiansen coming in and relief obviously not used to this role and he really didn't have his good stuff he just pitched a couple of days before do some nothing 90 or hundred pitches this is the bottom of the seventh and Terry Puhl is now 3 for 4 with that hit I said I seen Terry Puhl around second base more than I've seen Manny Trillo in this series he was on every single inning every time he came up he got a base hit well we should point out Kristensen did throw the ball well now he's working out only one day of rest after 81 pitches but he had pitched well against this lineup in Game three well because they're predominantly right-handed hitters and Larry got a lot of the right-hander here's out 2 2 game cabel's going to bunt you can see they're there they're there smelling it right now they're having Cobell bunt move the runner a nice bunt Christensen just didn't watch these if you watch these pitches he just was up he was up a lot and on second one out Morgan grounds out Jose Cruz walks two on two-out Denny walling is up ball right down the middle right there one thing about Houston a very good fastball hitting ballclub and if you leave them pitches in the middle of plate fast balls they're gonna hit them now the crowds really into it you're not feeling real good about yourself the Momentum's change well the one thing now the noise is unbelievable right now [Applause] [Music] [Applause] member yesterday and the Phillies eight bounces gets away from going through his country that plate so Cruz comes across on the wild pitch makes it for two was Boone crossed up because he was such a good defensive catcher I don't know if he was crossed that by I never seen him miss a ball like that he usually keeps the ball yeah and that's you know talk about momentum now you can feel it out there in the field you can see it in the dugout and it was a big play at that time but like I said booting very seldom when he blocked the ball it usually hit him and dropped right in front of him he could have very easily been crossed up I don't remember that but he very seldom missed those balls Christiansen now done Green will go to the bullpen again for Ron Reed so at this point you're down to nolan Ryan's working for the Astros it's looking bleak [Applause] [Music] [Applause] another fastball up and out over the plate [Applause] sixteen how was left at third but it looked like they had enough up five to two after seven nolan ryan on the hill it looked like they had more than enough that five to two and i mean it I'm not gonna lie to you it didn't look real good for us but you know that's why they play nine innings that's why there's 27 outs in a ballgame so it was one of those uphill climbs let's remember though the night before Game four the Astros are six outs away from closing out the series you're down to in that situation the eighth inning and you come back on them well I come into play in Game five I'd no question I think this team knew that we had a good ballclub and we weren't going to quit the one thing about our ballclub we weren't going to quit we're going to keep battling and scratching and clawing let's be honest here you got a Hall of Fame pitcher we didn't know it at the time but we knew he was a great pitcher that a dominating pitcher and we knew that the odds were stacked against us yeah the odds were stacked against the Phillies but if the game more or less remained where it is now would it be on the list probably not we're coming back after this let's see if there's any comeback now left in the fills they have to do it against one of the great pitches regardless of his 11 and 10th season and you don't give this big guy on the mound as he's held that lead well over a hundred times in his that's a little looper and it's pass rentals and Boas on with a single way this series has gone you can expect any so a hopeful sign for the Phil's as you lead off with a single but both Don Drysdale and howard cosell are right Cosell said you can expect anything but Drysdale was correct and to back up what he said Eliot cow from our staff did some research over the course of his career when Nolan Ryan had a lead and he pitched seven innings or more his record was 241 and five and his team's if he was not involved in the decision 252 and 12 but it gets better because if he had a lead of three runs or more which he does here it's 5-2 and he pitched at least seven innings he in the regular season was 153 and oh his teams were 156 and to statistically that's what you're up against I'm glad I didn't know that you know before that ending started I was getting my gloves on and I said to Pete he came up he says get on and we're gonna score some runs and I knew the situation for some reason I said you want me to take a strike and he looked at me yeah I don't want you to take a strike you're not a home run hitter so I remember taking a strike because I I said no I don't have to hit that curveball but he threw me another fastball on the third pitch and I got a base hit but I didn't know those stats were like 153 you know those are unbelievable staggering it's unbelievable I mean and I think Nolan Ryan was a very good postseason pitcher but as we'll see in this inning incredibly unlucky you know his teams were 2 & 5 when he started in the postseason but as e ra was 3.2 and you started it with really let's face it a little bit of a flair right early over the short stuff I mean he just B was blowing people away and I said I'm just gonna try to put this baby in play and I found found a spot out there and little did I know what was gonna lead to well here's what it leads to Larry's aboard Bob Boone who earlier got a big two-run hit off Ryan is up again that's a double play ball right there I mean that to me is the whole inning right there he felt he falls off towards first but it wasn't that tough of play and if he comes up with that ball Bob Boone doesn't run very good boonie swung at the first pitch so people want to know why is he still in there everything I swung at the third pitch he swung at the first pitch and if you watch Brett gross right here he bunts the first pitch so you're talking five pitches and we have the bases loaded now look at this Greg gross perfect at more than 4,000 plate appearances in his big league career to bunt base hits it was only oh here he is in Game five dropping a perfect bunt now we have a flare and two infield hits a flare a DP ball off his glove a perfect bunk bases-loaded nobody out and you know nobody thought you're gonna bond we're down three runs they're saying oh well they're gonna try to win this ballgame he's gonna try to get a double here and score a couple runs but he laid down a blueprint bunt right there [Applause] [Music] Twitter's [Applause] look at the way Pete throws the bat away here we go when he walked him on four pitches and he ran he was running to first Pete said something to him I don't know if the camera picked it up but he was looking right at him and they're gonna take Nolan out of this ball game well Pete Rose we always hear him called the all-time hit king but if he asked me that at bet that walk not a hit a walk defines who he was as a player no quick he was not giving in an inch to Nolan Ryan during this at-bat the seven pitch at-bat Ryan made some great pitches in this effect and the way that Rose battled him through every single pitch to me defined what Pete Rose was all no question I mean pizza winner and that's how he played Verdun replaces Ryan with the lefty sambito so Moreland bats for bake McBride and this he you know it was perfect that it wasn't hit hard because Keith didn't run very good so we got a fielder's choice there and we're still feeling good about ourselves so it was one of those if that ball hit sharp that's a double play so now it's five to four ken Forsch in a righty lefty switch sambito out ken Forsch will come in you've scored two runs you got two on there hasn't been a hard hit ball in the inning right and you know we got our big guy coming up and he's definitely overdue I mean we know Smitty drove in 121 runs that year he was our bread and butter guy I know he'd been struggling but we felt good about ourselves we felt right there somebody's gonna put it in play not only the fourth strike him out he struck him out on three straight pitches I mean that pitch was a perfect pitch so he walks away having stranded two runners it's been that kind of series for him with two out now and still down by Iran del unser always a good pinch-hitter that's for Ron read here is unser now with and the tying run at third but this is a good contact now we got all the momentum going right now I mean we're feeling real good about ourselves we got there big guy out of the line out of the out of the ball game we've hit there relief pitcher there and we come picked ourselves off the deck and tied it up back yesterday this Manny Trillo is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] look at you jumping up and down I'm Pete and unser I've got the big pitch hint he comes in to score we were into her right there I mean Bob this was some of something that we we had never been this close to getting to a World Series and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves we also knew they had to hit a couple more times but to come back like we did against Nolan Ryan it's something that I still look back on and shake my head because it was unbelievable the way we kept battling I wanted you to look at this at-bat again with Rose because I thought he was the element that the Phillies team really needed they want to really put you over the top join the team the previous year the Astros this offseason went out and got Ryan this is the abet to me as I said to find Pete Rose as a guy who never gives it an inch there's no way he's losing this at-bat put it that way no this the I mean he was battling and he he could feel this momentum change right here and this was a huge at-bat he knew that this was the biggest bat not only for him but for our ballclub laying off pitches that were closed right there I mean that looked like it was way up but when Ryan throws a fastball that starts right at your waist it's got some unbelievable giddy up to it but Pete laid off of it kept fouling pitches off Pete face knowing 91 times in his career 91 times and his on-base percentage was 440 what's incredible it's incredible I guess the guy with this kind of stuff but Larry looking at the body language of both Ryan and rose during the course of this bat you could almost feel the momentum changing where Rose is going to win and Ryan almost knows what the outcome is going to be well I really don't think Nolan wanted to give in right here because am you know Pete's obviously a doubles machine right here he hits a double here he's everybody scores and he was firing right here I mean he was throwing 97 98 miles an hour and Pete just kept battling and battling and got the big walk right there he said something and I asked him he says I told there's not enough he told Dolan Ryan he didn't have enough to get him out no he says then not enough runs he said you don't have enough runs Wow not too many guys wanted to incite nolan ryan but now he might have figured the next time he was going to see him was next see here exactly it was unbelievable you talk about two competitors right there that was that was the ultimate challenge right there you know I was also struck by how stoic Bill Virdon always is you can't tell looking at him if they've just come back or if they've just blown the lead and quite the opposite in the Philadelphia does yeah with Dallas Green right we saw you and Pete getting excited there but the manager also is getting excited you can see Dallas was starting to yell a little more in the dugout he was getting into it but when the camera was on him he was pretty low-key for him but Bill Virdon was like that as you said you couldn't tell if they were up 10 or down 10 so now Nolan Ryan has been knocked out during the course of this inning let's take a look at the final lines for Ryan and the Phillies starter Marty by storm here they are wise from gave you five and a third which all things considered was what you wanted very good yes very good I mean for us to get that many hits off Knoll and that was something and obviously the runs were something but it just happened to be one of those games where you know we got to him and look back on it I still shake my head he struck out eight and there was a stretch of the game as we said where he was as dominant as you expect him to be but very often big innings start with little things and that's what happened in the 8th yeah and again it was that the biggest play was the DoublePlay ball that he hit he was just off-balance a little bit it went off his glove he'd have been better off letting the ball go because the ball was not hit that hard and part would have been a tailor-made double play for rentals that touch the bag and throw it at first you know you always hear people say would have been better off letting it go but it's a reaction you can't think right you try to tell pitchers that you know in spring training and everything if the balls not hit that hard the guys in the middle are gonna make those plays but as you said it's a reaction play you're in the heat of the moment and he probably thought he could have caught it and turned the DoublePlay alright so here we are the Phillies now have a two-run lead and they're gonna go logically to their closer for two innings here at least dallas green hopes tug mcgraw getting ready to come in for the bottom of the 8th and we'll pick it up there when we come back after this on MLB network's 20 greatest games the crowd is in shock as I am sure the Astros are in shock and many millions of viewers shop I know the viewers that have been following us for all five games gave they got to be saying the same thing that we've said can you believe it now what well we're about to see just as a three-run lead with Nolan Ryan seemed like a lock a two-run lead with two innings to go tug mcgraw peak of his career er a four that year one point four six that seems pretty safe but tug is running on empty right I tell you what about he was he was out of gas he didn't have too many bullets left in the tank and and I the crowd got real quiet there at the beginning of the inning and I'm saying okay we got him out of this game and it didn't take very long because they jump right back in it real quick well tug pitched in every game in this series game number three he pitches three innings throws 51 pitches he's starting to get guest game for you actually took the lead to the ninth inning in Dallas Green did not use write talk McGraw to try to save the game he's Brewster right pitched the ninth blew the save got to the 10th inning with a lead and he pushes the button down below and gets him into the game and now here he is again for a fifth straight game asking him to get six outs you know physically he wasn't that big a guy he wasn't a big guy a strong guy but he would take the ball anytime you offered it to him you know he would say I'm fine I'm fine I'm good and you could tell when you played behind him we screwball has some good bite to it whenever we when he was on he had a little life on his fastball everything was flat I mean just going side to side and you knew he was out of gas all right here we go bottom of the 8th tug needs six outs he's got a two-run lead first hitter Craig runners he stayed loose he went to bed last night and got up this morning in his Luke [Applause] there's there's a pitch right there it's a perfect place when Manny Trillo makes a good play Reynolds runs exceptionally good and right away you say oh here we go again I mean he made a good pitch right there he jammed him but it was in the right place and Manny did all he could and Reynolds is exceptional runner we got hit now here's Poole who's having a great game you can't get him out I mean just you should just put him on I mean no matter what we threw this guy it was unbelievable he's the tying run though there's one out here Gary woods it struck out there's his fourth hit and it's his 10th hit of the series I know which is a new NLCS record and who had the old record the guy who meets them at first base Pete Rose and don't think Pete didn't know I'm sure what are you doing up there he said we can't get you out yeah peep turned to him and said that's what records are for there they have to be broken no one knew that better than Pete so here's eNOS Cobell with a big chance runners at the corners tying run is at first one out he would there deenis is definitely looking screwball off-speed there and he threw a fastball that balls right down the middle if he's sitting fastball fry hits that ball but he was probably looking off-speed now you got Jose Cruz in the on-deck circle for the Astros but Rafael Landis toys got to get on to get him to the plate and to pull the Astros a little bit closer he has only one hit to this point as you saw from that graphic in the LCS and it tug makes them this is a bad pitch it's a screwball he leaves it up in the middle of the plate [Applause] [Applause] just a soft line drive flyboy trip and let's remember Landis toy came into this game replacing Joe Morgan and it was the right move for built burden to make because Morgan had a little bit of a hamstring so with a lead burden wanted his best defensive team on the field and that meant putting Landis toy in for Morgan you know the big thing this inning we had Reynolds we had Poole and as you see right here coming up crews all left-handers you're feeling pretty good you got your left hand and closer out there I mean even though tuck was out of gas I still like our chances with lefty against Lefty and all three of them did damage all three of them here's Jose Cruz [Applause] the go-ahead run is now at third and now you're out there saying uh-oh what now I mean how many more times can you keep coming back and the crowds into it again and look how exultant Bill Virdon is calm down bill so the Phillies come back on Nolan Ryan the Astros come back on tug mcgraw in Dallas went out there and I hope the right near the mound he says how you feeling obviously tell I feel great a lot of blue pits he says I feel great let me let me go let me go so you know Dallas are gonna stay with him we didn't have too many options at that time trying to get out of this inning and he got us out of the inning he did although he's blown the save he still needs an out to escape the eighth with the game now tied Denny walling is the hitter for Houston between the Phillies and the Astros and we're all tied at 7-7 going to the top of the ninth inning well I think I'll just take a deep breath with you and rest [Applause] display of two teams that themselves together under leadership have about as much determination his hot spirit let's competitive missus you'll ever see in sport here's the part that's a shocker given everything that's gone on in this game and in this series the ninth inning is uneventful Frank liqueur tea on the hill now for the Astros takes care of the Phillies and the top half bottom half of the inning you go to dick Ruthven normally a starter but everybody's available just about for this game out of the bullpen so he takes care of the Astros in the bottom of the ninth and what do you know for the fourth time in five games in the series extra innings well we were all out of gas I know that emotionally physically these games took its toll on everybody but you didn't lose your concentration or the intensity always was there and we just needed a break and that's exactly what we got you got Mike Schmidt leading off in the top of the 10th against Franklin Cordy and Schmidt is just having a devil of a time in this series over for in this game and here he goes against the Cordy [Applause] and that's the book on Mike you try to pitch him up and in and he just said one of those series where I just think that he was just trying too hard he carried us all year we were in a position to get to the World Series and I just think he just trying too hard every at-bats in the eighth when Schmidt fan with runners on in a key situation del unser picked him up following with a hit now here there's nobody on and one out but it's unser up again second ball comes in and he stands there with a double so that's twice del unser a reserve has done it there is a wicked hop off the astroturf over the head of Dave Bergman was playing first and that's a break that we you know we're saying hey this might be it this might be it it was it took a bad hop right there maybe it was because of the football game the night before I don't know but we needed something like that we felt pretty good right there but without our extra guys gross unser of Vilas Moreland we'd have been watching the World Series those guys all contributed unbelievable for us and you don't win a series with just your 8th starting lineup we had a good bench Manny Trillo flied out and that advanced unser from second to third which brings up Gary Maddox with two out and the go-ahead run at third base we're in the top half of the 10th inning of Game five [Applause] run scores from dirt unser if Philadelphia lead eight to seven in the top of the 10th we feel felt good about ourselves right there but we knew they had to hit so we had to go back out there eight to seven Hill Verdun still not giving anything away another look at the hit and as you say pool almost made the play unbelievable I mean I thought it was a hit as soon as he hit it he just misses this ball and this guy played great the whole series and it wouldn't shock me if he'd had over and caught that ball because the series that he was having offensively and defensively here you are that's the hardest ball yeah pizzas I hit it too hard he says you got to just loop it over the game through so you got a one run edge to work with it's eight seven going to the bottom of the 10th we've got a pinch hitter now he Danny Heep it'll be his first appearance [Applause] pinch-hitter Danny Heep looking to uppercut that ball and pull it but instead he pops to you in shallow left pool was the next hitter he had four hits in the game he lined out hard to centerfield and that leaves it up to the last hitter in the game enos Cobell that was like somebody just lifted a big elephant off our shoulders I mean we had come so close every those all those playoff years and come up empty and believe me when this game was over there was no pressure when we went to the World Series every one of these games with pressure packed we took it to the limit every game and we just felt good about ourselves going in and playing Kansas City and we'll talk about that World Series against the Royals and have more on the aftermath of this epic series against the Astros when we come back on MLB's 20 greatest games [Applause] filly's they are the [Applause] so it doesn't often happen that way but the World Series in a sense after this was anticlimactic I'm telling you right now I never felt any pressure at all in any games except this series right here it was just it was something about the crowds the atmosphere knowing that this was our last year together if we didn't win and to get there doing it the hard way like we did I think it made us much tougher we're very resilient and we felt good going into this World Series quick story in the aftermath here Terry Puhl we saw him outstanding series 10 hits in that series he said after the series he went home and was sick in bed for a week couldn't get out of bed he's just mentally physically exhausted from these five games I mean that's how we felt we were getting on that airplane going back and and I just felt drained I mean I wasn't a big guy anyway but it was like he took a deep breath and he said well we finally got to where we want to go now I don't think we were really thinking about the World Series the fact that we had overcome this obstacle that we've been trying to do for three out of the four years it's sort of relieved everybody and we went into that World Series it was pressure free as far as I was concerned I felt whatever we did now was icing on the cake and eventually we had a good series and we wanted some of that relief I think we saw in Dallas Green I'm not sure I've ever seen a manager sprint into the outfield to celebrate with his players in the outfield and in the comment I thought was very interesting from Howard Cosell about a manager openly disliked me by his players at least some of his play yeah yeah I don't know how true that was I mean Dallas wasn't afraid to pull the trigger on veterans if you weren't doing your job we respected Dallas there were some things he did probably that upset us but we all know that without him we don't get to the World Series there's no doubt in my mind that's what kind of job he did for us let's take a look here at some final stats trio big series in the field even though he did have the one error that pulled Pete off my bag but it wound up not hurting you because he made the play at the plate Pete to Bob Boone to cut down Cobell but Trillo did just about everything right in this series including that big triple down the line no question and you know somebody would have told me that that your MVP Mike Schmidt would have had the series that he had dick you would have wanted I'd have said there's no way because he was he was that much of an offensive threat for us and we picked him up and as everybody knows in the eighty World Series he was the MVP so he bounced back and had a great series he at 381 for the series on eight for 21 in addition to his fabulous play in the field line and it was it was something that you look back on and you know everyone says does that bind you guys together and it definitely binds our ballclub together because we had come up short so many times and finally get over the hump you still see guys at card shows and see them during the summer at times but it it there's truth to that when they say if you win a World Series is it forever and it is forever it's the great thing about baseball isn't it we talked about it superstars in this game the all-time greats the Morgans the Ryan's the Roses the Schmidt's and Manny Trillo is the one who's the MVP of this series and came up with the big hit yeah you know that wasn't shocking to me not that he was MVP but that's what kind of player he was very consistent he stayed in the background but he got big hits all year for us made every play out there tremendous pivot on a double play I don't care where you threw him the ball he was gonna turn it but he had a great series let's take a look at the a strobe lineup Poole was four for six even when he made an out in the bottom of the 10th the second out that ball was hit right on the screws it was a line drive right at Maddux and you know when he came up that was the only guy really thought in that lineup at that time we're up by one I said the way this guy's going he's liable to hit one of the seats and he hit it hard but it was right at Gary mat and you really really have to feel for the use of Astros I mean they don't have any curses associated with them there's no Billy Goats but the fact is they a terrible series from the lose having a lead in every game but also their first seven postseason series the Astros lost them all many of those games in excruciating fashion how about an 86 against well that's right just think about that one which which might show up somewhere I have a famous list that's possible I think would hurt him more than anything is that they had their guy they wanted on the mound you know if they had to start a rookie or their third or fourth pitcher in the rotation you know you might deal with it but they had their big guy on the mound and they had a lead and it didn't work out for him let's keep this in mind even though you've won this nearly unbelievable series you go on to the World Series they haven't been in the World Series in 30 years since the whiz kids were swept in 1950 by the Yankees you go against George Brett and the Kansas City Royals Brett had flirted with 400 at 390 that year and although you want it in six change a few things the Royals might have broken your hearts in the World Series so there's no question because all we read about after we won that series was the demise of gene Mauch when they had that in 1964 nobody knew about that team but by the time we got done reading articles I knew every player on that team I knew exactly how they lost but they kept saying on remember of 1964 when gene had that big lead and the Phillies blew it so that was constantly on our minds after we got by the Houston Astros and finally to put everything to rest to win everything is something that you never forget as a ballplayer and talking to rob who couldn't nail this one down and the LCS was on the mound to finish it in the world again out of gas but he's pitched in four games in that so he started something left something but he pitched I mean you if you did that right now with closers their agents will be calling saying what do you guys do when trying to kill this guy but tug was the same old tug he says give me the ball I'll do whatever you want me to do okay so that's game number 18 in our countdown of the top 20 games of the last 50 seasons how to sum it all up well even from the beyond Howard Cosell demands the last word and we'll give it to him very quickly putting it in perspective it was what we said it was one of the greatest championship series ever played and probably ever to be played dallas grains use of the word character is I think absolutely appropriate both teams showed character tremendous amounts of it but the Phillies a beleaguered team in terms of their competitiveness and spirit through the media people through the years have answered back and have represented the city of Philadelphia enormous ly well they deserve everyone's congratulations [Music]

Channel: cacable7

Views: 8,375

Rating: 4.8651686 out of 5

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Id: ACEBjvpFkNc

Length: 65min 34sec (3934 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 12 2020