The 1983 season was the last hurrah for the Philadelphia Phillies’ run of hard-hitting, good-pitching teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those Phils won five National League East titles in eight years, two pennants and the 1980 World Series. They averaged 92 wins in seven full seasons and were in first place in the NL East when the 1981 strike hit.
By 1983, the second iteration of the “Whiz Kids” was derisively known as the “Wheez Kids,” as their core of Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Mike Schmidt, Gary Matthews, Gary Maddox, Tony Perez, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw were all past 30 (and in the case of Rose and Perez, past 40). They won 90 games without leading the league in any major category except walks drawn and strikeouts by pitchers, and they and the Dodgers were clearly the top two teams in a National League that was not particularly strong.
After Game One of the National League Championship Series, the teams came back the next night in Los Angeles, not long after the ALCS began in Baltimore. Here’s the story of NLCS Game Two.
Morgan, Denny Give Phils LA Sweep, 2-0 Lead
LOS ANGELES (Oct. 5, 1983) – John Denny and Al Holland combined to limit Los Angeles to just four hits, and Joe Morgan homered for the second time in as many nights to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 3-2 win over the Dodgers and a 2-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
Morgan’s home run, off Fernando Valenzuela with one out in the third, broke a 1-1 tie. The Dodgers came back when Pedro Guerrero tripled with one out in the fourth and scored on Ken Landreaux’s groundout, but 3-2 was as close as the West champions would come.
Denny retired 11 Dodgers in a row from the fourth to the eighth innings, and when Rick Monday hit a pinch-hit double and Steve Sax walked with one out in the eighth, Holland came on to get a ground ball double play to end the inning. The Dodgers then put two men on in the ninth, but Holland got Bill Russell to hit into a fielder’s choice to end it and send the Phillies back to Veterans Stadium up 2-0.
The Dodgers will be trying to come back from the brink for the second time in three years. Los Angeles dropped the first two games to the Astros in the 1981 NLDS (necessitated by the strike) before coming back to win (and, eventually, the pennant and World Series). The Milwaukee Brewers fell behind 0-2 to the California Angels in the 1982 NLCS before coming back to win the pennant1And eventually beat the Cardinals in my replay of the 1982 World Series.. Fifteen-game winner Bob Welch will start for the Dodgers, while rookie Charlie Hudson (8-8) tries to claim the pennant for Philadelphia in Game Three Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET.
NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES GAME TWO
At Dodger Stadium
Philadelphia Phillies 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 2
Wednesday, October 5, 1983
Philadelphia Phillies (2-0) Los Angeles Dodgers (0-2)
Player AB R H BI BB SO P A E LOB Ave Player AB R H BI BB SO P A E LOB Ave
------ -- - - -- -- -- - - - --- --- ------ -- - - -- -- -- - - - --- ---
Morgan 2b 5 2 2 1 0 1 2 4 0 3 .333 Sax 2b 2 1 0 0 2 1 4 2 0 0 .000
Rose 1b 4 0 0 0 0 0 11 1 0 0 .125 Brock 1b 4 0 1 1 0 0 9 0 0 1 .250
Schmidt 3b 3 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 0 0 .000 Niedenfuer p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Lezcano rf 3 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 .143 Baker lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 .000
Matthews lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 1 1 .200 Guerrero 3b 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 .333
Dernier lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Landreaux cf 4 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 1 .000
Maddox cf 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 .167 Marshall rf 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .375
Diaz c 3 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 .286 Russell ss 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 6 0 3 .000
DeJesus ss 3 1 2 0 1 0 2 6 0 2 .286 Fimple c 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 .000
Denny p 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1.000 Yeager ph c 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .200
Holland p 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Valenzuela p 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 0 0 .000
Monday ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000
Anderson pr 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Thomas rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333
-- - - -- -- -- -- -- -- --- -- - - -- -- -- -- -- -- ---
Totals 28 3 5 3 7 5 27 14 1 7 Totals 31 2 4 2 3 3 27 15 0 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Philadelphia Phillies 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 0
E- Matthews(1)
LOB- Philadelphia Phillies 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 5
2B- Brock(1), Monday(1)
3B- DeJesus(1), Guerrero(1)
HR- Morgan(2)
SB- Maddox(1), Morgan(1)
SH- Denny(1)
SF- Schmidt(1)
GIDP- Brock(1)
RLSP- DeJesus, Matthews, Morgan 2, Brock, Landreaux, Russell 2
DP- Philadelphia Phillies 1
Philadelphia Phillies IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Denny(W 1-0) 7.1 3 2 2 2 3 2.45
Holland(S, 1) 1.2 1 0 0 1 0 0.00
Los Angeles Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO ERA
Valenzuela(L 0-1) 8.0 4 3 3 6 4 3.38
Niedenfuer(H, 1) 1.0 1 0 0 1 1 0.00
Inherited runners-scored- Holland 2-0
Batters faced- Denny 28, Holland 6, Valenzuela 32, Niedenfuer 5
U - HP - Stello, 1B - McSherry, 2B - Weyer, 3B - Harvey, LF - Crawford, RF - Tata
T -
