World Series Phlashback: 1983—Game Two
June 20, 2009 by kevin mcguire
Filed under Fan News
The 1983 Phillies, nicknamed the “Wheeze Kids” for their average player age of 32, were fueled by a mini reunion of The Big Red Machine with Pete Rose, Tony Perez, and Joe Morgan. Lead by MVP Mike Schmidt the Phillies pulled away from the Pittsburgh Pirates for the NL East division championship in September and then got revenge on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
Waiting for the Phillies in the 1983 World Series was a very tough Baltimore Orioles squad.
With a young Cal Ripken Jr. and players like Eddie Murray, both of whom finished one-two in the AL MVP voting (Ripken edges Murray), the Orioles had eliminated the Chicago White Sox to advance to their first World Series since 1979, where the Orioles blew a thee games to one lead on Pittsburgh to lose the championship in seven games.
We continue our phlashback with a look at game two, played in Baltimore.
Baltimore Orioles (98-64) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (90-72)
Game Two: Orioles win 4-1, Tie Series 1-1
Orioles starter and ALCS MVP Mike Boddicker limited the aging Phillies to just three hits. It was not until the fourth inning that Joe Morgan recorded the Phillies’ first hit, a lead off single.
After Morgan stole second base Pete Rose tried to move Morgan to third with a bunt, but Morgan had to hold at second. Mike Schmidt was then safe on an error and Morgan reached third base with one out. Right fielder Joe Lefebvre’s sacrifice fly to center field brought Morgan home and the Phillies took a 1-0 lead.
Phillies starter Charles Hudson had held off the Orioles offense through four innings, but could not stop them in the fifth inning.
Baltimore left fielder John Lowenstein lead off the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo home run to tie the game at one run a piece. Hudson followed that up by yielding a single to Rich Dauer and a bunt single by Todd Cruz.
Trouble continued for Hudson when Rick Dempsey hit a double to right field, scoring one run. Boddicker then hit a sacrifice to bring home a third run. After the Orioles scored three runs and recorded their first out, Phillies manager Paul Owens relieved Hudson of his pitching duties.
Willie Hernandez came in to relieve Hudson but before getting out of the sixth inning he made it interesting. Hernandez loaded the bases with two outs by hitting a batter and walking Cal Ripken Jr. Eddie Murray left the bases loaded by hitting a fly ball to center fielder Gary Maddox to end the rally.
Baltimore tacked on one more run in the seventh inning when Ripken’s single to right field off of Phillies reliever Larry Anderson scored John Shelby. That would be all of the scoring the rest of the way.
Boddicker finished the complete game by retiring Morgan, Rose and Schmidt in the ninth inning. The Orioles tied up the World Series at one game as the series traveled up I-95 to Philadelphia for the next three games.