World Series Phlashback: 1983—Game Four
June 21, 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 four, played in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Phillies (90-72) vs. Baltimore Orioles (98-64)
Game Three: Orioles win 5-4, Take 3-1 Series Lead
John Denny took the mound for the Phillies in game four. The winner of game one would not repeat his success at Veterans Stadium though. Although he retired the first six batters he faced, so did Baltimore starter Storm Davis.
Baltimore jumped on the score board first in the fourth inning and they did it utilizing small ball. Baltimore hit three straight singles to start the inning and second baseman Rich Dauer’s single, the fourth of the inning for Baltimore, scored two runs to put the Orioles up 2-0 on the home team.
The Phillies got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fourth inning when Joe Lefebvre’s double to right field scored Pete Rose and moved Mike Schmidt to third base with one out. Gary Matthews was walked to set up the double play. Greg Gross then hit a deflating ground ball for a double play to end the inning.
In the fifth inning the Phillies looked to take control of the game. Catcher Bo Diaz started the rally with a double to left field and scored on a single by Denny, helping his own cause. Joe Morgan grounded out but moved Denny to third base and Rose hit a double to bring him home, and give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. Schmidt flied out to end the inning.
Denny though was unable to hold on to the lead as he got in to some trouble in the top of the sixth inning.
With the bases loaded Denny walked pinch hitter Ken Singleton. The forced in run tied the game at three runs and Phillies manager Paul Owens took the ball from Denny’s glove and handed it to reliever Willie Hernandez. Hernandez though let one run come in on a sacrifice fly. Baltimore now lead 4-3.
The Orioles tacked one more crucial run in the seventh inning and took the 5-3 lead into the ninth inning. Desperation was settling in within the Phillies dugout, as the thoughts of going down 3-1 in the World Series must have been demoralizing.
Ozzie Virgil hit an RBI single to score Bob Derrnier, who was pinch running for Bo Diaz. The Phillies had cut the lead to one run but Morgan lined out to end the game on an 0-1 count.
Baltimore took game four and now found themselves one win away from clinching a world championship at Veterans Stadium. While the games to this point had been toss-ups, Baltimore was ready to slam the door shut on their hosts in game five.