Allentown Morning Call - April 14, 1980
Expos were better team yesterday
By Jack McCallum, Call Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA – It is not very often that a 400-foot game-winning home run to center field in extra innings is an anticlimax, but that's exactly what Ellis Valentine's missile shot was yesterday at Veterans Stadium.
A three-run Philadelphia Phillies' rally in the bottom of the ninth inning had done such a good job of salvaging an afternoon of baseball out of what otherwise would' ve passed for Bill Almon Comes Alive Day, that the 5-4 loss to the Montreal Expos was no cause for mass mourning.
"Some days you gotta' realize that the other team's just better than you," said Phillies' manager Dallas Green, "and I guess that was the case today. But we stayed with them right up to the end. Even in the 10th (after Valentine's homer) we hit the ball on the button."
That is true. Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski both flied to deep center and Bob Boone forced reserve leftfielder Jerry White back against the wall to catch his game-ending flyball. In all probability, Ron LeFlore, who started in left, wouldn't have made the play.
But it was the ninth that had everybody talking.
The Phillies trailed 4-1 and heretofore had showed no signs of solving either Scott Sanderson or Stan Bahnsen who had come into the game in the fifth. But Luzinski (2-for-5) and Boone (3-for-5) led off with singles as the stadium came alive for the first time since the Phillie Phanatic attacked a ballgirl in the early innings.
Larry Bowa then sent a grounder up the middle that shortstop Almon (more on him later cut off and tagged Boone to put runners on the corners. Manny Trillo grounded back to Bahnsen on a checked swing and the Expos were only one out away from a 4-1 victory.
But then they showed why the predictions of their division title were perhaps a bit more premature, Bahnsen wild-pitched Bowa to second. Then, pinch-hitter Greg Gross' sharply-hit liner to third should have been grabbed by Larry Parrish but it went off his webbing as Luzinski and Bowa both scored to make it 4-3. With Pete Rose coming up. Expo manager Dick Williams sent for left-hander Woody Fryman as Green sent speedy Lonny Smith in to run for Gross.
"I think they might've wanted the lefty in there against me," said Rose, "because they saw me kill 13 worms in front of the plate the other night against Bill Lee."
The showdown was no doubt cheered by the MORA club – Fryman celebrated his 40th birthday on Saturday (and Rose doubts he's counted them all) and Rose is 39 today. Rose won as he hit an 0-2 pitch between third and short to move Smith to second.
Wait a minute! To move Smith to third. The rookie outfielder elected to run through third base coach Lee Elia's holdup sign and his headfirst slide earned him, not only third base, but also a reprieve from Green's guillotine. Ah, youth.
"It wasn't a mistake because he made it. said Green, a master politician. "It might not have been a mistake at all if LeFlore was still out there."
Bake McBride. who last season hit lefties better than righties, then sent a sharp single up the middle to tie the game. Even the unemotional McBride raised his fist on first. Elias Sosa then came in to strike out Maddox.
Well, it was time for Valentine's anti-climax. Reliever Lerrin LaGrow got behind him 3-1 and Valentine was sitting on his fastball.
"If you pitch from behind you're gonna get hurt unless you use something besides a fastball." said Green who should know since his lifetime pitching mark was 20-22.
"There is a lot you can do at 3-1." said LaGrow. "I don't think he was necessarily waiting for the fastball. It was a problem of location (up) more than anything."
It was another home run, this one by Andre Dawson, that hurt the Phils earlier and spoiled an otherwise solid debut by Larry Christenson.
With the score 1-1 in the top of the fifth. Almon, who was playing only because Chris Speier had an abscessed tooth, led off with a triple. A .227 hitter last year with San Diego, Almon was 4-for-5 yesterday in addition to solid play at short. Rowland Office, pinch-hitting for starter Sanderson, then got Almon in with a sacrifice fly.
Christenson then walked LeFlore, got Rodney Scott on a popup but gave Dawson a poor slider out over the plate. Dawson in turn sent it out over the wall in left-center to give the Expos a 4-1 lead.
"I was going to pinch-hit for Larry the next inning so that was his last," said Green. "I think that was really the only poor pitch he made all day."
Green then got a good look at two of his young right-handed pride and joys, Dickie Noles and Scott Munninghoff, both of whom are ex-starters being converted to long relief. Noles gave up two hits and no runs in the sixth and seventh and Munninghoff gave up just one hit and no runs in the eighth and ninth. Unfortunately for the Phillies, LaGrow couldn't equal their performance.
NOTES: Luzinski – now officially being called "The New Greg Luzinski" at every turn – had a clean steal of second yesterday in the second inning. Both Almon and second baseman Rodney Scott stood flatfooted as Bull took off and slid in with his 27th career steal…
The only Phillies really struggling with the bat through three games are Schmidt (2-for-12 for .167) and Bowa (1-for-12 for .083)...
Rose played in his 2.671st game which puts him in sixth place on the National League's all-time list ahead of Rabbit Maranville. Fifth place belongs to Mel Ott with 2,730…
The Phils will workout at the Vet at 5 o'clock tonight then fly to St. Louis for a two-game series with the Cards…
Before the game Garry Maddox (fifth straight), Schmidt (fourth-straight), Boone (second straight) and Trillo (first) received their 1979 Gold Gloves from Rawlings Sporting Goods…
If you're keeping tabs on the fan boycott, the Phillies drew 107,785 in their first three home dates last season, two of those with the Pirates. Yesterday's crowd of 28,132 put 98,657 in the Vet so far. Not much of a boycott.