Reading Eagle - August 18, 1980

Phillies Sweep Mets

Carlton Gets 19^th; Lerch Wins

NEW YORK (AP) – The Philadelphia Phillies feel they’re back in the pennant race, and they have the New York Mets to thank for that.

The Phillies scored 40 runs and got 71 hits in sweeping a five-game series from the Mets, culminated by a 9-4 and 4-1 doubleheader sweep on Sunday.

“We needed this something bad,” said Philadelphia Manager Dallas Green. “And went out there and got it. The lower half of the batting order really helped. I mean guys like Larry Bowa, Bob Boone and Garry Maddox.”

Bowa went eight-for-21 with two runs batted in, Boone was seven-for-21 with five RBIs and Maddox 10-for-21 with nine RBI.

The upper half of the Philadelphia order also contributed. Lonnie Smith was 10-for-20 with three RBIs, Pete Rose nine-for-22 with two RBI and his 3,500^th base hit on Saturday, Mike Schmidt nine-for-22 and seven RBI, Bake McBride six-for-19 with four RBI and Manny Trillo six-for-18 and two RBI.

“They almost always do,” said Green. “This puts us back in the pennant race. The standings of the teams will change in September when we get a chance to play Pittsburgh and Montreal. It will be a dogfight, but if we win we’ll be in there.”

Steve Carlton, 19-6, joined Steve Stone of the Baltimore Orioles as the only 19-game winners this season in the first game. Randy Lerch, 4-13, took the nightcap.

It was the first time since 1964 that the Mets had been swept a five-game series at home.

Mets manager Joe Torre used an old proverb, saying, “You are never as bad as you look when you are losing and never as good as you look when you are winning. When we don’t pitch we don’t look good.”

Mets’ starters Ray Burris, 6-7, and Roy Lee Jackson, 1-4, absorbed the double pasting.

Rose said: “This was a team series, a series in which everyone contributed. It was the kind of effort you like to see. Everybody swing the bat – and for once took the pressure off the pitchers.”

In the Mets’ lockerroom all was gloom, as New York dropped six games under .500.

“They are not used to dealing with losing after three months of winning,” said Torre. “Last year this would not have been a surprising result. I don’t know of any changes now, but I do that kind of thinking on off days. Monday is an off day, so you never know.”

Maddox, who has been in a slump, hit homers in both games, upping his season total to nine, and his RBI count to 61.

Smith, whose homer in the first game served as an insurance run, said, “After Pittsburgh everyone felt pretty bad. We knew we needed something to turn it around and I think this did it.”