Wilmington Morning News - August 7, 1980

Cards bats send Phils reeling 14-0

By Ray Finocchiaro, Staff Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA – And the day after the rains stopped, the Cardinals scored... and scored... and scored.

The Phillies probably wish they had saved an inch or two of the torrential rains that drenched the Vet the night before. Last night was perfect for another rainout.

"Where was Bill Giles' radar when we needed it?" growled Manager Dallas Green after the Phils' 14-0 loss.

The St. Louis Cardinals, meanwhile, may be wishing they'd saved a few of those runs for tonight's game against Steve Carlton.

Whatever, last night belonged to the Cardinals and left-hander Bob Sykes, last seen belly-flopping across the wet AstroTurf Tuesday night.

"Pete Vukovich got me going," said Sykes with a smile. "I saw him go and I HAD to go. I'll have to do more AstroTurf sliding."

While Sykes, now 5-8, was holding the Phillies to three hits and extending his scoreless-inning string against them to 19⅔ innings this season, the Cards were rapping out 16 hits against five Phils pitchers.

The loser was Bob Walk, now 8-2 and wondering what hit him – other than the Cardinal bats.

Sykes tried to downplay his dominance over the Phillies this season.

"I like a team that comes up swinging," said Sykes, "and the Phillies swing more than anybody. I can use all three of my pitches (fastball, changeup, slider) and, as long as I get my stuff over the plate, they might hit a few line drives and popups and get a little doubt in their mind."

There was a LOT of doubt in their minds last night but, as Sykes joked, "a 14-0 lead can make a Sandy Koufax out of anybody."

But Sykes remembered his first game of the season, when leads of 9-0 and 15-3 against Pittsburgh almost disappeared. The Cards hung on to win 15-13.

"The guy that pitched that day tried to throw nothing but fastballs," Sykes said. "Tonight I told, myself it was 0-0 all the way. The Phillies are a good-hitting club, but I just got lucky."

And a ton of runs.

The Cardinals' runs came in bunches. BIG bunches.

St. Louis got five runs in the first, as Walk struggled through 42 pitches to get the side out.

Tom Hen who attends the University of Delaware in the off-season, opened the game with a triple and scored on Leon Durham's single to left. After Keith Hernandez walked – the first of three Walk walks in the inning – Ted Simmons doubled home a run.

Two batters later, Ken Oberkfell singled home a pair and Phils' catcher Bob Boone got the final run home when his pickoff throw to third hit runner George Hendrick and trickled past Mike Schmidt as Hendrick raced home.

"Walk was high with everything and they just hit it," shrugged Green. "Then a few broken-bat hits dropped in. It was just one of those games.

The Cards added seven runs in the ! third with a Schmidt error looming prominently in the mayhem and misplays.

Walk was driven from the mound by three straight singles that upped . the count to 6-0. Kevin Saucier relieved and promptly served up a checked-swing single to score Mike Phillips that made it 7-0.

Then Sykes bunted back to the t mound and the agile Saucier pounced on the ball and rifled it to third for the force. But Schmidt never saw the ball and it sailed past him as two more runs scored.

Hernandez doubled home a pair and Simmons singled Hernandez home before Saucier escaped the inning.

The Phillies finally got a hit off Sykes on Lonnie Smith's leadoff single in the fourth after nine of them had gone down in a row. Smith stole second, his 11th straight and 21st overall, but he died there, long after the team had called it a night.

Even Smith's heroics came to an end as he was caught stealing after walking in the sixth.

The Cardinals loaded the bases with one out in the seventh against Dan Larson but got only one run out of it.

Simmons, who'd doubled home a run off Warren Brusstar in the fifth, singled to right against Larson for his fourth RBI of the night. But Keith Moreland threw Durham out at the plate for one of the Phils' few bright spots for the 31,629 who paid their way in... and made an early exit out.

EXTRA INNINGS – The 14 runs were the most scored against the Phillies this season... Bob Boone, playing in his 1,000th major-league game, made his 12th error of the season when he threw wildly trying to pick off Hendrick in the third... Fellow Gold Glovers Schmidt (16) and Garry Maddox (6) also chipped in with errors... The two innings Walk lasted comprised his shortest stint in the majors, even shorter than the 2.2 innings he lasted in his debut against Pittsburgh and the 2.1 innings in San Diego... Bake McBride's nine-game hitting streak ended, though Bake had only two at-bats before getting an early rest.