Oakland Tribune - June 10, 1980
The Giants make most of long day
By Nick Peters, Tribune Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA – As the Giants’ bus pulled up to the midtown hotel at 4:05 this morning, it would have been natural to see weary players stifling yawns while groping for their room keys.
Instead, there was laughter and wisecracks at the conclusion of a bizarre 21 hours. The Giants were awakened at 6 a m. in Houston, made a three-hour flight, endured five hours of rain delays and finally defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1, in a game that concluded at 2:11 this morning!
"It's no big deal. quipped a drained Johnnie LeMaster. "Most of us don’t get in till 3 in the morning anyway.”
LeMaster was joking, but there was absolutely nothing funny about what happened at Veterans Stadium Monday night when the rains started and Phillies' ace Steve Carlton had retired the first 12 Giants.
Most of the Giants wanted to keep playing when umpire Bob Engel ordered he first delay.
Phillies' Manager Dallas Green, though, was angry. He felt the Giants wanted no part of Carlton and that they were deliberately stalling in hopes that Engel would call off the game.
“I wanted to play the game." Green added, "and I was surprised they stopped it the second time. It wasn't raining that hard. If the umps wanted to get four and one-half innings in, they sure made a feeble effort. They didn't handle it very professionally."
Giants' Manager Dave Bristol denied any wrongdoing. "I can't believe Dallas is mad. I didn't ask the umps to stop the game – in fact, I didn't talk to an umpire until the game was over.
“I’ve just never had a game like this in all my years in baseball,” Bristol said. “This one takes the cake. The guys were dead tired, but there was no moaning or groaning on the bench. It was a good one to win.”
Carlton lost a no-hitter when Larry Herndon lined a one-out double to left in the fifth.
Carlton, the majors' winningest pitcher at 10-2 and also the strikeout leader, was lifted after the sixth. He struck out 10 and allowed three hits. The Giants then went to work on Dickie Noles in the eighth.
With the Phils ahead 1-0 thanks to Bob Boone's home run. pinch-batter Terry Whitfield drew a leadoff walk and Jack Clark hammered a 400-foot homer to left. "I wanted that off day Thursday," he said, "so I just had to dig down a little deeper."
The Giants added a run off Tug McGraw in the ninth when Rennie Stennett doubled, went to third on LeMaster's foul fly and scored on Milt May's sacrifice fly.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, couldn't score off relievers Allen Ripley, who got the win. and Greg Minton, who earned a save. The Phillies stranded 14 runners while the Giants snapped a four-game-losing streak.
Ripley took over for John Montefusco and worked out of the fourth-inning jam. In three and two-thirds innings, the rookie struck out five – including Mike Schmidt twice – and allowed one hit.