Philadelphia Inquirer - June 10, 1980

Phillies wait and wait and lose

Giants win, 3-1, after rain

By Danny Robbins, Inquirer Staff Writer

It was the seemingly endless game that set the rain-delay record for ridiculousness. But, somehow, it ended in the wee hours this morning, and the Phillies got the required mileage out of Steve Carlton.

Only a handful of the original 28,702 were left at the Yet last night as the Phillies and the San Francisco Giants faced two rain delays worth exactly five hours and some unusual umpiring that kept the game going.

In the end, which came slightly more than 7½ hours after the beginning, the Giants won, 3-1.

Carlton had a perfect game going through four innings when the second rain delay began with the game five outs from fulfilling the requirements of a regulation game.

Carlton came back to give up a Larry Herndon double after striking out Rich Murray to begin the fifth. When the Phils' stopper was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth, he still had a three-hit shutout in the works with 10 strikeouts, and the Phillies were leading 1-0 on the strength of a Bob Boone home run.

Unfortunately for the Phillies and the crazies who stayed to watch them, reliever Dickie Noles walked the first man he faced in the eighth and then gave up a two-run homer to the Giants' Jack Clark.

The Giants got an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

The rain became too much in the fourth inning as Carlton was racking up his 12th out. So the tarp was on, and the delay had begun, before the Phillies could bat in the bottom of the fourth.

It was a break in another Carlton masterpiece. To be sure, he was humming along in the drizzle that had started to fall in the first inning.

He was perfect in his first trip – cruise, really – through the Giants' order, such as it is, and he was perfect through four innings before the rain delay. At that point, he had five strikeouts, including his 100th of the season (Bill North to open the fourth). He also had one great fielding play behind him.

It was the last thing before the delay. With two out in the fourth, Jack Clark put a bouncer to Mike Schmidt's left. The ball skidded through. But Larry Bowa went far to his right to make the stop, and his peg got Clark, who complained for a minute, at first.

Otherwise, the Giants went down like lambs. They didn't hit a ball out of the infield in the four innings, and they were tapping balls right at people. Carlton needed only seven pitches to get out of the first inning, 25 in the first three innings, as he went for his 11th win of his special season.

The Phillies, on the other hand, weren't exactly bombing John (The Count) Montefusco, the Giants' starter. In fact, their early support for Carlton through three looked curiously like the support they gave Dick Ruthven in Sunday's 2-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs; nothing much was there.

Garry Maddox and Lonnie Smith had singles, but the Phillies didn't turn them into runs. With one out in the third, Smith grounded a ball up the middle, then stole second. After Pete Rose popped up, Schmidt reached first on an error by third baseman Darrell Evans (a grounder got through him before shortstop Johnnie LeMaster could make a weak play), Smith going only to third. But Greg Luzinski struck out for the second time to kill the threat.

It was basically the same story in the first. Rose, batting second behind Smith, walked, stole second on a high 1-2 pitch to Luzinski after Schmidt had fanned and went around to third when catcher Mike Sadek (who had appeared in just 17 games for the Giants) put his throw into center field. However, Luzinski proceeded to go down swinging on the next pitch to end that opportunity.

Maddox got the Phils' first hit, lining a single to right-center, with one away in the second, but Bowa and Manny Trillo stranded him at first. Trillo, whose .336 average paces the Phils now, did send Larry Herndon to the warning track in left with a drive.

The first rain delay lasted 88 minutes. But play was resumed in a drizzle; well, it was resumed for 10 minutes, long enough for Boone to crash his home run.

Montefusco came out, got to 2-0 on Boone, and then the Phils' catcher pulled a drive that landed in the Giants' bullpen in left, just to the right of the 330 sign. So, sky willing, it appeared Carlton would have something to work with.

The Phils sent up two more batters – Maddox got his second hit, a line drive up the middle, and Bowa forced him at second with a grounder up the middle that LeMaster reached. But then, with a 2-1 count by The Count on Trillo, the umpires wanted the tarp out again with the rain coming down harder.

Certainly, the Giants did not complain. The second rain delay started at 9:56 p.m. and didn't end, after two false starts, until 1:28 a.m. when Allen Ripley, believe it or not, finally threw a pitch in relief of Montefusco. For the record, it was a fastball, wide for a ball, and the group of crazy fans still around went wild.

They had seen Ripley and others come out twice when the rain abated and the tarp was off, then head back to the dugouts as the rain came again. Still the umpires declined to call off the game.

At 12:54, for instance, the players came back on a clear field and warmed up. But they didn't begin to play, and the rain was falling again at 1:06. So out came the tarp on the bases. And the wait was still on.

Finally, after exactly five bizarre hours of delay time, the umpires decided to let the teams play, and the rain had, indeed, letup.

And, with one out in the fifth, Herndon stroked a 1-2 pitch down the left-field line for the double that ended this Carlton no-hit bid. But Carlton still had his shutout to shoot for, and he hadn't allowed a run by the time he left for pinch-hitter George Vukovich in the sixth. Carlton went out after striking out 10 and allowing three hits over six innings – and 6½ hours.

The long delay obviously bothered Carlton. He even had to pitch his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth with two out. But he got Jim Wohlford to fly to center to end the inning.

NOTES: Bake McBride was scratched from the starting lineup at the last minute for what the Phillies described as a "heavy cold," and so Lonnie Smith went out to right field.... The Giants came to the Vet with a 7-23 record on the road this season after dropping three straight in Houston over the weekend.... The Phillies will miss the Giants' saving grace, pitcher Vida Blue. He's the No. 2 pitcher in the National League behind Steve Carlton with an 8-2 record and a 2.86 ERA. but he won't get a turn in Philadelphia.... Probable pitchers for the rest of the San Francisco series: Bob Walk vs. Bob Knepper at 7:35 tonight, Randy Lerch vs. Ed Whitson tomorrow.

Schmidt leads voting at 3^rd base

By the Associated Press

NEW YORK – Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt has moved into the lead in balloting for his position on the National League All-Star team, commissioner Bowie Kuhn's office said yesterday.

Phillie Greg Luzinski has moved into second place among outfielders behind Pittsburgh's Dave Parker. Dave Kingman of the Cubs has moved into third place among National League outfielders, and shortstop Garry Templeton of the St. Louis Cardinals has taken the voting lead at his position.

Holdover NL leaders for the July 8 game in Los Angeles are catcher Ted Simmons of the Cardinals, Parker and Los Angeles infielders Steve Garvey at first base and Davey Lopes at second.

Balloting continues through June 25. Schmidt, a Gold Glove third baseman, leads the National League in home runs (18), runs batted in (46) and runs scored (41)

Lopes moved into the lead among overall vote-getters, receiving 729,045 to jump in front of California Angels first baseman Rod Carew, who had 538,500 in the last American League counting. The latest AL figures will be announced Thursday.

Parker's 603,921 leads all outfielders, but only 67,046 votes separate the next five players – Luzinski, Kingman, Reggie Smith of Los Angeles, George Foster of Cincinnati and Dusty Baker of Los Angeles.

Templeton regained the lead at shortstop from Bill Russell of Los Angeles with 474,848 to 351,753 for the Dodger player. Schmidt (511,906) holds a 75,944 lead over Ron Cey of Los Angeles (435,962).

Garvey (551,470) is seeking his seventh consecutive starting assignment at first base. He leads Keith Hernandez of St. Louis (368,057) and Willie Stargell of Pittsburgh (286,621), last year's co-Most Valuable Players.

Simmons (490,017) maintained his lead among the catchers with a comfortable edge over Los Angeles' Steve Yeager (352,021).