New Jersey Newspapers - June 28, 1980
Camden Courier-Post
Mets hand Carlton his third setback
By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post
PHILADELPHIA – What news that came out of Veterans Stadium last night was not that the Phillies lost, 3-2, to the New York Mets before 37,123 muggy fans.
No, it was something much more ominous than that. The defeat came with Steve Carlton pitching, a somewhat startling fact since Carlton had heretofore been the Phillies' invincible man. Carlton walked into the Vet last night with a 13-2 record, an eight-game winning streak and virtually every major league team in his hip pocket. Except, that is, the Mets.
"The Mets, for some reason, historically have handled him pretty well," grumbled Phillies Manager Dallas Green after his club lost for the sixth time in the last eight games. "I don't know what the reason is."
Indeed, the Mets this season have inflicted Carlton with two of his three losses, and are 27-24 against him overall. Carlton's only other loss this season was to the Reds, who happen to be the only other team with a winning record against the lefthander (15-9).
To be sure, Carlton was not his usual dominant self, yielding eight of the Mets' 10 hits during his seven innings of work. But he managed to strike out six, raising his league-leading total to 141 and surpassing Robin Roberts as the club's all-time strikeout king. Carlton now has 1,875 strikeouts in his career as a Phillie, one more than Roberts.
Despite the fact that Carlton had to face his nemesis with less than his best, the game was winnable. The Phillies' offense, in a shabby performance, could muster just five hits off rookie righthander John Pacella, who was rewarded with his first major league victory.
"It was a strange night," said Green. "Offensively, we're not doing the things we're capable of doing. I'm a little worried that we're slipping back to 'don't worry, gang, the old talent will take over again.' We'll have a talk about that soon. The old talent is catching up."
The strange night turned on an odd play, an inside-the-park home run by Lee Mazzilli on Carlton's first pitch of the sixth inning.
The home run, Mazzilli's second of the year and the first allowed by Carlton in 72⅔ innings, broke a scoreless deadlock. It was no shot to the gap. Mazzilli punched a looper to right that Bake McBride attempted to catch on the run. The ball bounced in front of McBride, who skidded to a surprised halt. The ball, unfortunately for Carlton, kept going, rolling all the way to the wall, where second baseman Manny Trillo finally tracked it down.
"I thought I had it," said McBride. "It hit the turf and skidded away. There's nothing you can do about it."
Green agreed with the right-fielder, refusing to second-guess McBride's judgment in not backing off and playing the ball on one hop.
"I thought he might have had a shot at it," said Green. "If I'd been out there, I would have wanted to catch the ball, too. You go on that AstroTurf, run full blast after a ball, and try to stop. It's a tough thing to do.
"I don't protect Bake when he does something I don't think is right, but he was coming like hell. You can't stop and turn around, no matter what you do. The ball was just in a spot that was tough to defense. Garry (Maddox) has got to run 50 miles to back him up. It was one of those freak things as far as I'm concerned."
Freakish or not, the homer set the stage for the Mets to score twice more on an RBI single by Joel Youngblood, who went 3-for-4, and a sacrifice fly to the warning track in dead center by noted slugger Alex Trevino.
The Phils seemed poised for a big inning in the seventh, however, when Maddox opened with a single and Bob Boone followed with a home run outside-the-park. When Pacella hit pinchhitter Greg Gross with a pitch, the Phils had the tying run on and reliever Tom Houseman on the mound.
Del Unser, hitting for Carlton, was the first to face Houseman, a righthander. Unser lifted the ball deep to left-center, where Steve Henderson made a fine running catch for the first out. Gross reached second on Pete Rose's ground ball, but McBride took a called third strike to end the inning.
Mike Schmidt thought he had something going when he opened the eighth with a grounder that shortstop Frank Taveras fielded with one foot in left field. Schmidt was sure he beat Taveras' one-hop throw. Umpire Frank Pulli, however, disagreed.
The final insult came after Maddox opened the ninth by reaching first on a Taveras error. Green decided to play hit-and-run with Boone the batter. Maddox broke for second as Boone chopped a ground ball up the middle, where Taveras – covering on the steal – thankfully converted it into a double-play.
PHIL UPS – Carlton has been scored upon in only four of his last 44 innings... Phils have scored a total of only four runs in their last three games... Dick Ruthven and Dan Larson oppose Mark Bomback and Ray Burris in tonight's twi-night doubleheader... Schmidt aggravated a pulled hamstring muscle while trying to beat Taveras throw in eighth.
The Press of Atlantic City
Not Even Carlton Could Save Phils Against Mets
By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA — Not even Super Lefty could guide the struggling Philadelphia Phillies through the shoals at the Vet Friday night. Steve Carlton started the night in quest of his 14th victory and wound up with his third defeat, 3-2, against a club that historically has treated his harshly, the New York Mets.
Despite a brilliant lifetime record of 238 victories against 169 defeats, Carlton is below .500 at 24-27 against the Mets, who don’t have an edge on most ordinary pitchers. This season they have handed Silent Steve two of his three defeats, both at the Vet.
Last night, the visitors needed only one inning, the sixth, for the victory. They broke out of a 0-0 tie with three runs. The first run elicited boos from the 37,123 fans. Rightfielder Bake McBride charged in hard to try to catch a short fly ball off the bat of Lee Mazzilli to start the sixth inning.
McBride’s run left a halt-step shy. The ball bounced' by him into the right-field corner and before second baseman Ramon Aviles could chase it down, Mazzilli circled the bases for his second home run of the season. It was also the first home run of any kind Carlton had allowed in the last 72 and two-thirds innings.
“I can’t fault Bake on that play,” Manager Dallas Green said. “I certainly want him to go for the ball if he thinks he can catch it. When you are going all out, it’s impossible to pull up sharply on Astroturf. You just can’t dig in to do that. Garry Maddox had 50 miles to run to try to back up the play. It was just one of those things."
Singles by Frank Taveras, John Stearns and Joel Youngblood produced the second run in the inning. Then Stearns scored what proved to be the decisive run on a sacrifice fly by catcher Alex Trevino.
The Phils managed only three harmless singles off rookie John Pacella until the seventh inning.
“I think it was a case of 50-50. The young man caught us at at time when we are not swinging the bats very well. But I also have to give him credit for showing us some pretty good stuff,” Green said.
Maddox started the seventh inning by beating out a single to deep shortstop. Then catcher Bob Boone, whose bat has been swishing more than connecting of late, came through with his first homer in 15 games. It was No 5 for the season and gave hope the Phillies would remove Carlton from the hook.
That feeling persisted when pinchhitter Greg Gross was hit by a Pacella pitch. New York manager Joe Torre had seen enough of the rookie. He quickly brought in righthander Tom Hausman out of the bullpen.
As it turned out, Hausman wound up with his first save and allowed Pacella to pick up his first major league victory. The relief pitcher retired the three Phils he faced in the seventh and three more in the eighth. Maddox broke the string when he started the ninth inning by reaching first base on a throwing error by shortstop Taveras.
On a 1-1 pitch, Manager Green put on the hit and run and it backfired. Taveras cruised over to take the peg on an apparent steal and was right over the bag when Boone’s bouncer toward the middle reached his glove. It was an easy matter for Taveras to step on the bag and throw to first baseman Stearns for the double play.
“When things are going bad (the Phils have lost six of their last eight), plays like that magnify against you,” Green said. “They didn’t expect a hit and run in that situation or they would’ve pitched out. That’s why we put it on."
Greg Gross popped up to Taveras to end the first game of a four—game series.
Carlton did salvage something from the night when he struck out six Mets and became the all-time leader among Phillie pitchers. Carlton now has 1,873 strike outs for his Philadelphia career, the previous team leader was Robin Roberts with 1,871.
Tonight the Mets and Phils will battle their way through a twi-night doubleheader starting at 5:35.