Atlantic City Press - May 21, 1980

Phils Hit 4 HRs But Lose to Reds

Cincinnati 7, Philadelphia 6

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA — As the Major League baseball games dwindle down to a precious few, the Philadelphia Phillies lost one Tuesday night at The Vet, 7-6, to Cincinnati. Manager Dallas Green thought it was the kind of game his team should win. 

“Most of the time we played Phillies' baseball out there. We used the bunt and the squeeze to get one run. The ‘Bull’ (Greg Luzinski) and Schmidtie (Mike Schmidt) were burping them. 

“But this team is always tough to get out And we couldn’t stop them when we had to,” was Green’s post mortem. 

The Phils got two homers, number nine and 10, from Luzinski. They got number 10 from Schmidt. The Phils’ twin boppers are co-leaders in the Majors. 

Garry Maddox chipped in with a triple and two doubles. Bake McBride clubbed his second homer. 

However, Philadelphia starting pitcher Dick Ruthven, now 4-3, was nickel and dimed to death by the Reds. Their only extra-base hits were a pair of doubles by second baseman Junior Kennedy. He also contributed two singles to the 10-hit attack. 

Along the way, Ruthven was undermined by his usually-reliable third baseman Schmidt. 

Mike’s throwing error on a two-out groundball by John Bench opened the door for a pair of unearned runs in the sixth inning that put the visitors on top to stay 6-5. After Bench reached second on the play, Green ordered shortstop Ron Oster walked intentionally to get to relief pitcher Paul Moskau, putting the go-ahead run on base.

"At the time, they didn’t have anyone even warming up in the pen, so I thought they had to go with Moskau,” Green reported. But Cincy Manager John McNamara pulled Cesar Geronimo off his bench to pinch hit and then had Mario Soto start warming up quickly. 

Ruthven walked Geronimo to load the bases and bring up lead off-man Dave Collins. After getting Collins into an 0-2 hole, Ruthven laid the next pitch out over the plate and Collins lined it into center for a two-run single that put the Reds on top to stay. 

“You never like to get beat by an 0-2 pitch, but that wasn’t the only bad pitch thrown during the night,” Green said. However, the manager did not think he stayed too long with starter Ruthven, who did not depart until a double by Kennedy and single by George Foster produced the seventh run in the seventh inning. 

“Boonie (catcher Bob Boone) told me that Dick had settled down after the first couple of innings. So I kept him out there But in the end, it didn’t work out too well.” 

Back-to-back homers by Schmidt and Luzinski in the bottom of the inning on starting southpaw Charley Leibrandt quickly made it a 2-2 game. 

The Phils went in front 4-3 with two in the second. Maddox doubled, went to third on Bowa's sacrifice bunt and scored on a triple by red hot Manny Trillo. As squeeze bunt by Ruthven got the fourth run home. 

The Reds tied it in the third on a double by Kennedy, single by Ken Griffey and an infield out. McBride untied it in the third with a bases-empty homer that brought righthander Moskau, the eventual winner, on to relieve Liebrandt. He squelched the Phillie bats for three innings. 

With Reds on top, 7-5, Luzinski retired one of the runs with his solo blast in the eighth inning off Soto. When Maddox hit a two-out triple in the same inning, righthander Doug Bair became the fourth Cincinnati pitcher. He got pinch hitter Greg Gross on a ground ball to shortstop to end the threat. 

In the ninth, pinch hitter Del Unser hit a one-out single. But then Bair retired Pete Rose and McBride and earned his third save and gave Moskau his second victory in two decisions.

It will be Tom Seaver for the Reds against Larry Christenson in the series finale and perhaps the finale of the local season tonight. A strike deadline by the players has been set for midnight Thursday.