Schmidt powers Phils to lead          

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Mike Schmidt is well versed in all the nuances of the word "streak." He has travelled its uneven path before, ridden its momentum when every swing seems magical, languished in its limbo when every at-bat seems an exercise in frustration.

So you'll have to pardon Schmidt if he seems reluctant to accept the role as the Phillies' current hot bat. Sure, his two-run home run in the first inning sent the Phils on their way to a 6-3 victory over Pittsburgh and back into first place. Certainly, it was his 14th homer of the year – 10th in the month of May.

But, as hot a power hitter as Schmidt has been, he has tended to minimize the tear because, perhaps, he is weary of the adjective "streak" being used to qualify his hitting.

"I DON'T know, he said. "I guess I've been a streak bitter in the past. I've just been taking a good swing at the ball. When I get ahead of the pitcher, I have the liberty of waiting for the fastball and I'm taking a good, controlled swing at it. It has been that way all year. Call it a streak if you want."

Let's instead call it the most consistent start of Schmidt's career. After hitting over .300 for the month of April, Schmidt has kept his batting average hovering near that mystical plateau and went into this afternoon's series finale with the Pirates hitting .297.

That may not seem remarkable until you consider that fully 26 of Schmidt's 43 hits have been for extra bases; that he leads the National League in home runs and runs, and is second in RBIs with 36 24 coming in May.

"It has," said Schmidt, "been a long streak. But I've gone two months at a time before. I've matured as a hitter. I've been able to keep my poise. I've become a better hitter because I've been able to regroup, keep my poise.

"IF YOU don't have a year or two under your belt hitting .300, they're going to call you a streak hitter."

Schmidt's homer, which gave him 99 total bases in 38 games, came after Pete Rose had greeted Pirate starter Don Robinson with a double. Bake McBride, another who has consistently driven in runs, followed with an RBI single before Schmidt sent a Robinson fastball careening off the façade bordering the upper deck in left field.

Presented with a 3-0 lead, lefthander Randy Lerch broke a season-long attachment with ill fortune and gave the Phillies eight strong innings. He gamely survived the first of two home runs by Lee Lacy and pitched superbly out of a two-on, no-out jam in the eighth.

“I promise you I will not say this was a typical Randy Lerch game," smiled Phillies Manager Dallas Green, "But it was a helluva pitched game."

LERCH relinquished Lacy's first homer with two out in the second, which made it a 3-1 ballgame. But be got Bill Robinson to hit a double-play ball after Dave Parker had singled in the fourth, and retired Omar Moreno to end the fifth after falling behind the Pirate leadoff man, 3-0.

"That (the 3-0 lead) was a big edge," said Green. "It allowed him to relax that much more. The key to the whole game for Randy was him getting Moreno after going 3-0. That, to me, was the key for Randy because it came at a critical part of the game."

By then, the Phillies had gotten Lerch, whose last win came against the Pirates in September of 1979, two more runs on RBI doubles by Rose and McBride. And Lerch cruised along with a 5-1 advantage until the eighth, when he gave up a single to pinchhitter Manny Sanguillen and a double to Moreno with Tim Foli, Parker and Robinson still to hit.

"I thought," said Lerch, "I was gone."

BUT GREEN stayed with Lerch and he responded by getting Foli and Parker on ground balls, and striking out Robinson.

All that remained – after Lerch scored Larry Bowa with a suicide squeeze bunt in the eighth – was for Lerch to get through the ninth. He did not, giving up a leadoff single to Bill Madlock and Lacy's second homer. Ron Reed, with some fancy defense at first by Rose, got the final three outs for his second save of the season.

PHIL UPS – Phillies righthander Larry Christenson underwent successful surgery by Dr. Phillip Marone at Methodist Hospital yesterday... Dr. Marone removed some bone spurs and loose bodies from Christenson's right elbow... The Phillies are not ruling out a September return for Christenson... Greg Luzinski was named major league player of the week by a national sports publication for hitting.545 with five homers and eight RBIs last week... Phils lead National League with 76 doubles, 201 runs and 38 borne runs… Phils have won 11 of last 15 games... Final game of homestand was to have begun at 12:35 this afternoon with Dick Ruthven opposing Eddie Solomon.

Lerch demeanor tips Pirates to real Randy

By Ray W. Kelly of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Have you checked your demeanor lately?

No, don't ask the gas station attendant to do it. Just look in the mirror. Demeanor is your cool, the way you carry yourself , the vibrations you give off and the image you present to others.

It is also, as Phillies southpaw Randy Lerch discovered last evening, a potent tool of the pitching trade. Especially in the major leagues, where a 95 mph fast ball can make a batter smile with glee if it's delivered like an apology.

Call it "ESP" or translating body language, but Phils' Manager Dallas Green suspected that opposing batters were continually getting the impression that in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, Randy would be the first to blink.

"I like aggressiveness rather than back-off-ish-ness," explained Green. "Other teams pick up on that and pounce on a pitcher who gives that impression."

Understand that the manager wasn't questioning the degree of Lerch's toughness. He thinks Randy is tough enough. He knows the lefthander has talent enough. The idea is to convince the hitters that he's twice as tough and talented.

It isn't easy being cocky when you haven't won a game since last September. "Any guy who has any pride at all... to look up at the scoreboard and see that your record is 0-6... it's positively degrading," said Lerch.

Fortunately, the lanky southpaw had some extra motivation in his hip pocket last night as he prepared to string eight impressive innings together while beating the dangerous Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3 at Veterans Stadium.

He was hungry for a victory. He was angry about suddenly becoming the invisible man of the pitching staff. He was sick of trying every pitching remedy that came down the pike. He was short-tempered about not having time to prepare mentally for the starting assignment. And he was happy that Dallas Green wasn't Danny Ozark.

The new manager may touch a nerve or two when he talks about Randy's lack of "enthusiasm," a word that Lerch believes should be swept off the floor of a riding academy. But Green isn't as quick to give up on people as Ozark.

"Are you kidding?" said Randy. "If Danny was still here, my chances of pitching would have been cut in half. That's part of the problem. I spent so many years worrying about what Danny was thinking... whether he was going to take me out of a game or not let me pitch because of one mistake. I got into the habit of concentrating on the wrong things."

There was nothing wrong with the way he handled himself against the Pirates. And Randy insists that he was simply being himself, the real Randy Lerch.

"I'm not going to go out there and act like Al Hrabosky (The Mad Hungarian)," he said. "I'm going to be me. If that's not good enough, then get someone else. I was myself tonight.

"Yes, I was more aggressive. Instead of trying not to give up hits by throwing perfect pitches, I went out there saying, 'you're not going to hit me.' During that one inning, I realized you can't strike out Tim Foli, so I didn't try. I went hard at Dave Parker. I let it all hang out against Bill Robinson. And, it. worked."

 What worked was Green's approach to Lerch. He ignored him, dropping him from the starting rotation and sending him to the bullpen, where the coaches just answered his questions with shrugs and talked about the two new pitchers just recalled from the farm team.

"I'll admit, I felt unwanted. I felt like I was dead weight. With the trade deadline coming up, I thought maybe they were using me as an insurance policy," he said.

"Maybe it helped me. The pressure was intense because of the Oh-and-six. I had to get away from the heat of the fire."

That was Green's intention all along. He had seen that "oh no!" look on Randy's face whenever a bloop hit fell in or something else went wrong. He was certain the other team also picked up on it and attacked like sharks in bloody water.

Last night, Lerch acted like the master of his fate. And sure enough he was. Green called it working like a professional, but cautioned against celebrating the salvation of the pitching staff.

"It's not important unless he can back it up (with similar performances), said Dallas, who has all kinds of demeanor.

De-closer anyone gets to being satisfied with himself, de-meaner he gets.

Phils’ Lerch Stop Bucs for 1st Win and 1st Place

Philadelphia 6, Pittsburgh 3

By Harry Hoffman, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA —  It was degrading to Randy Lerch. 

"When you look up on the scoreboard and see 0-6 behind your name, you have to feel pretty bad if you have any pride at all," the lanky southpaw of the Philadelphia Phillies said Wednesday night. 

The figures will look a trifle better before the next start. Wednesday night, he picked up his first victory of the season by going eight innings and beating Pittsburgh 6-3. 

Lerch, who has been passed over in the rotation a couple of times after his dull start, thus helped pull the Phillies back into first place in National League East by four percentage points over the Pirates. 

Once again, Mike Schmidt provided the major blow, his 14th homer with Bake McBride on first base to cap a three-run first inning. That kept Schmidt number one among home run belters in the Major Leagues and also upped his RBI total to 36, second in the National League. 

“You get a real big push when your offense goes out and gets you three runs in the first inning,” Lerch said. “I'm willing to admit I started teed off at the manager, who seemed to lose faith in me. But maybe his strategy worked. I had a more aggressive attitude out there. I told myself I would not give into these guys. They’d have to hit my best stuff.” 

Only two Pirates gave Lerch trouble: Lee Lacy, one of the hottest hitters in the league right now, belted a pair of homers, while Bill Madlock stroked a double and two singles. 

Together they conspired to keep Randy from working the distance. 

Madlock started the top of the ninth inning with a double and Lacy followed with his third homer of the season. Manager Dallas Green quickly went to right-handed reliever Ron Reed, who retired three of the four batters he faced and picked up his second save. 

Lacy's first home run of the night with no one on in the second inning made it a 3-1 game. 

The Phils reached Pittsburgh starter Don Robinson, 1-1, for another pair of runs in the fourth and improved their lead to 5-1. Pete Rose, who had double and scored in front of McBride’s single in the first, doubled home one of the runs and then scored the second on a double by Bake. 

“My job is to get on base as the leadoff hitter because with the guys I have hitting behind me, I'll score lost of runs,” Rose said. “Bake, without a doubt, is the most productive second hitter in the league. When we both have it going, then this team has to be hard to beat.” 

McBride’s two runs batted-in last night brought his total to 32. That not only is tops among the league’s number two hitters, but also makes him number three in entire circuit behind Steve Garvey of Los Angeles and teammate Schmidt. 

Lerch helped himself in the eighth inning when his perfect squeeze bunt scored Larry Bowa and made it 6-1 game. 

“The pitcher should be able to help himself both with the glove and the bat,” Lerch said. “Tonight, everything ten into place tor me. But i have to give Manny (second baseman Trillo) some of the credit. He made a couple of key plays behind me to ease the load.” 

The second baseman turned over a fine double play on a hard-hit ball by’ Bill Robinson in the fourth inning and made a diving stop on Tim Foil’s bid for a hit in the third to save a run. 

Lerch pitched his own way out of trouble in the eighth inning when the Pirates threatened to destroy his comeback. A single by pinch-hitter Manny Sanguillen and double by Omar Moreno put Bucs on second and third with one out. 

“I over-pitched to Foli the first couple of pitches. The I told myself I wasn’t going to strike him out anyway, so I just relaxed and went after him with good pitches,” Lerch said. 

Foil grounded to Schmidt at third base as the runners held. Then he got Dave Parker on an easy comebacker to the mound for the second out. Randy ended the inning unscathed by striking out Pirate cleanup hitter Bill Robinson.

“Randy knew what I wanted from him,” Green said. “I was not satisfied with his attitude on the mound. You have to go after hitters, make them know you mean it. Tonight he was aggressive. He’ll get another chance against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.” 

The four-game series, the first crucial one of the season, ends with a 12:35 p.m. businessman’s special today. Dick Ruthven, 5-3, will work for the home team against Eddie Solomon, 1-0.

Christenson Has Surgery

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pitcher Larry Christenson of the Philadelphia Phillies underwent surgery Wednesday to remove bone spurs and chips from his pitching elbow. 

Team physician Dr. Phillip Marone pronounced the surgery successful and said Christenson would remain in the hospital for another day or two. 

The operation was another in a series undergone by the right-hander in the last two years. Last season he broke a collarbone in a fall from a bicycle and later had a spur removed from his shoulder. 

As a result, he missed much of the 1979 season, posting a 5-10 record with a 4.50 earned run average. 

Christenson has been placed on the 60-day disabled list. If he pitches at all this year, it will be in the closing six weeks of the season. 

He had won three games without a loss to start the season before the elbow problem developed. Christenson is the second Phillies’ starter sidelined this season. Nino Espinosa has been out since the opening day of spring training with a bad shoulder.