Even The Losers Went Home Smiling

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — In most games, the winners laugh and the losers weep.

Not so. after the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 12-10 Sunday.

Believe it or not, the Dodgers led this one 9-0 after 5½ innings. Some of the 34,027 fans on this bright, warm afternoon probably opted to watch the boats at the nearby waterfront.

But if they did, they missed the most explosive finish of many a ballgame.

The Phillies rallied in the sixth, seventh and eighth to tie the game 9-9 and almost send Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda into shock.

"It was exciting, interesting." said Lasorda, usually a man of more descriptive words to describe unusual situations.

"Do I look older than I did three hours ago?"* asked Lasorda. "I am. | feel it. I'm sitting in the dugout with a 9-0 lead, a pitcher trying for his third straight shutout. All of a sudden, I look up and it's 9-9 and I've used practically everybody I have. I think there ought to be a law disallowing a thing like that happening to managers."

Down the hall. Phillies manager Dallas Green looked like a guy who had won, not lost.

"I've been trying to build up character, so I've got to be pleased to see that kind of effort." Green said. "The easiest thing to do when you're losing 9-0 is just play out the game and go home.

"But all along, I felt we would score on him (Dodgers starter Dave Goltz)," Green said. "Maybe it sounds crazy, but I had the feeling we were going to score some runs.

"I worked like heck to keep the score down, but I couldn't do it." Green added referring to a bizarre incident that started the game. In the first inning with one run across, the Dodgers' Dusty Baker hit into a force play, scoring another run. But the umpires huddled on a Philadelphia appeal that Baker had batted out of turn.

The umpires finally agreed and declared Ron Cey, who should have been the batter, as an out and returned the runners to their original bases.

The appeal backfired, however.

Given a second chance to hit, Baker slammed one over the left field wall for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Dodger lead.

The Dodgers boosted their lead to 9-0 on Cey's double, Baker's second home run, singles by Bill Russell and Steve Yeager, a wild pitch, a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly.

Goltz had pitched two straight shutouts. He had worked 23 consecutive scoreless innings when the Phillies lit him up in the sixth.

Then, in the eighth, as the crowd howled, the Phillies tied it 9-9 when Rose walked, McBride singled. Both runners advanced on the throw to third and pinch-hitter John Vukovich came through with a two-run single.

But the Dodgers kept their poise. In the ninth, Derrel Thomas and Gary Thomasson singled. Steve Garvey fouled off two bunt attempts, then singled as outfielder Lonnie Smith misjudged a ball that should have been caught.

Thomas scored on a passed ball and rookie Mickey Hatcher doubled across two more to give Los Angeles a 12-9 lead.

The Phillies still had one run left in them in the ninth, but it wasn't enough to win this crazy game.

Phils Fast Finish Just Not Enough

By The Associated Press

The Philadelphia Phillies won the appeal, but lost the game.

Even at that, Manager Dallas Green wasn’t completely dissatisfied.

“I’ve been trying to build character, so I’ve got to be pleased to see that kind of effort,” Green said.  “The easiest thing to do when you’re losing 9-0 is just play out the game and go home.”

Despite a bizarre first inning which included a backfired appeal play that netted the Dodgers four runs, Green’s never-say-die team eventually came back to wipe out a nine-run deficit Sunday.

The Phillies fell short at the end, though, losing 12-10.

“I worked like heck to keep the score down, but I just couldn’t do it,” Green kidded, referring to that upside-down first inning which ultimately provided the Dodgers with their winning runs.

With one run across, the Dodgers’ Dusty Baker hit into a force play, scoring another run.  But Baker had batted out of turn in Ron Cey’s place and after the Phillies appealed, Cey was declared out and the runners sent back to their bases.

Given a second chance to hit, Baker belted one over the left field wall at Veterans Stadium for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Dodgers lead.

“It was exciting, interesting,” said Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda.

It wasn’t an easy game for him to take, however.

“Do I look older than I did three hour ago?” he asked rhetorically.  “I am.  I feel it.”

Elsewhere in the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates whipped the Atlanta Braves 13-4; the Houston Astros stopped the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2; the Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 and 5-4; the San Diego Padres beat the New York Mets 4-3 in the first game of a doubleheader before losing the nightcap 6-2, and the San Francisco Giants split a pair with the Montreal Expos, winning the opener 8-4 and losing the second game 6-4.

The Dodgers decided the game when Derrel Thomas scored in the ninth on a bases-loaded passed ball and Mickey Hatcher followed with a two-run double.

With the score tied 9-9, Thomas started the inning with a single and took second on a base hit by Gary Thomasson.  Steve Garvey then singled to load the bases before catcher Keith Moreland let one of reliever Dickie Noles’ pitches get by him.  That allowed Thomas to race home with the lead run, and Hatcher followed with his double.

Losing 9-0, the Phillies started their comeback when Greg Luzinski smashed a three-run homer in a four-run Philadelphia sixth.  They scored three more runs in the seventh and completed their rally with two runs in the eighth on John Vukovich’s two-run single.