Phils nip Expos, up lead to 1½

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – More than 50,000 fans were on their feet, stomping, cheering, screaming for a small miracle. The first in a series of September showdowns between the Phillies and the Montreal Expos had gone into the bottom of the ninth tied.

And those thousands of fans, who had politely watched from the edges of their Veterans Stadium seats, were now vocally demanding a hero to step forward.

The Phillies' Bake McBride, the ninth's first hitter, heard them and – for a moment – was distracted. "The crowd was so loud," he later said, "I almost wished they would be more quiet so I could concentrate."

BUT THE DIN only swelled when McBride stroked David Palmer's first pitch over the right field wall for a home run that gave the Phillies a dramatic 2-1 victory over Montreal. The homer touched off an emotional celebration that had not been seen in this town in years.

Even when the Phillies were winning three straight National League East Division championships from 1976-78, they did it almost clinically. Emotion was something not associated with this club. But the Phils last night were as emotional as a team that had just clinched a pennant.

They have not, of course. The victory puts them in the driver's seat, 1½ games ahead of the Expos, but nine games still remain and five of them are with Montreal.

The numbers, however, do not detract from the magic of the evening. McBride merely provided the climax. Before him, pitchers Dick Ruthven and Tug McGraw had been superb, and Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, Manny Trillo and Greg Luzinski had all turned in outstanding plays in the field.

STILL, THE night belonged to McBride. "I went up there looking for a breaking ball – and I got it," he said. "I hit it good and went into my home run trot. Then I realized the wind was blowing in. That's when I took off. I really would've been embarrassed if I had ended up on second base on that ball."

McBride instead happily completed his home run trot and was greeted at the plate by a mob of joyous teammates. The party hardly ended there. Well after McBride had gone into the clubhouse, the fans were still on their feet, still applauding, demanding that McBride make a curtain call.

Manager Dallas Green was the one who told McBride of the fans' demands. But McBride would have none of the hero's role... unless his teammates accompanied him back to the field.

"No way I go back unless we all go," McBride told Green.

AND SO THEY went, the entire team, and stood in the shadows of the dugout as McBride stepped onto the field and acknowledged his ovation.

"I have seen our team try to be emotional and it wasn't us," said McGraw. "It was what people expected us to be. But the emotion this team has shown lately has been sincere."

McGraw retired all six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth to get credit for his fourth win of the year, second in three days. McGraw, the foundation of the Phillies' bullpen, now has had a hand in four of the club's last six wins.

"Tug's strong," said Green. "I don't know where he's getting it from, but he's throwing like he'll never need a rest."

RUTHVEN, TOO, produced one of the finest games of his season. The righthander one-hit the Expos for the first 5⅔ innings before allowing Jerry White a double and Rodney Scott an RBI single.

Scott's single was a ground ball in the shortstop hole that Larry Bowa should have stopped. Green, in fact, later said he thought the play should have been scored an error. But Bowa, who probably would not have had a play at first anyway, was in position to stop the ball. It simply skipped between his glove and his foot.

The run did no more than tie the game because center fielder Garry Maddox had put the Phillies up with a two-out homer to the seats in left-center in the second.

Ruthven had one more close shave in the seventh, Andre Dawson sandwiching a double between two outs. With first base open, Ruthven intentionally walked lefthander Warren Cromartie to pitch to Larry Parrish, a righthander.

"I STARTED him off with a fastball inside that he fouled straight back," said Ruthven. "That told me that he was looking for a fastball there."

So Ruthven threw Parrish a succession of breaking balls, working the count to 3-2. It was then that Ruthven made his best pitch of the game, freezing Parrish with a fastball that caught the outside corner for a called third strike.

"We needed one about then," Ruthven said.

Those same words could apply well to McBride's climactic home run.

PHIL UPS – Game-and-a-half lead is Phillies' biggest of season... They are 17-8 this month, 10-2 in one-run games... McGraw has four wins and three saves out of the 17 wins... Homer was McBride's 14th game-winning RBI of the season, giving him the club lead over Schmidt... McBride needs one more home run to become the only National League player in double figures in extra-base hits... Phils have won seven of their last 10 home games... They've won three straight by scores of 1-0, 2-1 and 2-1... Steve Carlton opposes Scott Sanderson this afternoon.

McBride’s HR in 9^th Gives Phils Big Opportunity

Philadelphia 2, Montreal 1

By Howard Gottlieb, Press Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Opportunity knocked not once, but three times on the Philadelphia Phillies door. Dick Ruthven invited it in, and after the rest of the Phillies tried to scare it away, Bake McBride yanked it back in dramatic fashion.

McBride used some not-so-gentle persuasion – a first lead-off homer to right — off Montreal's Dave Palmer in the bottom of the ninth. That gave the Phils a 2-1 win over the Expos before 50,887 at Veterans Stadium, and a 1½-game lead over Montreal in the National League East race.

"If you look at stat sheets," said Philly Manager Dallas Green, "you'll see Schmidty's (Mike Schmidt's) numbers, and they may overshadow what Bake has done for us. But Bake deserves a lot of the credit for getting us where we are today."

All week, the Phils had see-sawed with the Expos for the top spot in the Division, but retook the edge Thursday night by edging the New York Mets 2-1 while Montreal lost in Chicago.

Now the Phils have some breathing room and can go for more this afternoon at 2:15 when Steve Carlton goes for win number 24 against Scott Anderson.

"At this stage of the game, physical ability has already been proven on the field," said winning pitcher Tug McGraw, 4-4, who retired all six Expos faced after coming on for Ruthven in the top of the eighth to get the win. "Now it's mental ability all the way. That'll give us the title."

Enthusiasm among the Phillies is about as rare as Larry Bowa home runs. Game-winning home runs, however, bring out the child in everyone, and the Phillies piled on top of McBride as he ran the bases following his ninth round tripper of the haven't year.

“In the past, we haven’t been the most emotional ball club around,' said Green. "But when you win games like this one, and react the way the guys did, it just goes to show that we want to, and were ready to win."

It didn't seem like emotion would play any major role last night. Besides a leadoff walk to Rowland Office in the first, Ruthven was cutting down Expos like a right-handed Carlton clone.

Office was eliminated by a double play in the first, and forced out in the fourth after getting the first hit off Ruthven, a single up the middle.

"I couldn't be prouder of Rufus," said Green. "What saw out there was a guts performance."

The Phillies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Garry Maddox won the Greg Luzinski hit-alike contest by blasting his first pitch off Palmer, 7-6, to the Bull Ring sign in left for his 11th homer.

Larry Bowa followed with a single, and went to second on a balk but died there.

"The Expos have been on top for a while this year," said Maddox, "and we can't rely on them folding under the pressure. We just have to come out and play strong and that's all I was thinking when I saw that pitch."

With Ruthven in control, it appeared as if the Phillies' lead would hold up. Only Jerry White blasted a long double in the sixth to put the Expos in scoring position for the first time in the game.

Rodney Scott smashed a grounder to Bowa, who got to the ball but failed to put his glove low enough to stop it, or even slow it down. White charged home with the tying run.

"I think they should have called that play an error," said Green. "It may have been a single, but the run never should have scored. Bowa would have normally caught that ball. I think he was certain he was going to catch it, but the ball just got by him." The win nearly did, too.

Dawson doubled to deep center in the top of the seventh with one out. Green ordered Warren Cromartie walked and let Ruthven take his chances with Larry Parrish, who had popped out to the infield in his first two at-bats. After two long fouls, Ruthven caught Parrish looking at strike three. In came McGraw, and out went the Expos.

"Rufus struggled that one inning," said Green. "I didn't want to see that, so I made the change. The pitcher was coming up second the next inning, and I was planning to bunt, so I wasn't worried about having to pull Tugger right away.

"I'll tell you, Tugger's really strong lately. I don't know where he gets it from. We had to win this game, and he went for it for us."

McGraw said the situation was tailor-made.

"Our two teams are nose-to-nose in ability,” said McGraw. "Both clubs' hitters were out there really trying to make it happen, and that's good for pitchers, especially in situations like tonight. Their pitcher made one or two bad mistakes. We made some, but we got away with them.”