Racing for the 1980 National League Pennant (pt. 2)

If, after their respective thrilling finishes in the two divisions of the 1980 National League , the Astros and Phillies anticipated any respite, they were sorely mistaken. That year’s NLCS went down in history as perhaps the most dramatic playoff series in baseball history.

In the first game, Houston sent Ken Forsch to the mound to face the Phillies’ Steve Carlton. Forsch had last pitched on October 3 in the series opener against Los Angeles. Then, he threw a complete game and allowed only three runs, but lost nonetheless. In the playoff opener, he was staked to an early 1-0 lead, and held it until the sixth inning, when Greg Luzinski came up with two outs and a man on first base. Luzinski worked Forsch for a full count, then lined an inside fastball into the seats in left, giving Philadelphia the lead. They tacked on an insurance run the following inning, and won the first game, 3-1. Again, Forsch had allowed only three runs in a complete game, and again, his teammates had failed to support him. For the Phillies, Cy Young winner Carlton went seven innings before turning the lead over to closer Tug McGraw for the save. It was the Phillies’ first home post-season victory since 1915.

The second game of the five-game series was also in Philadelphia, and the Phillies hoped to get a stranglehold with another win. Houston scored first on a third inning Terry Puhl single, but Philadelphia answered in the fourth with RBI doubles from Luzinski and Garry Maddox. The Astros tied it again in the top of the seventh, when starting pitcher Nolan Ryan singled and then scored from first on a Puhl double.

With the game tied, the Phillies proceeded to drive the hometown crowd to vein-popping frustration with a lamentable display of clutch hitting. From the seventh through tenth innings, Philadelphia had fifteen plate appearances with at least one man in scoring position, including four with the bases loaded. From these, they extracted only two runs. One came in the eighth, when the teams traded tallies. Bob Boone and pinch-hitter Del Unser each had opportunities with men on first and second, and each failed. In the bottom of the ninth, Manny Trillo and Maddox both came up with the bases loaded, and neither delivered a hit.

Having dodged a pistol full of bullets, the Astros proceeded to take the game in the top of the tenth. Jose Cruz and Cesar Cedeno both drove in runs before Dave Bergmann, in his first at-bat of the day, roped a triple into right field, scoring two more to put it out of reach and even the series. Houston’s Frank LaCorte got the win despite allowing four hits and a walk in his one inning of relief.

The Astros had home field advantage coming into the series, and now needed only two wins in three games at the Astrodome to advance. The first one came on the afternoon of October 10, Game Three, in front of 44,443 screaming Houstonites. The pitching duel between Houston’s Joe Niekro and Philadelphia’s Larry Christianson was the best of the series, to say the least. Neither man allowed a run in the ballgame—Niekro through ten innings, Christianson through six. Christianson labored through his start, but induced two key double plays to end the first and sixth inning, each with a man in scoring position. For his part, Niekro had a close call in the third. After two singles and a passed ball, he was facing Mike Schmidt with one out and men on second and third. After escaping a dangerous 3-1 count, the pitcher got Schmidt to hit a ball to the third baseman, who threw out Pete Rose at the plate. The next batter flied out, and the score remained at zero.

It was only in the 11th inning that one of the teams broke through, and in this case it was Houston. Leading off, Joe Morgan drilled a triple off the right field wall, causing reliever McGraw to intentionally walk the next two batters. Up to the plate stepped super-sub Denny Walling, who lofted a short fly ball into the domain of Phillies left fielder Greg Luzinski. With no outs in the inning, pinch-runner Rafael Landestoy decided to test Luzinki’s arm to the plate. The ensuing events were described after the game by disgusted Phillies manager Dallas Green: “How far did that fly go? 50-60 feet? Hell, Bull [Luzinski] wouldn’t have thrown him out from 45.”

Indeed, he didn’t; Landestoy scored, and the Astros won 1-0. To that point, it was only the fifth post-season extra-inning shutout in big league history. The most recent had come in Game One of the 1970 NLCS between the Reds and Pirates. It was also only the fifth time that consecutive games in a playoff series had gone into extra innings. For Houston, the upshot of all this was that it was only one victory away from the World Series.

If Game Three was big for the Astros, who finally proved themselves as a serious contender, Game Four was crucial for the Phillies. Baseball writers and fans, in Philadelphia and across the country, were deriding the team for its inability to win big games. The point was especially salient given their three consecutive NLCS losses in 1976-78. In this elimination game, however, the Phils finally broke through and gave their supporters something to believe in.

The match started poorly for the visitors, as Art Home and Landestoy knocked in Houston runs in the third and fourth innings. The Astros’ Vern Ruhle, pitching for the first time in the postseason, was lights out through seven innings, allowing five singles and no runs scored. In the top of the eighth inning, though, the Phillies finally got to him, with consecutive singles from Greg Gross, Lonnie Smith and Rose. This brought home one run to cut the lead in half, and Ruhle was pulled for reliever Dave Smith. The new hurler was greeted by Schmidt with a fourth single, scoring Smith and tying the game. Ace bullpen denizen Joe Sambito then took over the pitching duties, and after striking out Bake McBride, allowed a sacrifice fly that allowed Rose to race home for the go-ahead run.

The Astros fought back in the bottom of the ninth and tied the game, but still the Phillies were unperturbed. In the top of the tenth, Rose singled again and scored on Luzinski’s double, knocking catcher Bruce Bochy senseless in the process. Luzinski was himself driven in by Manny Trillo, and closer McGraw did his work in the bottom half of the inning. In Game Four, the two teams set a record by playing their third extra inning affair in a single series. More importantly, they were tied 2-2, with one game to decide it.

The turning point in Game Five came in the top of the eighth inning. The Phillies had blown an early 2-1 lead, and were losing 5-2, with only two sets of at-bats left. Houston’s Nolan Ryan was nearing the end of his evening, but had retired eight of the last nine men he’d faced. To lead off the eighth, though, he gave up singles to Larry Bowa, Bob Boone and Greg Gross, loading the bases. The batter was Pete Rose, and the count quickly moved to 3-2.

Up to that point, the two men—Ryan and Rose—had faced one another 37 times, resulting in 11 base hits, seven walks and only four strikeouts, which gives an on-base percentage of .486. This situation, however, was exceptional for several reasons. First, the Phillies’ recent poor performances with runners on base late in games were fresh in mind. Second, the game was in Houston, and Ryan had been stellar to that point. Third, the Phillies were down three runs with only six outs to play with.

No matter. After fouling off a pitch, Rose walked, bringing Bowa home to score. Ryan exited and Sambito came on once again. He induced a ground ball, but another run scored. Ken Forsch followed Sambito and struck out Schmidt, making two outs, but pinch-hitter Del Unser slapped a single into right field and, in a release of decades worth of pent-up Philadelphia angst, Manny Trillo followed with a triple, scoring two and taking the lead, 7-5.

But wait. Closer Tug McGraw, reliable up until that point, allowed four singles in the bottom of the eighth, which let the Astros tie the score again. Neither team scored in the ninth, and it was extra innings once more. No other series before or since has ever featured four extra inning games, and certainly not four in a row. In the top of the tenth, Unser was still in the game, and he smacked a double off Frank LaCorte. A batter later, there were two outs for Garry Maddox, but the Phillies were prone no more to late inning jitters—Maddox doubled himself, Unser scored, and Dick Ruthven closed it out in the bottom half of the inning. Phillies win.

Though only five games long, the series was truly epic, and featured amazing performances on both sides. For Houston, the pesky Terry Puhl was 10-19 with four runs scored, and Jose Cruz had nine hits in 15 at-bats. Philadelphia’s Rose reached base 13 times, including eight singles, and series hero Manny Trillo had eight hits himself. Tug McGraw appeared in all five games for the victors, while Houston’s Nolan Ryan and Joe Niekro got little for their efforts. The Phillies went on to beat the Royals 4-2 for their first ever championship; the Astros had to wait 25 more years for their first World Series appearance. If a series like the 1980 NLCS is ever played again, baseball fans will be fortunate indeed.

Sources: Sports Illustrated Vault and baseball-reference.com.