World Series Phlashback: 1983—Game Five
June 21, 2009 by kevin mcguire
Filed under Fan News
The 1983 Phillies, nicknamed the “Wheeze Kids” for their average player age of 32, were fueled by a mini reunion of The Big Red Machine with Pete Rose, Tony Perez, and Joe Morgan.
Lead by MVP Mike Schmidt the Phillies pulled away from the Pittsburgh Pirates for the NL East division championship in September and then got revenge on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
Waiting for the Phillies in the 1983 World Series was a very tough Baltimore Orioles squad. With a young Cal Ripken Jr. and players like Eddie Murray, both of whom finished one-two in the AL MVP voting (Ripken edges Murray), the Orioles had eliminated the Chicago White Sox to advance to their first World Series since 1979, where the Orioles blew a thee games to one lead on Pittsburgh to lose the championship in seven games.
We conclude our phlashback with a look at game three, played in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Phillies (90-72) vs. Baltimore Orioles (98-64)
Game Five: Orioles win 5-0, Win World Series 4-1
Looking to hold off elimination and send the World Series back to Baltimore, the Phillies sent out game two starting pitcher Charles Hudson. While the pitching staff of the National League champions had done a decent job in shutting down the heavy hitters on Baltimore, game five was a different story.
Entering game five having gone 2-for-16, Orioles first baseman Eddie Murray lead off the second inning with a solo home run. The solo shot to right field would wind up being the game winning, and World Series clinching, run as the Phillies failed to score in the deciding game. Murray’s home run was the first of two he would hit on the night.
Rick Dempsey increased the lead to 2-0 with a lead off home run in the third inning. Murray struck again with a two run home run in the fourth inning, following a walk to Cal Ripken Jr. Baltimore tacked on a fourth run in the fifth inning when Dempsey scored on a sacrifice fly.
Down 5-0 the Phillies had a lot of runs to catch up on in a short amount of time. Gary Maddox lead off the bottom of the fifth with a single and Bo Diaz followed with a walk. Ivan DeJesus though grounded into a double play and pinch hitter Juan Samuel flied out to end the inning.
Offensively the Phillies could not muster more than one base runner in the next three innings, stranding each to keep the shut out in tact. In the ninth inning Orioles starting pitcher Scott McGregor went for the complete game shut out and the World Series clincher.
Gary Matthews and Tony Perez each flied out. Gary Maddox lined out. The Phillies had lost the World Series.
For the aging Phillies they had been kept in check by the outstanding pitching from the Orioles staff. Only Joe Morgan had much success against the Orioles. Mike Schmidt went 3-for-18 in the World Series. To their credit though the Phillies did their job against the Baltimore batters for the most part.
Losing in five games can be demoralizing. This team was put together though to try and make one final push with the remaining pieces form the 1980 world championship team, bringing in veterans from the infamous Big Red Machine of the ’70s… It just did not quite work out.
For the Phillies it would be ten years before the franchise won another division title and earned a berth in the World Series. The elusive world championship would come fifteen years later in 2008 when the Phillies knocked off the Tampa Bay Rays in five games themselves, using a formula similar to the Orioles; better pitching.
For Baltimore another trip to the World Series still eludes the Orioles. In 1996 Baltimore fans still contend that they would have won their ALCS match-up against the Yankees if not for a young fan reaching for a live ball, a ball that was called a home run by the umpire despite replays clearly showing fan interference.
The 1997 Orioles seemed destined for an American League championship, but a surprising Cleveland Indians team had World Series plans of their own.