Lenny Dykstra wasted no time kicking things off at the SkyDome, singling up the middle against Guzman and then being gunned down at second by Pat Borders attempting to swipe the next bag. Matters were otherwise quiet through the first three innings, but Dykstra took four wide ones to begin the 4th and this kickstarted the scoring as Mariano Duncan followed with another free pass, and then John Kruk singled home the first score of the contest. After Dave Hollins erased Kruk on a 63 double play, Darren Daulton doubled Duncan to the dish and the Phillies had a 2-0 lead. They doubled this an inning later when Stocker hit for two bases with two outs, Dykstra walked, Duncan reached on a Tony Fernandez error, Guzman uncorked a wild pitch and Kruk singled to right. Schilling's early-inning cruise through the Toronto order began to come apart slightly in the home 6th - John Olerud singled with one away and scored on a Fernandez triple, with the Jays SS also coming across when Ed Sprague singled to right. When that line drive went under Jim Eisenreich's glove and rolled all the way to the RF wall, Sprague steamed around the bases before running out of gas at the final milepost and being put out at the plate. With a wearying Schilling lifted after six fine innings, Toronto got even almost immediately as Roberto Alomar led off the 8th with a base hit and Joe Carter followed him with a blast out of the yard off of David West to make it 4-4. The game went to extra innings, and the Blue Jays looked to end it in the 10th with Phils closer Mitch Williams on the hill - with two out, Paul Molitor doubled and Fernandez looped one onto the outfield grass in left, but TOR 3B coach Rich Hacker was forced to slam on the brakes for the potential game-winning run. That brought Sprague to the plate, but he could only watch with frustration when Williams' fastball caught the outside corner for the third strike that ended the inning. A leadoff double by Borders in the 11th also came to nought, and it was then Philadelphia's turn to do some business in the 12th. With one out, Dykstra drew his fourth walk of the game, and Duncan then roped one down the line for two bases and a run that gave PHI the lead. One out later, Hollins singled in a second and (of all people) Ben Rivera was asked to end the parade of pitchers when handed the ball for the bottom of the 12th with the game on the line. Carter led off the inning with another homer, and Fernandez singled to put the tying run on board with one out, but Sprague and Randy Knorr failed to advance him beyond second base at the expense of the final two outs and the Phillies had won an instant Series classic and taken the first skin of the match. Philadelphia 6-13-1, Toronto 5-18-2. [scoresheet]
After a Game One in which eleven pitchers were used, neither team needed an early exit from their starting pitcher, and only one team got their wish. The Blue Jays sent twelve men to the plate in the bottom of the 3rd, pounding Terry Mulholland without mercy for eight runs on eight hits including homers from Rickey Henderson and Carter, and the Phils were back into their pen before the end of the inning. Three more Jays scored in the 4th and it got as lopsided as 14-3 through seven innings before Philadelphia tacked on a few garbage-time tallies to close within a touchdown and a two-point conversion at the final whistle. Molitor had five hits and Henderson knocked in four for the Jays, while Pete Incaviglia had an aluminum-bat day (4-for-5 with a double and triple) for the Phils. The travel day could not come at a more opportune time for the National Leaguers, with their already-thin relief corps in tatters after the first two games, and they'll need some effective innings from Danny Jackson in Game Three. Toronto 14-21-2, Philadelphia 5-11-1. [scoresheet]
On the road, the Jays looked to start out aggressively. Alomar walked to start the 2nd, stole second base, and scored on Fernandez's triple. One out later, Tony broke for home on a tapper back to the mound and Jackson pegged him at the plate to quash the rally after only a single score. This was quickly overcome by the Phils when Incaviglia launched one out with Daulton aboard in the bottom half, and Dykstra did likewise behind a Jackson walk in the 3rd to make it 4-1 for the home club. This held until the 6th inning when Toronto put together four singles (three after two men were out), a walk, and a steal to score three times and tie the game on Devon White's RBI hit. In the 7th, their aggressiveness continued to pay off - Carter reached on a Hollins fumble, stole second, and scored on a Fernandez single to give TOR the lead. With Danny Cox on in the 8th for the Blue Jays to play set up man for Duane Ward, Daulton suddenly turned the game around with two outs and a man on first by muscling out a home run which put the Phillies in front by a notch. That brought the Wild Thing onto the slab for the top of the 9th, and he was promptly touched by Molitor for a double to left-center to start things off; when Carter drove the next pitch to the base of the wall in right for the first out, it looked as if the ride would be a typically bumpy one for Williams but he got Alomar and Fernandez to ground out routinely and put away Philly's second 6-5 win of the Series. Philadelphia 6-6-1, Toronto 5-11-1. [scoresheet]
The Veterans Stadium throng was pumped for the first pitch after last evening's late comeback, and Toronto again looked to respond with pressure on the base paths. Henderson singled to start the game, stole second, moved to third on White's fly ball and scored when Greene screwed a 55-foot breaking ball past Daulton's glove to the backstop. Olerud led off the 2nd with a walk, moved up on a groundout and scored when Fernandez singled, and it had suddenly become much quieter inside the ballpark than it had been just thirty minutes prior. Quieter became just plain quiet in the 4th, as Greene put one into White's hip to start the inning, allowed a single to Alomar, and then hit Carter in the ribs to load the bases with none out. West came on to get Olerud to ground out at the cost of a run, but Molitor followed with a two-run single. In the 5th, quiet progressed to deathly silence as Rivera walked three and threw two wild pitches to help Toronto cross the ten-run mark, and the stands were largely empty when Tony Castillo retired the side in the bottom of the 9th. With another game to go before the off day, the Phils had run through the available arms again and Game Five in an even Series was looking like an uphill battle before it began. Toronto 10-13-0, Philadelphia 2-6-0. [scoresheet]
The first things Philadelphia was looking for this evening was a strong kickoff from Schilling. This, they did not get - two doubles in the 1st put Toronto on top like a flash, Fernandez homered in the 2nd, Carter in the 3rd and it was 4-0 for the Jays within the hour. Faced with a pen full of fatigued arms, Jim Fregosi had little choice but to ride the horse he rode in on, and Schilling managed to steady the ship with a 123 inning in the 5th. This appeared to to give the Phils a jolt - Duncan led off the home 5th with a single, Kruk reached on Alomar's miscue, Hollins singled home the first Philly run and then Daulton sent the crowd into apoplexy with a colossal three-run shot into the night that erased the early deficit completely. Now Schill had the bit well and truly between his teeth, striking out four of the final seven men he faced before departing in the 8th and, by that point, he had the lead. Daulton did it again in the 6th, with a high fly that settled into seats for the go-ahead score, and Dysktra's leadoff walk turned into an insurance run in the 7th on Kruk's RBI hit (although Duncan was later gunned down at the plate by White attempting to tag up for another). When Schilling came out with one on and one out in the 8th inning, the already-fatigued West could not get out of the inning allowing a force out and a double that out the tying tuns in scoring position, so Williams had to be called on for a potential four -out save. The lefty got the hot-hitting Fernandez to ground to Stocker to end the inning and then retired the side in the 9th on one hit to secure the win to give the Phillies the lead in the Series. Philadelphia 6-11-1, Toronto 4-10-1. [scoresheet]
A tense, tight atmosphere at SkyDome on a Saturday evening as the Jays look to survive at home and the Phils hand the pill to Mulholland and his 27.00 Series ERA. For only the second time in the Series, neither team can put a mark on the scorecard in the first three innings, although the Jays briefly posed a threat in the 2nd, putting two on with none out before Fernandez slapped into a twin killing. The tension continued to build as the zeroes piled up - TOR got two two-out singles in the 4th but couldn't score, while Stewart was ripping through the Phillie order like a flashback to his glory days in Oakland five years ago, retiring twelve of thirteen at one stretch - before there was finally narrative movement in the 7th. Daulton took a close ball four on a full count from Stewart to start the 7th (and end the day for Smoke), but Castillo came on to handle the lefties Eisenreich and Thompson for the first two outs as Daulton moved to second. Eichhorn. who had tossed three scoreless frames thus far in the Series, came on to face Stocker with the pitcher's spot next and Cito Gaston decided to pitch to the shortstop (5-for-20 in the Series) rather than put another run aboard for a pinch-hitter. Stocker made that hurt, grounding one through the left side for a base hit that chased Daulton across for the first run of the game; the Phillies had a lead, but did they have the arms to hold on? Mulholland, with a four-hitter through six, gave up a leadoff single to Alomar and then departed after Fernandez had sacrificed him to second base. Andersen got Sprague to fly out to Carter in right and then blew a third strike past Borders to leave Robby standing at second. The Phillies knew their chance had come to grab the Series by the scruff of the neck, and they took it - with one out Dykstra and Duncan doubled in succession to pad the advantage and Hollins delivered an RBI single with two outs to make it a 3-0 game. Andersen harnessed his fumes to get through the 8th with only a two-out Molitor single, and Williams again was called upon for the final outs. Olerud grounded out to short, Alomar watched a piece of high cheese slice through the top of the strike zone, and Fernandez swung a week late on a heater down the middle to give Philadelphia what, only a couple of days ago, had seemed an improbable championship. Philadelphia 3-9-0, Toronto 0-6-0. [scoresheet]
What a crazy, unpredictable Series - Toronto scores twenty-four runs on thirty-four hits in two games, hits .331 as a team for the Series, and loses by a grand total of seven runs in the other four. The Phillies pitching staff allows more than a hundred baserunners in 56 innings, find itself with nowhere to turn to for innings other than guys like Ben Rivera and Roger Mason on numerous occasions as everyone else is gassed by blowouts and extra innings, and yet they find a way as Schilling and then Mulholland step in the final two games to both get outs and keep the second-tier guys on the bech where they belonged. Perhaps the most critical stretch of the Series was the 4th through 7th innings of Game Five - Schilling and the Phils are reeling, down 4-0 after only nine outs in the swing game of the Series and faced with the prospect of yet again having to throw the middle relief corps in there against Alomar/Olerud/Molitor/Carter, and the right-hander proceeds to set down thirteen of the next fifteen while his teammates climb back into the game on offense. [Series stats]
Phillies C Darren Daulton (278/519/833) led all hitters in homers, RBI and walks, was second in runs scored and had the game-winning RBI in two of the four Phillie victories. Dykstra (seven walks, .500 OBP, seven runs) certainly set the table, but Daulton carved up the Jays.
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