This was originally posted on June 18, 2009.
In 1993 the Phillies pulled off a miraculous worst-to-first season and stunned the baseball world by clinching the National League pennant in six games over the heavily favored Atlanta Braves. Led my MVP candidate Lenny Dykstra, catcher Darren Daulton, first baseman John Kruk and an emerging ace pitcher in Curt Schilling the Phillies faced off with the defending World Series champions, the Toronto Blue Jays.
This World Series had a little bit of everything, from great hitting, clutch pitching (and not so clutch pitching) and of course, rain delays.
We continue our phlashback with a look at game three, played in Philadelphia.
1993 World Series
Philadelphia Phillies (97-65) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (95-67)
Game Three: Blue Jays Win 10-3, Take 2-1 Series Lead
The Phillies were anxious to get back to Veterans Stadium. With the World Series knotted at one against the defending champions there was reason to be optimistic with the next three games to be held in Veterans Stadium. That season the Phillies were 52-29 at the Vet.
Taking the mound for the Phillies was veteran Danny Jackson, who had shut out the Blue Jays in the 1985 American League Championship Series. It would be a totally different story on this rainy night. The prototypical lead off hitter Rickey Henderson got the Toronto offense started on the right foot, with a single to right field on a 2-2 count. Devon White followed with a walk and Paul Molitor hit a triple to give the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead before Phillies fans were ordering their first beer and hot dog on the night, or hot chocolate as I recall.
A Joe Carter sacrifice fly scored Molitor and the Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead in to the bottom of the first inning. Toronto starting pitcher Pat Hentgen struck out Lenny Dykstra and after giving up singles to Mariano Duncan and John Kruk, he struck out Dave Hollins and Darren Daulton, keeping the Phillies from putting any runs on the board in the first inning.
Paul Molitor struck again to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead in the third inning with a solo home run to left field. Toronto added one more run in the sixth inning to take a 5-0 lead and really deflating the Phillies fans in attendance for their first World Series game since 1983. Though a Jim Eisenreich single in the bottom of the sixth brought home John Kruk for the Phillies’ first run, the game was still well in hand of the visitors.
In the seventh inning Toronto once again built on their lead with a three run inning. Henderson lead off with a double off of Ben Rivera, and a Devon White triple pushed the lead to 6-1. Moliter drew a walk but Carter struck out. Roberto Alomar’s single then scored White to make it 7-1, Toronto. A sacrifice fly by Ed Sprague brought Molitor and the Toronto lead blossomed to 8-1.
A Mariano Duncan single scored Milt Thompson in the bottom of the inning but the Phillies were running out of at-bats. In the ninth inning the Blue Jays tacked on two more runs off of Phillies reliever Larry Anderson. Molitor started the final inning with a single, but was out at second on a force out on a ground ball by Carter. Alomar hit another triple for the Blue Jays, which scored Carter from first and a single by Tony Fernandez scored Alomar to cap off the night of explosive offense by the Blue Jays.
Down by eight runs at 10-2, the Phillies only had three outs to put together an improbable come-from-behind victory. Milt Thompson did what he could with a lead off home run to make it 10-3, but Toronto reliever Duan Ward retired Dykstra, Duncan and Kruk to end the game.
The Blue Jays had used the power of extra base hits to power their way to an important game three victory. The loss left some Phillies fans deflated, but the offense would pick things up a night later to give the Phillies a chance to tie things up in game four.
Original Story:
http://machorow.us/2010/06/27/189
