The Phillies' triumphant '93 pennant season certainly saw its fair share of memorable victories, but surely ranking up there towards the top would be when they hosted the Dodgers at the Vet on July 7th, 1993. Behind home runs from centerfielder Lenny Dykstra and first baseman John Kruk, a strong start from Terry Mulholland (7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K), the Phillies were leading 5-3 through eight innings. Closer Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams was called on for the save, but as he was often wont to do, he made things a little more dramatic than they had to be, loading the bases on two free passes and a single before walking Cory Snyder to bring the Dodgers within 5-4. Williams was replaced by Larry Andersen, who allowed the tying run to come in on an Eric Karros single, before retiring the next three batters to get out of the inning. The Phils were set down in order in the bottom of the ninth. And then things got interesting.
For the next ten innings--that's more than an entire extra baseball game, you know--nobody scored. The Dodgers loaded the bases in the top of the 12th, before shortstop Jose Offerman popped one up. The Phillies had runners on second and third in the bottom of the 17th, before shortstop Kevin Stocker ended the inning on a groundout. The Dodgers used five pitchers in the extras, including ex-Phillie Roger McDowell and a then-rookie Pedro Martinez. The Phils only used three pitchers for the bonus baseball, getting an entire quality start's worth out of Mike Williams, who went five scoreless innings before finally giving up an unearned run in the top of the 20th, when Offerman scored on an error by third baseman Kim Batiste. However, the Phillies answered back in the bottom of the inning, as rightfielder Jim Eisenreich and second baseman Mickey Morandini led off with singles, got moved over on a Stocker bunt, and got cashed in on a two-out ground rule double by Dykstra. Final score: Phillies 7, Dodgers 6.
The win would move the Phillies to 56-29 for the year, good for first place in the NL East, which they had a firm grasp on for most of the year and would hold onto for the remainder of the season. The game was the first of shortstop Kevin Stocker's major league career, and he played the entire game, going an uninspiring 0-6 with two walks and a run. Stocker would nonetheless remain the starting shortstop for the majority of the second half of the Phils' season, into the post-season, and stayed in that position for Philly until he was traded to Tampa Bay after the 1997 season, for an up-and-coming outfielder named Bobby Abreu.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/07/to...
