The Wheeze Kids: An 11 Game Run to the 1983 Pennant

Most Phillies fans of a certain age can remember that the 1983 Phillies, dubbed the "Wheeze Kids," won the 1983 National League pennant by first winning their division and then sweeping past the Los Angeles Dodgers three games to one in the National League Championship Series. What might be less well remembered is that 1983 was a year of turmoil for the Phillies and that a division championship was far from assured as late as the middle of September. The Phillies had underachieved all year. In July, despite the team having a winning record and being in the pennant hunt, President Bill Giles fired manager Pat Corrales and replaced him with the then general manager Paul Owens. 

The change had little immediate impact. The team, a combination of the players still left from the 1980 world championship (Schmidt, Carlton, Maddox) and the remnants of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine (Morgan, Perez, Rose) of the 1970s, was simply not hitting and appeared to be showing its age. Thirty-nine-year-old Joe Morgan was hitting .201 and struggling on bad knees. Forty-two-year-old Pete Rose was hitting .248 and had been relegated to a pinch-hitting role. Forty-one-year-old Tony Perez was buried on the bench. Catcher Bo Diaz was hitting .227. Garry Maddox was platooning in centerfield. Leftfielder Gary Mathews was slumping. Even Mike Schmidt, who continued to hit home runs and drive in runs, was hitting just .252, and was complaining to the press about a lack of leadership on the team. 

The pitching of Steve Carlton, rookie Charles Hudson, and especially John Denny, along with a bullpen of Al Holland, Ron Reed, Willie Hernandez, and Larry Anderson was keeping the team afloat. On September 15, the Phillies were tied for first place and in a four-way dog fight with Pittsburgh, Montreal, and St. Louis for the divisional crown. On that date in St. Louis, the Phillies who had started hitting as September dawned, went on an eleven-game winning streak that left no doubt who would be the division champion. Here is how it happened.

September 16: The Phillies begin their streak with an unusual 13-inning walk-off win over the Cardinals. Charles Hudson goes eight strong innings, and Holland and Hernandez throw five innings of shutout relief. The Phils score two runs to tie the game in the eighth on a Bruce Sutter error. They then score the winning run in the 13th on a leadoff walk to Mike Schmidt, a Kiko Garcia sacrifice bunt, and two wild pitches by Cardinal reliever Steve Baker. The gift victory seems to jump start the Phils.

September 17: John Denny is the story on this Saturday afternoon game as he wins his 16th of the year, allowing only one unearned run. Al Holland earns his 20th save with a scoreless ninth inning. Gary Mathews hits his 10th homerun and drives in two. Greg Gross has two hits extending his hitting streak to eight games.

September 18: Mike Schmidt and Joe Lefebvre hit back-to-back homers to support Steve Carlton in a 5-3 Sunday afternoon win over the Cardinals. It is Lefty's 14th win of the season and the 299th of his career. Lefebvre had come over to the Phillies in May in a trade with the San Diego Padres and made considerable contributions all season, hitting a career best .310 and even filling in as an emergency catcher on occasion. 

September 19: The Phillies host the Cubs at Veterans Stadium and come from behind for a 7-6 victory. On his 40th birthday, Joe Morgan is the hitting star, going four-for-five with two home runs and four RBIs. His homer off closer Lee Smith in the eighth is the margin of victory. Shortstop Ivan DeJesus contributes a bases loaded double to the cause. DeJesus is in his second year with the Phillies after coming over in the infamous trade that sent Larry Bowa and Ryne Sandberg to the Cubs. Both Bowa and Sandberg are in the Cubs lineup. Anderson, Hernandez, Reed, and Holland contribute 3 2/3 innings of one run relief behind Marty Bystrom.

September 20: Joe Morgan goes four-for-five for the second night in a row, this time driving in three, as the Phillies beat the Cubs 8-5. Sixto Lezcano, platooning with LeFebvre in right, contributes a double, a single, and an RBI. Garry Maddox has three singles. Ron Reed earns his seventh save.

September 22, Game 1: After a rain out on September 21, the Phillies face a double header in Montreal against the Expos. In the first game, John Denny wins his 17th without his best stuff as the Phillies outhit the Expos, 9-7. The Phillies use 18 players in the game and virtually all contribute to a game that has everything. The streaking Morgan has three doubles, September call-up Len Matuszek has a two-run single, Lefebvre, who gunned down a runner at the plate in the first, has a three-run triple. Schmidt and DeJesus homer. Backup catcher Ozzie Virgil slams a two-run pinch hit dinger in the eighth for the game winner. Holland earns his 23rd save.

September 22, Game 2: In the second game, Charles Hudson shuts down the Expos 7-1 for his eighth win of the season. Greg Gross has three hits and Matuszek drives in two more. With the doubleheader sweep, the Phillies are three games in front of the Pirates in the division race.

September 23: The Phillies travel to St. Louis and Carlton earns the 300th win of his career, 6-2. Carlton allows seven hits and strikes out 12 over eight innings of work. He even drives in a run with a single. Holland comes in for the save. Carlton, true to form, does not speak to the press after the game. The win reduces the Phillies magic number to six.

September 24: The Phillies score five runs in the top of the ninth inning off Cardinals closer Bruce Sutter to earn a come from behind 9-6 win. Von Hayes, who had come over from Cleveland in the infamous 5-for-1 trade in December, begins the ninth with a pinch single and Matuszek doubles him home. Greg Gross reaches on a Sutter error that scores pinch runner Bob Dernier. Rose singles driving in Gross and then Schmidt caps the inning off with a two-run homerun, his 39th. The dynamic trio of Hernandez, Reed, and Holland close out the game with 4 2/3 innings of relief.

September 25: The Phillies win their tenth in a row with in a ten-inning thriller in St. Louis. Manager Owens uses twenty-one players in the game, including September callup Darren Daulton, who makes his major league debut by coming on to catch in the bottom of the tenth inning. Pete Rose has the game winning hit as a pinch hitter in the 10th. Larry Andersen gets the win and Holland records his 24th save on a night he was supposed to be rested.

September 26: The Phillies ride the right arm of John Denny to their eleventh win in a row, a 5-2 victory at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. Denny goes eight strong and Ron Reed picks up the save. DeJesus, Matuszek, and LeFebvre all contribute home runs. The win guarantees the Phillies at least a tie for the National League East crown.

The winning streak ends the next day when the Cubs' Steve Trout shuts the Phillies and Carlton out 3-0. The Phillies' division championship is a foregone conclusion by then, however, and they clinch the title with a 13-6 trouncing of the Cubs the next day.

Looking back at the streak what stands out is the contributions of the whole team to this run of victories. Joe Morgan, who had struggled all year, caught fire and went 16-for-44, .363 during the streak. Role players like Greg Gross, Joe Lefebvre, Sixto Lezcano, and Ozzie Virgil made key contributions. Ivan DeJesus was, in the words of the Philadelphia Inquirer, "indispensable." September callup Len Matuszek had numerous critical hits as well. Denny and Carlton were terrific, of course, but so were the bullpen trio of Hernandez, Reed, and Holland, who pitched nearly every day throughout the streak. Larry Andersen, who was called up at the end of July, also pitched well down the stretch. 

At the end of the season a team that had seemed to fight itself all year gelled into a team and went into the off season with tremendous momentum. That momentum sustained them through the National League Championship series against the Dodgers and then faltered against Eddie Murray, Rick Dempsey, and the American League pennant winning Baltimore Orioles in the World Series, but that is a story for another day.