April 13, 2003: Phillies score 13 runs in fourth inning to win in a landslide over Reds

In the early 2000s, Major League Baseball was in the midst of a 20-year period of ballpark construction, as older multipurpose stadiums were being replaced by retro-classic, baseball-only stadiums. The era began in 1992 with Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and concluded in 2012 when LoanDepot Park in Miami opened its gates.1

Great America Ballpark in Cincinnati, the 12th of 20 new stadiums built during the boom era, officially opened its doors on March 31, 2003, when the Reds hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates for Opening Day.2 On April 13, in the ninth game in its sparkling new ballpark, Cincinnati played the Philadelphia Phillies in the Sunday rubber match of a three-game series.

The Reds faced a revamped Philadelphia lineup that was bolstered by two major offseason additions. General manager Ed Wade, aggressively trying to improve the Phillies in advance of their own move into a new ballpark in 2004, had offered free-agent contracts to Atlanta Braves left-handed starter Tom Glavine, San Francisco Giants third baseman David Bell,and Cleveland Indians first baseman Jim Thome.3

Glavine chose to sign with the New York Mets, but Bell inked a four-year deal to replace Scott Rolen, whom the Phillies had dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in July 2002. Thome, after much consideration, left Cleveland after 12 seasons to sign a six-year deal with Philadelphia.

Third-year skipper Larry Bowa selected left-hander Randy Wolf to start for the visiting Phillies. Bowa had guided the 2001 Phillies to their first winning record since capturing the National League pennant in 1993, but in 2002 the team fell below .500. Philadelphia was counting on its newly enhanced lineup to propel the team back to a winning record.

Wolf breezed through the Reds in the first three innings. He struck out four of the 10 batters he faced; the only blemish was a one-out, first-inning walk to Aaron Boone—son of Cincinnati manager Bob Boone, a Phillie from 1972 through 1981.

Philadelphia was facing 25-year-old right-hander Ryan Dempster, starting his third game of the season and his 18th for the Reds since joining the club in a July 2002 trade with the Florida Marlins. In the top of the first, second baseman Plácido Polanco doubled with one out but was stranded when Bobby Abreu and Thome grounded out. In the second, Dempster struck out Pat Burrell, then retired Bell and Mike Lieberthal on popups to first baseman Sean Casey.

The Phillies threatened in the top of the third but failed to score. Rookie center fielder Marlon Byrd reached second on shortstop Felipe López’s throwing error. Wolf pushed a bunt in front of the plate. Catcher Jason LaRue fired to third, but Byrd beat the throw as Wolf reached first.

With runners at the corners and no outs, Jimmy Rollins took a called third strike, and the runners held. Polanco hit a flyball to center field, and Rubén Mateo gloved it as Byrd dashed for home. LaRue fielded the throw on one bounce and tagged Byrd out as the two players collided. Byrd limped back to the dugout with a gash in his left knee that, Byrd said, required so many stitches, “They ran out [of stitches].”4

An inning later, however, everything clicked for the Phillies. Abreu began the fourth-inning explosion by working a full-count walk, then advanced to second on Thome’s line-drive single to right. Burrell lined a double to deep left that plated Abreu with the first run. Thome, who scampered to third on the double, scored on Bell’s grounder to second.

Lieberthal popped to second, but Ricky Ledee, who had replaced Byrd in center, was intentionally walked to bring Wolf to the plate. Wolf worked the count in his favor and pulled a single to right, driving in Burrell with the third run.

 “Wolfie’s at-bat was the key to that inning,” Ledee said after the game.5

Rollins, who had struck out twice earlier, walked to load the bases. Polanco and Abreu walked, and Thome singled up the middle, driving in two to expand the lead to 7-0. Dempster’s day was finished, and Scott Sullivan took over.

Sullivan walked Burrell to load the bases, then walked Bell to force home Abreu. Lieberthal’s single plated two more runs, making the score 10-0 and closing the books on Dempster. Charged with nine earned runs, Dempster’s ERA rose from 2.30 to 6.05. Asked about his outing after the game, he said, “I wanted to go over to Bowa and ask for a do-over.”6

Ledee stepped in and drove Sullivan’s second pitch into the Reds bullpen for a three-run homer.

“I just didn’t want to be the last out,” Ledee quipped later.7

Wolf struck out swinging and the inning reached a merciful end. Sixteen batters came to the plate and manufactured 13 runs on six hits and seven walks. “Yeah, it bothers me,” Bowa said. “Boonie and I were teammates for a long time. But I don’t like to see that happen to any manager.”8

Wolf headed back to the mound and continued his masterful pitching. Facing the heart of Cincinnati’s lineup, he retired Boone on a pop fly, Casey on a fly to center, and Austin Kearns on a strikeout.

Veteran lefty Gabe White replaced Sullivan in the top of the fifth and calmed the storm. Polanco drilled his second double of the game with one out, but no other Philadelphia batter reached base through the sixth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Wolf lost both his no-hitter and shutout. Adam Dunn grounded a lead-off single to center, and after Brandon Larson struck out, Mateo stroked a line-drive single to right. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, then Dunn scored on LaRue’s grounder to second, making the score 13-1. Rookie Wily Mo Peña struck out, stranding Mateo at third.

Wolf surrendered one-out singles to Boone and Casey in the sixth but escaped any further damage. He left the game after that inning having allowed one run on four singles, while striking out eight. Discussing his outing after the game, Wolf said, “I was definitely pleased with my pitching.”9

Neither team could score after the sixth inning. Félix Heredia pitched the final three innings for the Reds and yielded just Abreu’s eighth-inning double. Philadelphia’s Eric Junge, pitching in his eighth major-league game, tossed two perfect innings in relief of Wolf; left-hander Rhéal Cormier, despite issuing a single and double, closed out the game with a scoreless ninth.

Boone was succinct in his analysis of the game, saying, “I’m not going to explain that one. You just turn the page.”10Cincinnati finished the season in fifth place in the NL Central Division with a 69-93 record. They were not able to secure a winning record in their new ballpark until 2010.

The revamped Philadelphia lineup did help propel the Phillies back to a winning record and a third-place finish in the NL East Division. Wade then enhanced the pitching staff in the 2003 offseason by trading for closer Billy Wagner, providing more reinforcement as Philadelphia prepared to unveil Citizens Bank Ballpark in 2004.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Ricky Ledee, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, and Stathead for information including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN200304130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B04130CIN2003.htm

Notes

1 Robert Montenegro, “A Look Back at the 20-Year Renaissance of Baseball Architecture,” Big Think, July 16, 2024, https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/a-look-back-at-the-20-year-renaissance-of-baseball-architecture/.

2 The Reds lost to the Pirates, 10-1.

3 Associated Press, “Phillies Quick to Make Offers to Thome, Glavine, Bell,” ESPN.com, November 12, 2002, https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/2002/1112/1459954.html.

4 Marcus Hayes, “Byrd Takes Slide; Headed to DL With Injured Knee,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 14, 2003: 113. Byrd, who was appearing in the 12th game of his 15-year major-league career, went on the 15-day disabled list and did not return to action until April 30. He went on to finish fourth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2003. (Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins was named NL Rookie of the Year.)

5 Marcus Hayes, “Nothing Unlucky About This 13,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 14, 2003: 114.

6 Bob Brookover, “13 Runs in Fourth Catapult Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 14, 2003: E01.

7 Hayes, “Nothing Unlucky About This 13.”

8 Brookover, “13 Runs in Fourth Catapult Phillies.” Bowa and Boone were Phillies teammates from 1972 through 1981. They played together on Philadelphia’s back-to-back-to-back NL East winners from 1976 through 1978 and the Phillies’ World Series championship team in 1980.

9 Hayes, “Nothing Unlucky About This 13.”

10 Tony Jackson, “1 Very Bad Inning Destroys Reds,” Cincinnati Post, April 14, 2003: C1.