April 4, 1994: Phillies’ late comeback spoils Rockies’ second season opener

It was a delightful morning on April 4, 1994, when the Colorado Rockies and defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies began batting practice on Opening Day at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The temperature was near 70 degrees,1 but weather reports called for falling temperatures, with wind and snow developing before the end of the game. “Hard to believe the forecast,” said Phillies coach Larry Bowa.2

The meteorologists didn’t deter the crowd as 72,470 fans filed into Mile High Stadium – which was best known as the home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos – for the expansion Rockies’ second home opener. Striving to improve their maiden season’s 67-95 record, Colorado had added sluggers Ellis Burks and Howard Johnson to boost the offense and slick-fielding shortstop Walt Weiss to shore up the defense.

The temperature had plummeted to 51 degrees when Armando Reynoso delivered the first pitch for the Rockies at 3:08 P.M. Reynoso, selected in the third round of the 1992 expansion draft from the Atlanta Braves, was the Rockies’ biggest winner in 1993 with a 12-11 record. He held the Phillies hitless and scoreless through the first two innings, issuing only a walk to Darren Daulton in the second.

The Phillies’ starting pitcher was 27-year-old Curt Schilling. Acquired in a trade with the Houston Astros in April 1992, he won 30 games in his first two years with Philadelphia, punctuating his ’93 season with a five-hit shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays in Game Five of the World Series.

Schilling retired the Rockies in order in the first, but Andrés Galarraga grounded a single into center field to start the second. The 33-year-old first baseman had won the batting title in 1993 with a .370 average and represented the Rockies in the All-Star Game. Galarraga was erased on the basepaths when third baseman Charlie Hayes, a Phillie from 1989 through 1991, grounded into a double play on the first pitch.

With the bases empty, center fielder Burks stepped to the plate for his first at-bat with the Rockies. On a 1-and-2 count, he launched a home run to left-center for a 1-0 Colorado lead. Joe Girardi and Roberto Mejia followed with singles, but Reynoso grounded into a force at second to end the inning.

The Phillies responded in the third. Kevin Stocker was hit by a pitch. Reynoso struck out Schilling and Lenny Dykstra, but Mariano Duncan hit a towering home run to left, putting the Phillies in front, 2-1. “The first couple of innings, the ball didn’t carry to left field at all, so I thought ‘Routine fly ball.’ But in Colorado, you never know,” recalled Duncan later.3

Schilling retired Weiss and Johnson to begin the bottom of the third. He got ahead of Dante Bichette with two strikes but plunked the Colorado right fielder with a pitch. Galarraga followed with a long home run to left-center and the Rockies were back on top, 3-2.

Both teams had scoring chances during the middle innings. Schilling walked Girardi and surrendered a single to Mejia to start the fourth, giving Colorado runners at the corners. Reynoso sacrificed Mejia to second, but Schilling escaped the jam by striking out Weiss and Johnson.

The Phillies had two baserunners in each of the next three innings, but Reynoso worked out of trouble each time. In the fourth, Jim Eisenreich lined into an unassisted double play. In the fifth and sixth, neither Ricky Jordan nor Stocker could get the big hit as each stranded two runners. “We hit a lot of balls hard off that guy,” Daulton said of Reynoso. “In fact, we swung the bats pretty well all day.”4

Burks led off the sixth with his second hit of the game, a line-drive single to center, and Girardi sacrificed him to second. After Mejia struck out, Rockies manager Don Baylor sent John Vander Wal in to hit for Reynoso. Vander Wal slugged the first pitch for a double off the top of the right-field wall, and Burks scampered home to extend the Rockies’ lead to 4-2.

Weiss grounded out to end the inning, and after 99 pitches Schilling was finished for the day.5 “I thought Schilling pitched really well,” Phillies manager Jim Fregosi said. “He battled hard, and he pitched out of a couple of jams. It was encouraging.”6

In the seventh inning the first snow squall arrived, and the runs started piling up as fast as the snow fell. The Rockies’ Bruce Ruffin, who had spent the first six seasons of his career with Philadelphia, was the first reliever to enter the game, and he, like most of those following him, had trouble throwing strikes. With one out, Ruffin issued a five-pitch walk to Dykstra, who stole second. Jordan’s two-out walk put two on.

Ruffin fell behind Dave Hollins 3-and-0, and Hollins’ line-drive single in the shortstop hole scored Dykstra. Daulton followed with a single to right to tie the score, 4-4. Steve Reed came in to retire Pete Incaviglia and end the inning.

Bobby Muñoz replaced Schilling in the seventh for Philadelphia. Originally signed by the New York Yankees, Muñoz joined the Phillies in an offseason trade. The tall, hard-throwing right-hander was not used to pitching in cold and snow: “I’m from Miami, I never pitched in snow before. Never even seen it.”7

Muñoz walked Johnson on four pitches. Johnson stole second, and Muñoz walked Bichette. Galarraga singled to drive in Johnson, as Bichette and Galarraga advanced to third and second on the throw. With the infield in, Hayes hit a smash down the third-base line. Hollins dived to his right, snared the grounder, and jumped up to throw out Bichette at the plate. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Burks walked to load the bases.

Heathcliff Slocumb replaced Muñoz and surrendered an infield hit to Girardi that plated Galarraga, restoring Colorado’s two-run lead. “You can’t make excuses, but it was cold out there,” said Muñoz. “It’s hard to get loose.”8

The snow eventually subsided, but by the end of the seventh inning the temperature was 29 degrees and the Phillies were down 6-4. In the eighth, they sent 13 batters to the plate and scored eight runs to put the game out of reach.

Left-hander Mike Munoz, no relation to Bobby, started the inning for the Rockies. Stocker drew a one-out, four-pitch walk. Tom Marsh, who had pinch-hit for Schilling in the seventh and remained in the game in left, pulled a grounder to shortstop that Weiss mishandled for an error. “It’s a play I should have made,” said Weiss.9

Dykstra walked to load the bases and Baylor brought in closer Darren Holmes. Duncan, who already had two hits, fell behind in the count, fouled off a two-strike pitch, then hit a breaking ball down and away for a game-tying double.10

Jordan rolled a grounder to second that scored Dykstra with the go-ahead run, and Holmes walked Hollins and Daulton. With Milt Thompson pinch-hitting for Slocumb, Holmes threw a wild pitch, allowing Duncan to score, and Thompson walked on the next pitch.

Willie Blair was summoned to thwart the rally, but he was no more effective than his predecessors. Eisenreich worked the count full, then hit a line drive to left that ticked off Johnson’s glove for a two-base error that cleared the bases, turning the two-run lead into an 11-6 bulge. Stocker walked and Marsh singled to right, driving in Eisenreich.

The Phillies were on top 12-6. They had scored eight runs on just two hits, aided by six walks, two errors, and a wild pitch. Seven of the runs had been unearned, and four of the runs did not have corresponding RBIs.

The Rockies had two more innings to try to claw back, so the Phillies tabbed David West to pitch the eighth. “He threw the ball well all spring,” said Fregosi.11 West faced eight batters in the last two innings and closed out the Phillies’ win.12 He yielded two singles and no walks.

Three hours and 36 minutes after the first pitch, and with the evening temperature registering 23 degrees, the game was mercifully over. Shortly after the game ended, a steady snow was falling. “That was kind of a weird one, with the snow and the cold and all,” said Fregosi. “But it’s always nice to win the first one.”13

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL199404040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B04040COL1994.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8b22N0lKmA

Notes

1 Bill Conlin, “Phillies Enjoy Change of Seasons,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 5, 1994: 67.

2 Conlin.

3 Jayson Stark, “Duncan Makes Most of Phils’ Winter,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 5, 1994: D1.

4 Frank Fitzpatrick, “For Openers, Phillies Win a Snow Job,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 5, 1994: D1.

5 Schilling had a 0-7 record and 5.40 ERA through May 16, when he had surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.

6 Fitzpatrick.

7 Conlin, “Phillies Enjoy Change of Seasons.”

8 Frank Dolson, “Winter Winds, a Flurry of Walks Forecast Win for Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 5, 1994: D6.

9 Patti Arnold, “Rockies Snowed Under,” Grand Junction (Colorado) Daily Sentinel, April 5, 1994: 2B.

10 Stark, “Duncan Makes Most of Phils’ Winter.”

11 Paul Hagen, “Thrills & Chills,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 5, 1994: 65.

12 The Phillies won all three games of the season-opening series, and all involved late-inning rallies. They were down 5-3 in the ninth in the second game, but they scored four runs for a 7-5 win. A five-run seventh in the third game of the series rallied them from an 8-6 deficit, and they won, 13-8.

13 Fitzpatrick, “For Openers, Phillies Win a Snow Job.”