July 17, 1984: Sixto Lezcano’s two home runs power surging Phillies over Reds

The Philadelphia Phillies surged to 10 games over .500 with their 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium on July 17, 1984. With six wins in seven games, the Phillies were 2½ games behind the National League East-leading New York Mets.

Philadelphia, which had won five division titles, two NL pennants, and one World Series from 1976 through 1983, was striving to repeat as NL champion in 1984, albeit with younger players in their lineup. Three longtime Reds, reunited on 1983’s veteran-laden “Wheeze Kids”1 Phillies, were let go to play elsewhere. Pete Rose, who turned 43 years old shortly after Opening Day 1984, signed with Montreal; 40-year-old Joe Morgan returned to his hometown of Oakland to play with the A’s; and 42-year-old Tony Pérez was brought back to Cincinnati by the Reds.

Some younger Phillies, such as 27-year-old catcher Ozzie Virgil and 25-year-old outfielder Von Hayes, were thriving with increased playing time. Second baseman Juan Samuel, called up from Triple A in August 1983, added speed and power to the lineup. With superstar third baseman Mike Schmidt continuing his reign among baseball’s leading power hitters, and role players like outfielder Sixto Lezcano contributing to the attack, the Phillies were in a three-team race with the upstart Mets and the Chicago Cubs.

After finishing last in the NL West for the second season in a row in 1983, the rebuilding Reds had made changes to lift themselves out of the cellar. Longtime Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder and Cincinnati native Dave Parker signed as a free agent in the offseason. Since Opening Day, the Reds had promoted two promising players from Triple A, left-handed reliever John Franco and outfielder Eric Davis. Starting for the Reds in the July 17 tilt with the Phillies was 27-year-old left-hander Joe Price, coming off a 10-win 1983 season, his first as a regular starter.

Four-time Cy Young Award winner Steve Carlton took the mound for the Phillies. The 39-year-old Carlton, a pitcher for the Phillies since 1972, had started the season slowly, winning only one game in April and one in May. Pitching coach Claude Osteen observed, “His slider has not been good all season, and he’s had to throw more curves.”2 Carlton began to turn it around in June, and entered his start in Cincinnati with five wins in his last six decisions.

The Reds gained an early lead on an unearned run in the second inning. Third baseman Nick Esasky—at age 24 another young Red—singled with one out, but was forced at second when Ron Oester grounded to shortstop. Oester stole second and took third when Samuel missed Virgil’s throw (the second baseman’s 23rd error of the season). Dave Van Gorder followed with a single to drive in Oester.

Price was dominant in the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third. Iván de Jesús walked and was forced at second on Carlton’s grounder. Garry Maddox singled, moving Carlton to second. After Samuel struck out, right fielder Sixto Lezcano came to the plate.

Acquired from the San Diego Padres in August 1983, Lezcano had the task of batting in front of Mike Schmidt and providing power against left-handed starters. “We’ve been hurt too often in the past by guys in power spots who didn’t drive in runs,” manager Paul Owens said after the game.3 “I just want the long ball and the RBI’s from [Lezcano]. That’s all we’re looking for.”4

Entering the game in a 2-for-27 slump, Lezcano struck out in his first at-bat. This time, he smoked a low line drive to dead center that barely cleared the outstretched glove of Eric Davis and Riverfront Stadium’s eight-foot-high fence for a three-run homer. “I think [Davis] might have tipped it with his glove,” said Lezcano.5 Philadelphia’s lead was 3-1.

Carlton had an easy next three innings, yielding only singles to Parker in the fourth and Van Gorder in the fifth. But the Reds rallied in the sixth.

With one out, Parker hit a groundball that scooted into right for a single. Shortstop Dave Concepción, in his 15th season in Cincinnati, followed with a shot down the third-base line that drove Schmidt back behind the bag. Knowing he couldn’t throw Concepción out, Schmidt, who received his 9ninth consecutive Gold Glove in 1984, decoyed a throw to first, then threw to second and caught Parker making a wide turn. Samuel tagged Parker for the second out. “Just a great instinctive play by Schmitty,” Owens said. “A play only he could improvise.”6

Esasky’s single moved Conceptión to second, bringing Oester to the plate. The veteran second baseman drove a ball to right field that dropped in for Cincinnati’s fourth straight hit. Lezcano fielded it and gunned a throw toward home. Concepción, who had rounded third, wisely retreated to the base. Esasky rounded second, but froze when he saw Concepción occupying third.

First baseman John Wockenfuss cut the throw off and ran toward Esasky. At the same time, Concepción broke toward home. No one shouted directions, and Concepción crossed the plate with the second run before the Phillies tagged Esasky for the third out, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

When Owens was asked to describe the play, he absolved Wockenfuss. “It wasn’t John’s fault,” Owens said.7 “That’s the way the play is supposed to be made. But when Conception broke for home, Ozzie Virgil is supposed to direct traffic.”8

“It was a lack of communications.”9

Price held the Phillies to two singles and a walk from the fourth inning to the seventh, and was replaced by a pinch-hitter in the seventh. After the game, Reds manager Vern Rapp praised his starter. “Except for that one inning Joe pitched well,” Rapp said. “He had good command of his pitches and was challenging the hitters.”10

Right-hander Brad Lesley was Cincinnati’s new pitcher in the eighth. With one out, Lezcano lifted a towering home run to left, his second of the game and 13th of the year in only 162 at-bats. “It was a changeup high,” Lezcano said. “It felt good because I had been in kind of a slump.”11

The home run restored Philadelphia’s two-run lead, which was needed after the Reds scored in the bottom of the inning.

Davis led off the Reds eighth with a walk and stole second and third while Carlton retired César Cedeño on a fly ball and fanned Parker. But Concepción grounded a ball up the middle that shortstop de Jesús booted, for his 22nd error of the season, allowing Davis to score. Owens expressed his frustration with the sloppy play of his team, saying, “We gave them all three runs. I don’t like to see us screw up like that even if we win the game.”12

Carlton picked up de Jesús by striking out Esasky to end the eighth,13 and closer Al Holland came in to pitch the ninth. He retired the side on three pitches and the game was over. “First time in my career that’s happened,” Holland said after his 20th save of the season. My ball was running real good tonight and all three hitters hit it off the end of the bat.”14 Carlton improved to 8-4 with his 308th career win.

Rapp succinctly summarized his team’s play after the game. “Bad base-running and two swings of Lezcano’s bat and we lose, he said.”15 The loss was one of 92 for the Reds in 1984, and Cincinnati fired Rapp and brought back Rose as a player-manager in August. The Reds finished fifth in the NL West Division, four games ahead of the last-place San Francisco Giants.

The Phillies won despite their poor defense. “It was one of the sloppiest played games I’ve ever participated in,” Schmidt said.”16 Still, Philadelphia’s 50-40 mark through 90 games was five games better than the 1983 pennant-winning Wheeze Kids.

But another surge was not in the cards in 1984. The Phillies got as close as 1½ games out on July 19, but a 2-6 stretch threw them behind the front-running Mets and Cubs. They never recovered, ending the season in fourth place with a .500 record. It would be nine more years before the Phillies reached the top of the National League again when they faced the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1993 World Series.

Acknowledgments

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

Photo credit: Trading Card DB.

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/CIN/CIN198407170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B07170CIN1984.htm

Notes

1 A play on the “Whiz Kids” sobriquet of the pennant-winning 1950 Phillies.

2 Al Morganti, “Carlton and Lezcano Power Phils, 4-3,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18, 1984: D1.

3 Bill Conlin, “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds,” Philadelphia Daily News, July 18, 1984: 92.

4 “Carlton and Lezcano Power Phils, 4-3.”

5 “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds.”

6 “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds.”

7 “Carlton and Lezcano Power Phils, 4-3.”

8 “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds.”

9 Earl Lawson, “Phils Catch Parker Napping as Reds’ Tailspin Continues,” Cincinnati Post, July 18, 1984: 1D.

10 “Phils Catch Parker Napping as Reds’ Tailspin Continues.”

11 “Carlton and Lezcano Power Phils, 4-3.”

12 “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds.”

13 With eight strikeouts, Carlton had 104 for the season, tying Walter Johnson for the major-league record of 18 consecutive seasons with 100 or more strikeouts.

14 “Sixto’s Power Packs in Reds.”

15 “Phils Catch Parker Napping as Reds’ Tailspin Continues.”

16 “Phils Catch Parker Napping as Reds’ Tailspin Continues.”