June 11, 1999: Phillies stymie Blue Jays in Randy Wolf’s major-league debut

The Philadelphia Phillies promoted 22-year-old left-hander Randy Wolf from their Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate to face the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, June 11, 1999. He received the coveted call when Philadelphia’s top rookie pitching prospect of 1998, Carlton Loewer, was placed on the disabled list with a fractured right humerus. Wolf, a Pepperdine University product, reached the majors just days after the second anniversary of the Phillies selecting him in the second round of the 1997 amateur draft.

The Blue Jays were visiting Philadelphia for the second time since defeating the Phillies in the 1993 World Series.1 Toronto manager Jim Fregosi, who had led the Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant, was back in Philadelphia for the first time since getting fired after the 1996 season. “It’s nice to be back. I have a lot of fond memories of this ballpark and this city,” Fregosi said.2

Wolf shook off the first-game jitters and walked to the mound in the first inning feeling that he belonged. “This is something I thought about, dreamt about my entire life. … I felt like I had to be here,” Wolf said.3 He walked Shannon Stewart, Toronto’s leadoff hitter, on five pitches, but recovered quickly to strike out two of the next three batters.

Wolf’s opponent on the mound was right-hander Joey Hamilton, who was in his first year with Toronto after being acquired from the San Diego Padres in an offseason trade. He had won 55 games in his five years in San Diego, but was winless in his first seven appearances with the Blue Jays.

Phillies manager Terry Francona shuffled his lineup to face Hamilton and the Jays. Six players had new positions in the batting order. The big change was to bump Ron Gant and Bobby Abreu into the two and three spots, while Scott Rolen, Rico Brogna, and Mike Lieberthal took over the four, five, and six holes.4 “I think we can be even better. This is the best way for the lineup to be productive,” said Francona.5

The new lineup produced immediate results as the Phillies scored three runs in the first inning. Doug Glanville led off with a single to center. Gant and Abreu struck out, but Rolen and Brogna followed with back-to-back walks to load the bases. “Their fourth and fifth hitters are pretty good so I was trying to be careful with them,” Hamilton said later.6

Hamilton threw a wild pitch; Glanville scored, and Rolen and Brogna advanced to third and second. Lieberthal followed with a double to deep left that drove both runners home. Including a two-double, two-homer game against the Baltimore Orioles on June 6, Lieberthal’s last seven hits had gone for extra bases.

In the second inning, holding a three-run lead, Wolf needed only 10 pitches to put down the Jays in order. “It was nice to have some breathing room,” he said.7

Wolf retired the first two batters in the third, then walked Stewart. Homer Bush topped a groundball toward third for an infield single, the first hit off Wolf. Shawn Green, back in the lineup after recovering from a hand-bone injury, stepped in. After a nine-pitch battle, Green struck out for the second time.

From the second inning through the fifth, the Phillies stroked three singles and were held scoreless. Wolf allowed a double in the fourth and a single in the fifth but the Blue Jays were not able to push across any runs. A group of fans, calling themselves the Wolf Pack, posted a “K” each time he fanned a Blue Jay.8 The score remained 3-0 as the sixth inning began.

Toronto started the sixth with three consecutive hits off Wolf. Green stroked a single to center and moved to third on Carlos Delgado’s ground single up the middle. Tony Fernández’s liner into center drove Green home with the Blue Jays’ first run.

Wolf retired Darrin Fletcher on a foul pop fly and struck out José Cruz, but Chris Woodward walked. With the bases loaded, Francona pulled Wolf and fetched Steve Montgomery to face pinch-hitter Dave Hollins. Wolf received a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd of 26,541 when he walked off the mound. “I had goosebumps,” he said of the ovation. “It was an amazing feeling.”9

Hollins was an All-Star third baseman for the 1993 Phillies. He bounced around with four different teams over the next few years and was now a bench player with the Blue Jays. Hollins swung at Montgomery’s first pitch and hit a foul popup to third for the third out, keeping it a 3-1 game. “That might have been the turning point in the game,” Montgomery said. “I didn’t know anything about [Hollins]. I just decided to be aggressive with my fastball.”10

Paul Spoljaric replaced Hamilton on the mound in the Phillies’ sixth. The left-handed relief pitcher began the season with the Phillies and surrendered 24 runs in 11⅓ innings before joining Toronto in a trade. He commenced the inning with a four-pitch walk to Brogna, who stole second and scored on Lieberthal’s single to left.

Marlon Anderson’s grounder to shortstop forced Lieberthal at second and Desi Relaford flied out to deep right-center. Montgomery stepped in the box for his first major-league at-bat and lined a single into center. “Steve was more excited about his hit, I was more excited about his pitching,” Francona said. “He’s been a savior for us.”11

Roy Halladay, splitting his first full big-league season between starting and relief, replaced Spoljaric and walked Glanville to load the bases. Gant followed with a line-drive triple to center, extending the Phillies’ lead to 7-1. “That was nice, real nice. They were trying to make a comeback, so that turned out to be a pretty important hit,” Gant said.12

Halladay retired the Phillies in order in the seventh and Dan Plesac took over for Toronto in the eighth. David Doster doubled, moved to third on Relaford’s sacrifice and scored on a pinch-hit single by Alex Arias.

The Blue Jays made it closer with three late runs. Fletcher’s two-run double in the eighth and Bush’s RBI groundout in the ninth finished the scoring. The Phillies’ 8-4 win boosted their record to 31-28 while Toronto dropped to eight games below .500.

After the game, Francona commented on Wolf’s first major-league win. “I’m happy for us and thrilled for the kid,” Francona said. “He showed a lot of poise and didn’t act like it was his first time out there.”13 Lieberthal also liked what he saw in his pitcher. “He didn’t get rattled, not even with runners in scoring position,” Lieberthal said.14

Wolf maintained his place in the rotation for the rest of the season and pitched regularly for the Phillies through 2006. His best season was 2003, when he pitched 200 innings, won 16 games and made the All-Star team. After leaving the Phillies as a free agent, Wolf pitched for seven other teams before retiring after the 2015 season with 133 career wins.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Randy Wolf, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI199906110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1999/B06110PHI1999.htm

Notes

1 Philadelphia and Toronto played a three-game series in Philadelphia on June 13-15, 1997.

2 Sam Carchidi, “Francona Juggles the Batting Order,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 12, 1999: C6.

3 Sam Carchidi, “Phils’ Wolf Wins Big-League Debut,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 12, 1999: C1.

4 Francona’s most commonly used previous lineup had Marlon Anderson, Rolen, Brogna, Gant, Abreu, and Lieberthal batting in the 2 through 7 positions.

5 Carchidi, “Francona Juggles the Batting Order.”

6 Tom Maloney, “Hamilton Loses, Again, as Toronto Falls to Big, Bad Wolf,” National Post (Toronto), June 12, 1999: A18.

7 Don Bostrom, “Phillies Call on the Wolf, Top Jays,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, June 12, 1999: A69.

8 Carchidi, “Phils’ Wolf Wins Big-League Debut.”

9 “Phils’ Wolf Wins Big-League Debut.”

10 Bostrom, “Phillies Call on the Wolf, Top Jays.”

11 “Phils’ Wolf Wins Big-League Debut.”

12 Dana Pennett, “Wolf Call Draws Results,” Philadelphia Daily News, June 12, 1999: 42.

13 “Phils’ Wolf Wins Big-League Debut.”

14 Pennett, “Wolf Call Draws Results.”