May 25, 2011: Infielder Wilson Valdéz pitches the 19th inning and records the win for Phillies

When the 2011 season began, the Philadelphia Phillies were riding a four-year streak of postseason appearances, including a World Series championship in 2008. In 2011 they achieved their best season ever with 102 wins and a .630 winning percentage. They sat in first place in the National League East Division nearly every day of the season from launch to landing.

However, on Wednesday, May 25, going into the third game of a four-game series with the visiting Cincinnati Reds, the Phillies held only a one-game lead over the Florida Marlins in the NL East. The pitching matchup for this night game at Citizens Bank Park was Travis Wood for the Reds versus Roy Halladay for the Phils in what was to be one of the most memorable games in Phillies history.1

The Phillies scored two runs in the first inning on Ben Francisco’s home run and added a run in the bottom of the second when John Mayberry Jr. singled home Carlos Ruiz.

In the first four innings Halladay, the perennial All-Star and two-time Cy Young Award winner, gave up six hits but no runs. The Reds pushed their first run home against Halladay in the fifth inning on Joey Votto’s single.

In the Phillies’ half of the sixth inning Raúl Ibañez led off with a triple. But Wood got Ruiz to foul out and he struck out Mayberry on three pitches for the second out, bringing Wilson Valdéz to the plate. Wood elected to walk Valdéz – in this game he collected three hits, the most of any Phillies player – in order to pitch to Halladay, who grounded out to end the rally.

In the top half of the seventh inning, Miguel Cairo and Drew Stubbs singled and were moved up by Brandon Phillips’ssacrifice bunt. Halladay walked Votto intentionally and struck out Scott Rolen. Jay Bruce – who had a total of nine hits and 11 RBIs in the four-game series – followed with a groundball single to right, scoring both Cairo and Stubbs to tie the game at 3-3.

Mayberry led off the home ninth with his second hit of the game. Valdéz, a fine bunter, sacrificed Mayberry into scoring position. Pinch-hitter Chase Utley was walked intentionally and a wild pitch moved both runners up a base. Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out as 45,706 Phillies fans cheered with anticipation. Domonic Brown was sent up to pinch-hit for Francisco. Nick Masset got Brown to pop up in foul territory and retired Plácido Polanco on a fielder’s choice to send the game into extra innings.

Bruce led off the 10th with a drive to right field that barely cleared the rail for a home run – Bruce’s league-leading 13th home run of the season.2 Manager Charlie Manuel asked for a video review but the umpires upheld the call on the field, and the Reds took the lead for the first time in the game, 4-3.

Reds manager Dusty Baker brought in his closer, Francisco Cordero, to face Ryan Howard, the 2005 National League Rookie of the Year and 2006 National League MVP. Howard was hitless in the game thus far but had hit a fly ball to deep left-center for an out in his previous at-bat. On the second pitch from Cordero, Howard unleashed a monstrous home run to center field to tie the game, 4-4.

The Reds created some excitement in the top of the 11th inning. With one out, three Phillies hurlers gave up three walks and a hit batsman; yet, the Reds failed to score. Kyle Kendrick hit Phillips on the hand. J.C. Romero replaced Kendrick and walked Votto on a 3-and-1 count. With Rolen at bat, Valdéz sneaked in behind second base and Romero picked off Phillips. Romero walked both Rolen and Bruce to load the bases before Manuel brought in David Herndon, who got Ramón Hernández to hit a chopper back to the mound for the final out.

Logan Ondrusek and Herndon got the Reds and the Phillies, respectively, through the 12th and 13th innings, each retiring six batters consecutively. In the 14th inning, with both teams running out of pitchers, Baker gave the ball to Carlos Fisherfor the Reds and Manuel called on Danys Báez for the Phillies.

The 5⅔ innings Fisher pitched were the longest outing of his career. Similarly, the five-inning stretch Báez pitched was his longest outing since 2002, when he was a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Watching Báez and Fisher slug it out was like watching a boxing match: Báez allowed only a walk and one hit while Fisher allowed only a walk and three hits.

Two of the hits off Fisher were by Valdéz, the second of which was a hard-hit two-out double down the left-field line, but he was erased on a force out in the 16th and was stranded in the 18th, and the game remained tied, 4-4.

Valdéz – who never pitched in the minors or majors but who after the game said that he pitched once in the Dominican Republic – let the pitching coach and skipper know he could pitch if needed. According to Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, pitching coach Rich Dubee asked Valdéz if he could pitch if the game went much longer. Valdéz said, “Yes, why not?”3 That was around the 16th inning.4 According to Pedro Gomez, reporting during the live national TV broadcast of the game, Valdéz went to Manuel and told him that he could pitch. Manuel asked Valdéz, “Are you sure?” Valdéz said, “Yes, I can pitch.”5

Manuel had only once in his 10 years as a manager before this night used a position player to pitch. However, on this night, the Phillies were out of options. When the 19th inning began, it was after midnight. But the crowd that remained roared to life when they spied Valdéz walking toward the mound.

Votto, the reigning National League MVP, stepped into the batter’s box. He took the first pitch, an 88-mph sinker, low for ball one and fouled off the next one, an 89-mph fastball. The throng began chanting: “Let’s Go, Wil-son.” Dane Sardinhaset up outside and Valdéz threw it there twice more – the second one missed Sardinha’s glove completely and the pitch went to the backstop.

With the count 3-and-1, Valdéz shook off the catcher. “He saw three pitches outside,” Valdéz said. “He was going to think something else was coming outside, so I decided to throw a slider in.”6 Votto lifted a fly ball to deep center field for out number one.

As six-time All-Star Scott Rolen came to the plate, Valdéz called a brief meeting at the mound with Sardinha and Ruiz, now playing third base. The subject of Valdéz’s brainstorming became immediately apparent when he threw his first pitch to Rolen: a 74-mph curveball inside to the right-handed batter. The pitch hit Rolen. Valdéz stared at Rolen as he trotted to first base. “I got mad,” Valdéz said. “He didn’t move.”7

The red-hot Bruce then stepped in and popped up Valdéz’s second pitch to shallow center field. Two outs. Next was the pitcher, Fisher, who was up for only his seventh major-league at-bat; he struck out in the previous six. Fisher popped up. Before the ball even settled into Polanco’s glove, Valdéz was jogging to the dugout. He took care of the meat of the Reds’ order on 10 pitches and injected new energy into the tired Phillies.

Rollins led off the bottom of the 19th inning with a single. As the crowd chanted “Fish-er” to badger the fading Reds reliever, Domonic Brown worked a walk. Polanco laid down a perfect bunt to move both runners up a base. Howard was walked intentionally, bringing Ibañez to the plate with the bases loaded. Ibañez launched a high fly to center field that Stubbs caught over his shoulder, and Rollins trotted home easily to make the score 5-4 and end the longest game ever at Citizens Bank Park – 6 hours and 11 minutes.8

During his postgame on-the-field interview, Valdéz received the customary shaving-cream pie in the face from teammate Ryan “Mad Dog” Madson. “It was one of my most fun games ever,” Valdéz said later.9

He was the first position player to earn a pitching victory since Colorado Rockies catcher Brent Mayne did it on August 22, 2000. He was the first Phillies’ position player to achieve the feat since Jimmie Foxx did it on August 19, 1945. And he was the first player to start in the field and earn the win as pitcher later in the game since Babe Ruth did it for the New York Yankees on October 1, 1921.

The cap Valdéz wore that night is in Cooperstown at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.10 And the game that began on May 25 and ended in victory on May 26 between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds has been heralded as the 23rd greatest game in Phillies history.11

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Thebaseballcube.com, and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI201105250.shtml

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/box/game.asp?GID=PHI201105250&View=Play

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2011/B05250PHI2011.htm

Notes

1 The mlb.tv production of the game broadcast locally on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (now known as NBC Sports Philadelphia) is available in its entirety at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbp5mAxZGyk.

2 Bob Brookover, “Pitching in a Pinch: Valdez Revels in Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 27, 2011: D1.

3 Brookover, “Pitching in a Pinch.”

4 Jim Salisbury, “The Day After: Valdez, Phils Relish Marathon Win,” NBC Sports Philadelphia, May 26, 2011, https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/philadelphia-phillies/day-after-valdez-phils-relish-marathon-win.

5 ESPN Wednesday Night Baseball Television Broadcast, “2B Wilson Valdez Pitches and Gets Win in 19th Inning,” YouTube video (MLBclipz), 12:19, accessed June 1, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlz6QLWqtek.

6 Brookover, “Pitching in a Pinch.”

7 Wilson Valdéz, telephone interview with Len Pasculli on February 17, 2021. Scott Rolen’s seventh All-Star Game appearance came later during this season on July 12, 2011.

8 Danielle Wilson, “Phillies Defeat the Reds 5-4 in 19 Innings, Wilson Valdez Gets the Win,” Sports Talk Philly, May 26, 2011, https://www.sportstalkphilly.com/2011/05/phillies-defeat-the-reds-5-4-in-19-innings-wilson-valdez-gets-the-win.html.

9 Salisbury, “The Day After.”

10 Frank Klose, “Wilson Valdez’s Hat Reaches the Hall of Fame, Shaving Creme and All,” Sports Talk Philly, May 31, 2011, https://www.philliedelphia.com/2011/05/wilson-Valdezs-hat-reaches-the-hall-of-fame-shaving-creme-and-all.html.

11 Daniel Walsh, “50 Greatest Phillies Games: 23. Now Pitching, Wilson Valdez,” PhilliesNation.com, March 5, 2017, https://www.philliesnation.com/2017/03/50-greatest-phillies-games-23-now-pitching-wilson-Valdez.