May 6, 2001: Bobby Abreu’s clutch double keys 9-run second inning as Phillies hold off late Giants rally

November 18, 1997, was a monumental day in the life of 23-year-old Bobby Abreu. While playing winter ball in his native Venezuela, Abreu, who had appeared in 74 games for the Houston Astros over the previous two seasons, learned he had been selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the expansion draft, then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.1 In a matter of minutes, he transitioned from part-time status in Houston to the likelihood of playing every day in Philadelphia.

Abreu won Philadelphia’s starting right field job in spring training 1998. During the next three seasons, his career blossomed. With regular playing time his batting average remained above .300 and his power numbers and stolen base totals increased each season. He became the player that Houston general manager Gerry Hunsicker envisioned in November 1997 when, after leaving Abreu unprotected in the expansion draft, he said, “He could be a very good player if he gets a chance to play every day.”2

During the opening weeks of the 2001 season Abreu was experiencing an unaccustomed hitting slump. His batting average was just .226 after going hitless against the San Francisco Giants on May 5. Working hard to regain his form, Abreu observed, “I’m just trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong.”3 Manager Larry Bowa, who continued to write Abreu’s name in the lineup every day, was not worried about his right fielder despite the low average. “He’ll hit,” Bowa said. “He hits every year.”4

Philadelphia was concluding a home series with the Giants on May 6, and Abreu was slotted in his usual position in the Phillies lineup, batting third and playing right field. The teams had split the first two games of the series and Philadelphia was looking to capture the Sunday afternoon finale and maintain its early lead in the National League East Division.

The pitching matchup featured two veteran left-handers off to altogether different starts. Twenty-nine-year-old Omar Daal, in his first full season with Philadelphia, had recorded three wins in his first six starts – a dramatic turnaround from the previous season when he lost a league-high 19 games with the Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks.5 Thirty-year-old Kirk Reuter, a mainstay in San Francisco’s rotation since 1996, was scuffling with an ugly 6.89 ERA in the early going.

Daal retired the Giants in order in the top of the first, but Reuter struggled in his half of the frame. After leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins flied out to center, Doug Glanville belted a long home run to left, his fourth of the season. Abreu reached on shortstop Rich Aurilia’s error, but Aurilia threw him out trying to take second. Reuter walked the next three batters before retiring Kevin Jordan on a liner to center to end the 31-pitch inning.

San Francisco went ahead with two runs in the second. With one out, Benito Santiago singled, Aurilia tripled, and Armando Ríos lined a sacrifice fly to center. Daal escaped any further damage.

Marlon Anderson led off the bottom half with a bloop double down the left-field line. Daal squared to bunt but pulled back at the last second and lined a single to left; Anderson stopped at third.6 Rollins followed with a single to right, scoring Anderson, as Daal raced to third. Glanville walked to load the bases, bringing Abreu to the plate.

On Reuter’s first pitch, the lefty-swinging Abreu blasted an opposite-field double into the left-center-field gap, scoring all three runners and vaulting Philadelphia into the lead, 5-2. When asked about his early-season hitting woes after the game Abreu said, “When you always hit .300, it’s tough to be in a slump like this … so that double made me feel much better.”7

Scott Rolen kept the rally going when he reached on a fielding error by second baseman Ramón Martínez. “It didn’t take the hop I expected,” Martinez said.8 Abreu raced home on the error, and when Mike Lieberthal followed with a single up the middle, Reuter’s day was finished. “It was a bad inning,” Reuter lamented. “Everything they hit was hard.”9

Rookie lefty Chad Zerbe replaced Reuter, but the Phillies kept hitting. After a wild pitch and a groundout, Jordan doubled to left, scoring two more runs. Anderson struck out, but Daal – swinging away with two outs – lined a single to left to plate Jordan. “He’s a pretty good hitter,” Bowa said. “If he keeps hitting, I might have to put him into the lineup.”10

Rollins followed with a triple and Daal raced home with the ninth run of the inning. “[Daal] got that hit and I didn’t want him to show me up,” Rollins said.11 Glanville flied to left and the inning finally ended with the Phillies on top, 10-2.

Daal contained San Francisco after the Phillies’ second-inning surge. He allowed two singles over the next two innings but kept the Giants scoreless. Zerbe matched Daal with two scoreless innings.

In the fifth San Francisco began to rally. Rookie third baseman Pedro Feliz singled to left, advanced to second on a sacrifice, then to third on a single by Shawon Dunston. Martínez stroked a line-drive double to center, scoring both runners. One out later, reigning NL MVP Jeff Kent’s single scored Dunston.

In the sixth, Aurilia hit a leadoff home run, narrowing the deficit to 10-6. Ríos followed with a single, and after a balk, Daal’s day was over. “After that second inning I was running out of gas and when they scored in the fifth, I was tired,” Daal said later. “I got a little bit up and made some mistakes.”12 Wayne Gomes came on in relief, and after surrendering a single and walk, quelled the rally by striking out Eric Davis.

Philadelphia went quietly in the fifth and sixth. In the seventh, Santiago and Aurilia opened another Giants uprising with back-to-back one-out singles. Gomes was replaced by southpaw Eddie Oropesa. A single by Ríos and a grounder by Felíz scored two more runs, and suddenly the score was 10-8. Bowa called for Ricky Bottalico, who struck out pinch-hitter Russ Davis to end the inning.

Philadelphia’s bats remained silenced for the rest of the game as a parade of Giants relievers performed admirably. Félix Rodriguez tossed a scoreless seventh and Robb Nen pitched a clean eighth. After the nine-run outburst in the second, the Phillies were able to muster only three hits the rest of the game.

San Francisco had two more innings to try to draw even. In the eighth, Dunston reached base on a hit-by-pitch and, one out later, Barry Bonds was summoned to pinch-hit representing the potential tying run. Two days earlier, in the series opener, Bonds’ sixth-inning homer – already his 14th of the season – had put the Giants ahead to stay. As Bowa later remarked, “He wasn’t going for a single, believe me.”13 But Bonds, hitless in his career against Bottalico, struck out looking.

Kent struck out to end the eighth and Phillies closer José Mesa entered in the ninth. Santiago walked, to again bring the potential tying run to the plate, but Mesa retired the next three batters as Philadelphia hung on to win 10-8. “There’s no such thing as an easy game in baseball,” Bowa remarked after the game.14

As the season progressed Abreu continued to emerge from his slump. By season’s end his average had risen to .289,15 but his resurgence wasn’t enough to enable the Phillies to hold onto their early-season lead. They slipped into second place in mid-July and finished two games behind the Atlanta Braves.16

Abreu remained a productive hitter, amassing 2,470 hits before retiring in 2014. During the bulk of his career he played almost every day, posting strong offensive numbers in all categories and demonstrating that he was one of the most consistent players of his generation.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Bobby Abreu, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information including the box score and play-by-play. The author also consulted Bobby Abreu’s Bio Project article by Augusto Cárdenas.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI200105060.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B05060PHI2001.htm

Notes

1 Tampa Bay received Kevin Stocker in exchange for Abreu.

2 Jim Salisbury, “Stocker traded in an Outburst of Dealings,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 19, 1997: E1.

3 Todd Zolecki, “Bowa’s Not Worried by Abreu’s Slow Start,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 2001: E9.

4 Zolecki.

5 Arizona traded Daal, Travis Lee, Nelson Figueroa and Vicente Padilla to the Phillies on July 26, 2000, for Curt Schilling.

6 Bill Conlin, “Hitting Contagious for an Inning,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 7, 2001: 103.

7 Dana Pennett O’Neil, “Blast Off for Phils’ Bats,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 7, 2001: 102.

8 Nick Peters, “Phils Stun Giants With 9 in Second,” Sacramento Bee, May 7, 2001: C7.

9 Associated Press, “Giants’ Rally Falls Short by 2,” San Francisco Examiner, May 7, 2001: B1.

10 Zolecki. Daal had a career batting average of .196 but batted 247 in 1½ seasons in Philadelphia.

11 Zolecki.

12 O’Neil.

13 Chris Edwards, “First-Place Phillies Hold On, Top Giants.” The Times (Trenton, New Jersey), May 7, 2001: C1.

14 O’Neil.

15 Abreu also set career highs in home runs (31) and RBIs (110).

16 San Francisco finished second in the NL West, two games behind the World Series champion Diamondbacks.