October 1, 1982: Terry Leach’s 10-inning one-hitter leads Mets past Phillies

The 1982 New York Mets (64-95) were ending a dismal season under first-year manager George Bamberger.1 After going 14-15 in September, the Mets, who had a losing record for the sixth season in a row, offered Bamberger a multiyear contract on September 30. He requested a one-year deal, saying that he didn’t want to “walk away a loser.” Bamberger told reporters, “This is the first time in my career that my team is under .500 but I really think that things will turn around next year.”2

The Philadelphia Phillies were also finishing 1982 in frustration. The National League East Division winners in four of the past six seasons and World Series champions in 1980, the Phillies had taken a half-game lead over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals on September 13. But the Cardinals won eight in a row to claim the division lead while the Phillies lost six of eight. St. Louis clinched the title on September 27, leaving the Phillies as runners-up.3

More than 2 million fans had attended Phillies games at Veterans Stadium in 1982, with crowds topping 50,000 on five home dates.4 Philadelphia saluted its fans with Fan Appreciation Night on October 1, the Friday night opener of a three-game season-ending series with the Mets. Fans received Phillies key chains with the 1983 schedule, and the club planned to give away several prizes during the game, including a new car.5

The 16,072 fans at the Vet were also presented with an unusual sight when the teams took the field. The umpires were not dressed in the usual blues. Their airline had lost their uniforms and they had to call the game in what the New York Times described as “makeshift uniforms,” adding, “Ed Montague called balls and strikes in a Phillies uniform while his three colleagues wore slacks and sweaters.”6

Right-hander John Denny started for the Phillies. Denny had been picked up in a trade with the Cleveland Indians on September 12.7 The team made the deal to try to improve its starting rotation. “If he wins me two or three games, it’s worth it,” said Phillies general manager Paul Owens at the time of the trade.8

Denny, who arrived in Philadelphia with a 6-11 record, lost his first two games in a Phillies uniform. He went six innings, allowing seven hits and striking out seven, in a start against the Mets on September 26 but didn’t get a decision and entered the game with a 6.75 ERA.

Denny retired the Mets in order in the first. In the second he allowed a leadoff single to Dave Kingman, who led the NL with 37 home runs despite a batting average barely over .200.9 The hit ended Kingman’s 0-for-23 slump, but it led nowhere as Gary Rajsich flied out and Hubie Brooks grounded into a double play.

Two Mets walked in the third, but Denny got out of trouble on a pair of groundouts. He allowed a baserunner in the fifth when he walked Ron Hodges. After that, he retired the next 14 batters he faced before leaving after retiring the Mets in the ninth.

While Denny had started more than 200 major-league games in nine seasons with St. Louis, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, his mound opponent, Terry Leach, was making only the second start of his big-league career. Bamberger called on the 28-year-old Leach after Rick Ownbey was sidelined with a blister on his pitching hand.

Leach was a right-handed side-armer who had an unusual throwing motion. As he finished each pitch, Leach bent down low, scraping his padded right knee across the mound as he released the ball.10

“When I was throwing in the bullpen before the game, [Mets catcher] Ronn Reynolds was catching me. He sensed that my stuff was good, and told me so,” Leach recalled years later.11 Leach looked strong early on; he retired the first seven batters he faced.

The Phillies had a chance to score after Leach walked Iván de Jesús and Denny after one out in the third inning. De Jesús took third when Leach’s pickoff throw went wild but had taken a big lead and was unable to tag up after George Foster made a shoetop catch of Garry Maddox’s liner to left. Pete Rose grounded into a force out to strand the runners.

After Leach pitched another one-two-three inning, the Phillies got their only hit of the game in the fifth. Luis Aguayo hit a one-out triple into the gap in left-center. Philadelphia couldn’t capitalize; Leach retired de Jesús on a bouncer to third and struck out Denny to end the frame.

The Phillies again threatened to break the scoreless tie when they loaded the bases in the seventh. Ozzie Virgil walked with one out and moved to second on a groundout to third. Leach intentionally walked Aguayo. Phillies manager Pat Corrales sent up Greg Gross, who led the National League with 18 pinch-hits, to bat for de Jesús. Leach walked Gross to load the bases.

“Amid boos from customers,” reported the New York Daily News, Corrales allowed Denny to bat. Leach struck him out to end the Phillies’ threat. “Again the fans booed. The fact that [Denny] was pitching a one-hit shutout didn’t seem to matter.12

Leach retired the next six batters as Denny matched him. The two pitchers “pitched as if it were a World Series.”13 Leach allowed five walks and only a triple through nine innings. Denny, who walked three, had kept the Mets hitless after Kingman’s single in the first. The game went to extra innings, still scoreless.

Porfi Altamirano replaced Denny in the 10th. The rookie right-hander, a 30-year-old native of Nicaragua, had bounced back and forth between the Phillies and the minors during the season. He entered the game with two saves, a 4-0 record and a 4.14 ERA.

Kingman led off the 10th with a walk. Bamberger sent Rusty Tillman to pinch-run. Rajsich’s single to right moved Tillman to third. Brooks followed with a sacrifice fly to center for a 1-0 Mets lead.

Bamberger sent Leach back out in the bottom of the 10th. Leadoff batter Aguayo walked on a full-count pitch. Aguayo moved to second on rookie Julio Franco’s sacrifice bunt, then to third on George Vukovich’s grounder to first.

Maddox, in his 11th major-league season, was all that stood between Leach and an improbable win. The Phillies center fielder lined softly to second baseman Brian Giles for the final out.

It was the longest Leach had pitched in his two years with the Mets. “Whether I start or relieve doesn’t matter, as long as I have a job,” he said after the game. “I got tired tonight and began walking guys, and I even got a cramp in my leg in the eighth inning. But it worked out.”14

Leach’s one-hitter was the first one for the Mets since Tom Seaver stopped Chicago on one single on April 17, 1977. It would be two more years before another Mets pitcher would come close to a no-hitter when Dwight Gooden’s one-hitter beat the Chicago Cubs 10-0 on September 9, 1984.

“In bed last night I honestly thought about throwing a no-hitter,” Leach said. “[Aguayo] got all of it, I have no complaint. This will make my winter a lot shorter. Having something like that to think about makes me wish spring training started tomorrow. It’s a great way to end an up and down year.”15

Despite the win, Leach spent most of the next three years pitching for the Tidewater Tides, the Mets’ Triple-A farm team. His best two years for the Mets came in 1987 and 1988 when he had an 18-3 record with a 2.94 ERA. He filled in the starting rotation but primarily pitched in middle relief.

Although Denny went 0-2 with a 4.03 ERA after being sent to the Phillies, the trade ended up being successful for Philadelphia. Denny finished 1983 with a 19-6 record, the most wins in the National League, and a 2.36 ERA to earn the Cy Young Award for Philadelphia’s NL pennant winners.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other pertinent material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI198210010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1982/B10010PHI1982.htm

Notes

1 Bamberger managed the Milwaukee Brewers from 1978 to 1980. He suffered a heart attack during 1980 spring training and managed only part of the season. After a year out of baseball, Mets general manager Frank Cashen coaxed him out of retirement to manage the 1982 Mets.

2 “Mets Rehire Bamberger,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1982: C5. Bamberger did not last the entire 1983 season. He resigned when the team started with a 16-30 record, saying, “I don’t want to suffer anymore.” “Inside Pitch,” Sports Illustrated, June 13, 1983.

3 St. Louis went on an eight-game winning streak after the September 13 loss and finished the month with a 12-5 record.

4 Philadelphia’s attendance for 1982 was 2,376,394. This was second best in the National League behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ attendance of 3,608,881 and third best in the majors. The California Angels in the American League had an attendance of 2,807,360.

5 “Sports Watch,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1982: 74.

6 Joseph Durso, “Leach One-Hitter Tops Phils,” New York Times, October 2, 1982: 24.

7 Denny came to the Phillies in exchange for Wil Culmer, Jerry Reed, and Roy Smith.

8 Jayson Stark, “Phils Swap 3 Players for Denny,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1982: C1.

9 Kingman had 37 home runs. That was one ahead of Dale Murphy and two ahead of Mike Schmidt. Kingman did not hit another home run that season but neither did Murphy or Schmidt, giving Kingman the National League home run crown.

10 “Terry Leach: Former 1980’s Mets Pitcher (1981/ 1985-1989),” CenterfieldMaz.com, March 13, 2021, http://www.centerfieldmaz.com/2020/03/terry-leach-former-1980s-mets-pitcher.html.

11 Don Laible, “Former Mets Reliever Leach Remembers Good Times in Flushing,” Utica (New York) Observer-Dispatch, May 9, 2020, https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/columns/2020/05/09/former-mets-reliever-leach-remembers/1225052007/.

12 Jack Lang, “Leach One-Hits Phils, 1-0, in 10,” New York Daily News, October 2, 1982: 34.

13 Durso, “Leach One-Hitter Tops Phils.”

14 Durso.

15 Marc Maturo, “Mets Leach 1-Hits Phils,” White Plains (New York) Journal News, October 2, 1982: C1.