October 11, 1993: Stellar defense, Dykstra homer power Phillies to 10-inning win in Game 5

The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves played Game Five of the 1993 National League Championship Series on October 11 in Atlanta after splitting the first four games. The favored Braves, who won 104 games during the regular season to secure their third consecutive NL West Division title, had outscored the Phillies 27-13 during those first four games, banging out 16 hits in a 14-3 blowout in Game Two, then scoring a total of nine runs in the sixth and seventh innings to break open Game Three.

But the Phillies, who rose from last place in 1992 to win the NL East Division, had opened the series with a 10-inning win in Game One. After the two one-sided losses, which prompted Philadelphia Inquirer headlines declaring the Phillies “dead in the water,”1 Philadelphia pulled out another one-run win in Game Four, wrapping up the Sunday night game when closer Mitch Williams induced Ron Gant to hit into a game-ending double play minutes after midnight.2

Whoever won Game Five on Monday afternoon would be one win from the pennant when the series returned to Philadelphia two nights later.

The starting pitchers, Steve Avery of the Braves and Curt Schilling of the Phillies, were facing off for the second time in the series, having dueled in Game One. Avery, named National League Championship Series MVP in 1991 for a record-setting string of 16⅓ scoreless innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates, had finished 1993 in the league’s top five in wins (18) and ERA (2.94). The 23-year-old left-hander was considered one of the four aces on the Braves staff, along with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz.

Twenty-six-year-old Schilling, pitching in the postseason for the first time in his career, was coming off a 16-win season for the upstart Phillies and an eight-inning, 10-strikeout performance in the Series opener.

The Phillies jumped out to a first-inning lead when John Kruk smashed a line-drive double to right field, scoring Mariano Duncan, who had singled with one out. Kruk, a symbol of the ragtag Phillies with his scruffy appearance and maverick demeanor, advanced to third on a wild pitch, but was stranded when Pete Incaviglia struck out to end the inning.

The Braves hoped to answer in the bottom of the inning, as Jeff Blauser lined a one-out single to right field. One out later, Fred McGriff, who had homered in the Game Two blowout, crushed a ball to deep right that fell just short of clearing the fence. Wes Chamberlain fielded the bounce off the wall in right and threw to cutoff man Kevin Stocker, who fired a strike to catcher Darren Daulton to nab Blauser at the plate. Describing the play after the game, Chamberlain said, “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to catch it, so I just positioned myself in case it didn’t go out.”3

There was no scoring in the second or third inning. The Phillies’ defense, league average in most categories, came up with three more gems to keep the Braves scoreless. In the second, Terry Pendleton drove a ball to left, but Incaviglia’s diving catch robbed him of extra bases. On the next play, Chamberlain got his second assist in two innings when he fielded a drive to right by Damon Berryhill and nailed the Braves catcher at second trying to stretch it into a double. In the third, second baseman Duncan charged Avery’s weak grounder and nipped him at first with a strong throw.

The Phillies added to their lead in the fourth inning, capitalizing on an error by the Braves’ league-leading defense4 to score an unearned run. Left fielder Gant misplayed Incaviglia’s long drive and the lumbering outfielder ended up at third on the three-base error. Chamberlain drove him in with a sacrifice fly to center field.

More stellar defensive plays helped Schilling keep the Braves off the scoreboard over the next four innings. In the fourth, Dave Hollins backhanded a smash down the third-base line to hold Gant to a single, and with two outs in the seventh, first baseman Kruk dove to his right to snare a line drive, stealing a hit from Berryhill.

While Schilling had held the Braves scoreless through seven innings, he was tiring. “After the seventh inning, I had pretty much given all I had,” he said.5 With a two-run lead, however, Phillies manager Jim Fregosi sent Schilling out to pitch the eighth. After three quick outs on 13 pitches, he had twirled eight shutout innings, extending the Braves’ scoreless-inning streak to 15. “Adrenaline got me through the eighth,” Schilling said.6

Kent Merker had pitched a scoreless eighth for Atlanta, relieving Avery after 134 pitches. Greg McMichael, who allowed the winning run in Game One on Kim Batiste’s 10th-inning double, was summoned to pitch the ninth.

Daulton, the free-spirited, de-facto leader of the Phillies, batted first. The third pitch from McMichael was a high changeup that the Phillies catcher deposited in the right-center-field bleachers. The next three batters went in order, but the Phillies had extended their lead to three runs heading to the bottom of the ninth.

Despite running on fumes and adrenaline, Schilling was determined to complete the game and finish the shutout. Fregosi inserted defensive replacements Batiste at third, Milt Thompson in left, and Jim Eisenreich in right.

The ninth began with a four-pitch walk to Blauser. The next batter, Gant, worked the count full, then grounded Schilling’s 131st pitch of the game to Batiste at third. Batiste looked to second for the force, then simply dropped the ball for an error. He talked about his role as a late-inning defensive replacement after the game. “It’s tough, mentally, and I can honestly say, physically, too,” he said.7

After the error, manager Fregosi made a pitching change, calling on Williams, who had saved 43 regular-season games in 1993. The hard-throwing 28-year-old lefty had allowed an unearned ninth-inning run in Game One, but picked up the win when the Phillies scored in the 10th. Hours earlier, he had pitched into, then out of, a ninth-inning jam to save Game Four.  

On Williams’s first pitch, McGriff singled to center, scoring Blauser and advancing Gant to third. David Justice flied to deep left field, and Gant scored the Braves’ second run. Pendleton followed with a single to center, and Francisco Cabrera, who had the series-winning hit in Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS, was sent in to pinch-hit. He sliced a grounder up the middle that took an odd hop away from shortstop Stocker and landed in center for the game-tying hit.

The next batter, Mark Lemke, smashed a liner down the left-field line on a 2-and-2 pitch that landed just foul. “I thought it was going to be fair,” Lemke said, “but it had a little more hook on it than I thought.”8 Two pitches later, he struck out on a nasty slider. Pinch-hitter Bill Pecota lifted a fly ball to Dykstra for the third out, but the game was tied and on the way to extra innings.

Mark Wohlers was on the mound and Cabrera behind the plate to start the 10th. Mickey Morandini batted for Williams and flied out to center. Dykstra, on his way to a second-place finish in the MVP voting after leading the majors in runs scored and the NL in hits and walks, stepped in. His 19 regular-season homers in 1993 were the most of his 12-season major-league career,

On a 2-and-2 pitch, Wohlers threw a pitch on the outside corner that just missed the plate for ball three. Wohlers, not wanting to issue a free pass, said, “I’m going right after a hitter, no matter who he is.”9 The next pitch was low and inside and Dykstra connected for the go-ahead homer, giving the Phillies a 4-3 lead. “It was down and in. … A little too in. … It was in his wheelhouse, I guess,” Wohlers said.10

Wohlers got the next two batters to retire the side. In the bottom of the inning, Fregosi called on the Phillies’ set-up man, 40-year-old Larry Andersen, to close out the game. “As soon as I got in there, I started to sweat,” Andersen said later. “I didn’t want [Otis] Nixon to get on base.”11 Nixon, who had finished third in the NL with 47 stolen bases, flied out to deep right, then Andersen fell behind Blauser 2-and-0. Catcher Daulton strolled to the mound to calm Andersen. “Don’t be in such a rush. The beer is on ice. It’s going to stay cold. Take your time,” Daulton told Andersen.12

Andersen settled down, and struck out Blauser and Gant to end the game. It was his only save of either the regular season or the postseason. Fregosi praised his team afterward. “Well, we’re a solid club, a good club. And I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” he said.13

The Phillies returned home with a three-games-to-two advantage, just one win from their first pennant since 1983.

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 consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199310110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1993/B10110ATL1993.htm

Notes

1 Bill Lyon, “Phillies Appear Dead in the Water,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1993: P1.

2 Frank Fitzpatrick, “Phils Hang Tough to Tie Series: Survive Scare in Ninth for 2-1 Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 11, 1993: C8.

3 Michael Bamberger, “Phillies Defense Shines in Game 5,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1993: D7.

4 The Braves were ranked first in the National League in defensive efficiency.

5 Jayson Stark, “Schilling Close, Yet So Far from Completing Shutout,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1993: D6.

6 Ted Silary, “Schilling Manages Some Joy Amid Sadness,” Philadelphia Daily News, October 12, 1993: 75.

7 Les Bowen, “Teammates Save Mitch, Batiste,” Philadelphia Daily News, October 12, 1993: 80.

8 Frank Dolson, “Don’t Try to Explain the Phillies’ Victory, Just Savor It,” Philadelphia Inquirer,  October 12, 1993: D8.

9 Dolson.

10 Sam Donnellon, “Wohler’s Best Not Good Enough,” Philadelphia Daily News, October 12, 1993: 78.

11 Timothy Dwyer, “Anderson Was Really Pumped When He Closed for the Closer,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1993: D1.

12 Dwyer.

13 Frank Fitzpatrick, “One Game from NL Crown,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1993: D1.