September 15, 1978: Phil Garner hits grand slam in second straight game as surging Pirates beat Expos

In 16 big-league seasons, Phil Garner hit a total of 109 regular-season home runs.1 Three were with the bases loaded – and two of those grand slams came on back-to-back nights in September 1978. The second of Garner’s successive slams, a first-inning shot off Woodie Fryman, paced the surging Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-1 win over the Montreal Expos on September 15 at Three Rivers Stadium.

Garner reached the majors with the Oakland A’s in 1973, then joined the Pirates in a nine-player trade in March 1977, a full-time second baseman acquired to replace free agent Richie Hebner at third base.2 Listed at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds,3 the University of Tennessee alum attained career highs that season with 17 home runs and a .441 slugging percentage.4 The ’77 Pirates finished second in the National League East Division, five games behind the Philadelphia Phillies.

Final output notwithstanding, Garner had started 1977 slowly, batting .211 with four home runs through June 19 before finding his stride.5 In 1978 Garner needed the season’s first month just to push his average over .200, and he continued to struggle through what he later called “my worst year in pro ball.”6 As of August 12, the 29-year-old Garner had just six home runs, and his .384 slugging percentage was nearly 60 points less than his 1977 clip.

The Pirates lost a nationally-televised game in Philadelphia that day, 10-1, their fifth straight beating by the Phillies and second day in a row hemorrhaging double-digit runs.7 Garner missed his fifth consecutive game with a shoulder injury.8 Pittsburgh was fourth in the NL East at 51-61, 11½ games behind front-running Philadelphia. Even after the Pirates won the series finale on August 13, with Garner back in the lineup, many observers viewed 1978 as hopeless. “It’s about time for many Pirates to be thinking of personal accomplishments,” offered the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.9

But the Pirates suddenly became unbeatable, winning 23 of 26 to pull within half a game of the Phillies on September 6. They cooled off with five straight road losses before a September 12 win over Philadelphia ignited another winning streak.

Garner hit better than .300 during Pittsburgh’s turnaround, contributing clutch hits and the uniform-dirtying hustle that earned the nickname “Scrap Iron.” Moved to second base in place of injured Rennie Stennett,10 Garner scored the winning run in the 12th inning against the Atlanta Braves on September 2, then clubbed a three-run homer off relief ace Gene Garber in the next day’s come-from-behind win. A doubleheader sweep of the Houston Astros provoked the Pittsburgh Press to hail Garner, along with fellow infielders Dale Berra and Frank Taveras, for “eat[ing] a pound of dirt for their day’s work, going for steals and diving after ground balls in a complete afternoon of nose-to-the-ground baseball.”11

Garner’s most notable power-hitting feat of 1978 occurred during the Pirates’ mid-September streak. On September 14, they were leading the St. Louis Cardinals, 1-0, in the bottom of the sixth, when John Milner was walked intentionally to load the bases for Garner. Bob Forsch threw a high-and-outside pitch, and Garner hit it over the fence in right-center. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called it “his first grand slam home run … anywhere, even in Little League.”12 The 7-4 victory was Pittsburgh’s third in a row – and 16th straight at Three Rivers Stadium. They were four games behind the Phillies with 16 to play.

A night later, the Pirates hosted fourth-place Montreal to open a three-game weekend series.13 Against the left-hander Fryman, Garner was batting sixth; he had hit eighth against the righty Forsch. Fryman, 38, had reached the majors in 1966 with the Pirates, and a June 9 trade with the Chicago Cubs had brought him back to the Expos after a season-and-a-half absence.14 He had struggled since a one-hit shutout of the San Francisco Giants on August 16, going 0-3 with a 7.84 ERA in five starts.

Pittsburgh’s Bruce Kison pitched a scoreless first inning, retiring Ellis Valentine and Tony Pérez to strand Andre Dawson at second, and Omar Moreno’s one-out double launched the Pirates’ attack in the bottom half. Dave Parker – a .375 hitter in his past 40 games – beat out a chopper to shortstop Chris Speier for a single.15 With Pirates at the corners, Moreno held at third as third baseman Larry Parrish turned Bill Robinson’s grounder into a force at second.

Willie Stargell walked, loading the bases for Garner. The count went full, and Garner pulled the next pitch – what he called “a slider that didn’t slide” – over the wall in left-center for his eighth homer of the season and second grand slam in two nights.16

He became only the second National Leaguer with grand slams in back-to-back games, joining Jimmy Sheckard of the 1901 Brooklyn Superbas.17 American Leaguers with slams in consecutive games included Hall of Famers Babe Ruth (1927 and 1929), Bill Dickey (1937), and Jimmie Foxx (1940), and then-Cooperstown-bound Brooks Robinson (1962).18

Kison cruised with the early 4-0 lead. Used almost exclusively as a starter for the previous three seasons, the 28-year-old right-hander had spent most of 1978 in relief before manager Chuck Tanner returned him to the rotation in August. He came in with a 5-5 record and a 3.36 ERA in 25 appearances.

The Expos attempted to answer Garner’s homer when Gary Carter and Parrish singled with one out in the second. But Speier hit into a forceout, and Kison fanned Del Unser, batting for Fryman, to end the inning.19

An inning later, former Pirate Dave Cash reached on third baseman Berra’s inning-opening fielding error and stole second. Berra, however, rebounded with a run-denying, diving catch of Valentine’s one-out liner. 20

Montreal manager Dick Williams used righty Wayne Twitchell in long relief after Fryman’s one-inning outing. NL MVP-to-be Parker doubled with one out in the third, and Robinson followed with his 12th homer of the season, expanding Pittsburgh’s lead to 6-0.

Stargell, the Pirates’ 38-year-old first baseman, began the fourth with a strong defensive play. He snagged Warren Cromartie’s leadoff grounder down the first-base line and, from a seated position, threw to Kison covering the bag for the out.21 Kison was dominant in the middle innings, setting down the Expos in order in the fourth, fifth, and seventh. The only Montreal baserunners during that span were in the sixth, when Dawson led off with a walk and Valentine reached on another Berra error. But Kison struck out Pérez and Cromartie and retired Carter on a groundball to keep the Expos scoreless.

After the third inning, only one Pirate made it as far as second base.22 Garner singled to lead off the sixth for a two-hit night, but first baseman Pérez erased him by turning Berra’s grounder into a 3-6-3 double play. Twenty-year-old September call-up David Palmer, appearing in his third big-league game, contributed zeroes for Montreal in the fifth and sixth. Another 20-year-old late-season arrival, Bob James, added a scoreless seventh in his second game in the majors.

The Expos went into the eighth inning hitless since the second, but Dawson’s one-out single broke that string. Singles by Valentine and Pérez brought Dawson home to break Kison’s shutout. When Cromartie made it four singles in a row, loading the bases, Tanner called on rookie right-hander Ed Whitson, who struck out Carter and Parrish to keep Montreal from getting any closer.

Whitson allowed singles to Speier and pinch-hitter Ed Herrmann to open the ninth,23 then gave way to fireman Kent Tekulve to close out Pittsburgh’s 17th home win in a row.

As Tekulve worked through his majors-high 82nd appearance, he heard moans from the crowd of 15,146. He stepped off the mound, looked at the scoreboard, and saw that the Phillies had rallied to tie the New York Mets in the ninth inning.24

The Mets beat Philadelphia in 10 innings, reducing Pittsburgh’s deficit to three games. But the Pirates’ postgame focus soon shifted from matters of the division’s ever-tightening standings and Garner’s history-making slugging. Instead, they surrounded a television set in the clubhouse, where Muhammad Ali battled Leon Spinks for the World Boxing Association heavyweight title.25

“I don’t keep track of grand slam records,” Garner said. “I don’t have much need to worry about them. I don’t hit too many.”26

Garner and the Pirates nearly set another record in 1978 by stretching their home winning streak to 24 games, two shy of the 1916 New York Giants’ post-1901 National and American League mark, before dropping a do-or-die game to the Phillies on September 30, the next-to-last day of the regular-season schedule.27 Pittsburgh came in second in the NL East, 1½ games behind Philadelphia.

Reassigned to second base during the Pirates’ 1979 World Series championship season,28 Garner remained in Pittsburgh until getting traded to the Houston Astros in August 1981.29 He hit one more grand slam after his 1978 flurry: his 100th career homer, a June 1986 blast at the Astrodome off the Giants’ Jeff Robinson.30

Author’s Note

The author was inspired to write this article after Phil Garner’s death in April 2026.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath. SABR member Gary Belleville provided insightful comments on an earlier version of the article.

Photo credit: Phil Garner, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197809150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1978/B09150PIT1978.htm

Notes

1 He hit one career postseason homer, a solo shot against Tom Seaver of the Cincinnati Reds in Game One of the 1979 National League Championship Series.

2 The Pirates received Garner, Tommy Helms, and Chris Batton for Tony Armas, Doug Bair, Dave Giusti, Rick Langford, Doc Medich, and Mitchell Page. Bob Smizik, “Pirates, A’s Swap Nine Players,” Pittsburgh Press, March 16, 1977: B-9. Hebner, the Pirates’ starting third baseman since 1969, had signed with the Philadelphia Phillies in December 1976.

3 A 1979 Philadelphia Daily News profile of Garner expressed skepticism about even his modest tale of the tape: “When Phil Garner was measured for the height of 5-10 that appears in the press guide published by the Pittsburgh Pirates, it’s hard to believe he wasn’t wearing a pair of disco shoes with three-inch heels.” Ted Silary, “Garner Does Dirty Work,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 12, 1979: 66.

4 Garner slugged .441 again in 1979.

5 Garner hit .287 with a .489 slugging percentage in 92 games from June 20 to the end of the 1977 season.

6 Dan Donovan, “Will Pirates’ Garner Bloom Late Again?,” Pittsburgh Press, March 13, 1979: B-3.

7 The Saturday afternoon game was broadcast on NBC’s Game of the Week. Russ Franke, “Reuss Survives Pirate Loss,” Pittsburgh Press, August 12, 1978: A-6.

8 Garner had injured his shoulder in a collision with catcher Manny Sanguillén during the Pirates’ 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on August 7. Charles Feeney, “Umps Rile Rooker as Bucs Lose Another Squeaker,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 10, 1978: 16.

9 Charley Feeney, “Buc Achievers Top Phils,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 14, 1978: 13.

10 Garner had moved to second after Stennett fractured his right ankle while sliding in a game in August 1977. Stennett returned as Pittsburgh’s primary second baseman in 1978 but struggled to recover from his injury. He did not start after August 17, and Garner was the starting second baseman for Pittsburgh’s next 42 games, through the season’s next-to-last game. Dan Donovan, “Bucs Lose Stennett for Season, Game, 5-4: Dale Berra to Make Debut at Third Tonight,” Pittsburgh Press, August 22, 1977: B-6; Ralph Bernstein (Associated Press), “Stennett Ready to Go Again,” Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Times, March 26, 1979: 12.

11 Russ Franke, “Pirates Clawing Way into NL East Race,” Pittsburgh Press, August 21, 1978: B-4.

12 Neal Russo, “Bucs’ Garner Delivers Big Knockout Punch,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 15, 1978: 2C.

13 The Expos were 12 games behind the Phillies.

14 Fryman had pitched for the Expos in 1975 and 1976 before getting traded to the Cincinnati Reds and then the Cubs. Chicago received outfielder Jerry White from Montreal for Fryman. Ian MacDonald, “Woodie Fryman Coming Back to Town,” Montreal Gazette, June 10, 1978: 39.

15 Charley Feeney, “Buc Home String Stretches to 17,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 16, 1978: 9.

16 Feeney, “Buc Home String Stretches to 17.”

17 “MLB Grand Slam Records,” Baseball-Almanac.com, accessed April 27, 2026, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_grsl.shtml.

18 Robinson, who had retired in 1977, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983. Jim Busby of the Cleveland Indians also hit grand slams in back-to-back games in 1956. “MLB Grand Slam Records.”

19 It was Fryman’s final major-league start. He made two more appearances in 1978, both in relief, and was used exclusively out of the Expos bullpen until the end of his career in 1983.

20 Feeney, “Buc Home String Stretches to 17.”

21 Feeney, “Buc Home String Stretches to 17.”

22 Taveras walked and stole second in the seventh but was stranded.

23 It was the final game of Herrmann’s 11-season big-league career.

24 Dan Donovan, “Pirates Win, Trail by 3,” Pittsburgh Press, September 16, 1978: A-6.

25 Associated Press, “Phil Slams Again,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, September 16, 1978: 7. At the Superdome in New Orleans, Ali defeated Spinks in a 15-round unanimous decision, seven months after Spinks had upset Ali in Las Vegas. It was the final win of Ali’s boxing career.

26 Associated Press, “Phil Slams Again.” As of May 2026, 30 National or American League players had hit grand slams in back-to-back games. “MLB Grand Slam Records.”

27 The Giants also won 27 consecutive home games in a streak that began in 1885 and ended in 1886.

28 When the Pirates acquired Bill Madlock in a June 1979 trade with the San Francisco Giants, Madlock became Pittsburgh’s starting third baseman and Garner shifted to second. Phil Axelrod, “Madlock’s Too Sane for Bucs,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 2, 1979: 2.

29 The Pirates traded Garner for a three-player return, highlighted by Triple A second baseman Johnny Ray, who replaced Garner at second in Pittsburgh. Charley Feeney, “Trade Catches Garner by Surprise,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 2, 1981: 13.

30 Ray Buck, “Garner’s Grand Slam Subdues Giants: Milestone Homer Helps Astros Build 3-Game Lead in 7-3 Victory,” Houston Post, June 15, 1986: 1C.