PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils return to action tomorrow night against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Bank. In the meantime I thought it would be fun to do another countdown. Last time we did the top emotionally charged moments involving Philly sports figures. This time we'll do the top 25 most dramatic Phillies victories. Starting today we'll go through numbers 25-21 and reveal another 5 on each Phillies off day until we hit number 1. So let's get started.

25. Dude-riffic July 7, 1993 Phillies 7 - Dodgers 6

In a season full of crazy, wild and unbelievable finishes this was one of the most memorable. It started just like any normal game. Terry Mulholland tossed 7 strong innings and John Kruk and the dude, Lenny Dykstra each homered to give the Phils a 5-3 lead heading into the top of the 9th. Then well, let's just say they didn't call Mitch Williams the wild thing for nothing because wild is exactly what he was on this night. He walked 3 batters, allowed a single and before you knew it the lead was gone, leaving Larry Anderson to get out of a bases loaded jam. First Kevin Stocker bailed out Andersen with a perfect throw off a ground ball to get Mike Piazza at home and preserve a 5-5 tie. Then Anderson found his way out of the inning after that. From there it just kept dragging on through the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and on until the 20th inning where then rookie Mike Williams finally allowed a run on an error no less, after having pitched 5 brilliant scoreless innings. So the Phils found themselves down 6-5 in the bottom of the 20th inning and ordinarily that might have been too much for them to overcome, but not this year and not with this team. With 2 on and 2 out Dysktra, who had leadoff this whole mess 6 hours earlier, delivered a game winning 2 run double and at last after one of the longest games in Vet history the fans could go home happy.

24. Miami Miracle #1 Sept 17, 2005 Phillies 10 - Marlins 2

Things haven't always gone the Phillies way at pro player stadium. The Florida Marlins are always a scrappy bunch and there was a time when the Phillies just couldn't buy a win there, that is until this game. The psychologically challenged Vicente Padilla put together a rare good outing allowing just 2 runs in 7 innings, but then all-star Dontrelle Willis was downright nasty tossing 8 scoreless innings. So good was Willis that although he had already thrown over 100 pitches in the game manager Jack Mckeon decided to leave him in for the 9th. The move backfires badly, when the obviously exhausted Willis loses the strikezone and his infield suddenly forgets how to field a ball. First a Jimmy Rollins leadoff single squirts through the infield. Then after getting ahead 0-2 Willis walks Jason Micheals. Next Bobby Abreu hits what should be a double play ball, but Luis Castillo boots it and a run scores to cut it to 2-1. Then Todd Jones replaces Willis, and precedes to give up 4 straight RBI singles, followed by another error, this time Carlos Delgado misplays a ground ball, and now its 6-2 Phils. Now Ron Villone replaces Jones and gives up two more singles and at this point it is now 8-2, 10 Phillies have come to plate, and not one has been retired. Finally Villone strikes out Micheals for the first out, but the Phils aren't done yet. Two more hits and yet another error and another pitching change later the Phils are up 10-2 and inning is finally over. The Final tallies are 4 errors, 8 hits, 10 runs, and 1 shellshocked Marlins team.

23. Johnny On the Spot September 23, 2001 Phillies 5 - Marlins 4

Thanks to games like these the young 2001 Phillies came within a couple games of a surpise playoff berth. The Phils came into this game just a half a game behind the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East and desperately needed a win to stay there. Early on it looked like they would get it as Brandon Duckworth pitched into the 6th inning, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits. Thanks to Duckworth and a 4th inning homer by Travis Lee the Phils took a 3-2 lead into the 8th inning. After retiring the first two batters in the inning Ricky Bottalico served up back to back homers to Preston Wilson and Mike Lowell for a stunning 4-3 Marlins lead. For the most part after that the Phils gave no indication they had any fight left in them. Then with 2 out in bottom of the 9th Lee saved the day with a game tying solo homer. It was his 3rd game saving 9th inning homerun of the season(the first won a game against Montreal and the 2nd tied a game which the Phils went on to win in extra innings). After Jose Mesa rolled through a rare 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 10th, Johnny Estrada leadoff the bottom of the inning with a pinch solo homerun, just his 8th homer of the season, to complete the huge 5-4 win.

22. Del-lightful July 10, 1979 Phillies 6 - Padres 5

The 1979 season was probably one of the Phillies most dissapointing as after 3 straight trips to the postseason they came up completely empty. They had added Pete Rose to the roster in the offseason and everyone thought they would finally get to and win the world series. Instead they were ravaged by injuries ,and got off to a slow start, costing Manager Danny Ozark his job in mid-season. Of course he was replaced by Dallas Green and rest as they say is history. Anyway one of Ozark last bright moments came on this night. Nino Espinosa started the game for the Phils terribly, allowing 5 runs on 5 hits and failing to get out of the 5th inning. Somehow the Phils bullpen, always stellar in those years with the likes of Rolly Eastwick and Warren Brustar, managed to keep the game from getting any further out of hand with 5 and 1/3rd scoreless innings the rest of the way. Still, through 8 innings the Phils could only muster a solo homer by Mike Schmidt and trailed 5-1 heading into the 9th. After 2 runners reached base with just one out, future hall of famer, Rollie Fingers came in to clean things up, but he instead he allowed Bob Boone to slap a 2 run single to cut it to 5-3. A few batters later with 2 out and 2 on Del Unser came into pinch hit and crushed a game winning 3 run homer, his record tying 3rd consecutive pinch hit homerun, an impossible feat no one saw coming.

21. Schmidt Tames Wrigley April 17, 1976 Phillies 18 - Cubs 16

Wrigley Field has a history of wild high scoring games, especially when the Phillies are in town. Few Phillies-Cubs matchups at the old ballpark were wilder than this one. By the 3rd inning the Cubs are ahead 12-1 and seemingly in control. Then Mike Schmidt goes to work. In the 5th inning he hits his first homerun of the day to cut it 13-2. In his next at bat in the 7th, he homers again and the lead is down to 13-7. In his next bat in the 8th he goes deep again, this time a 3 run homer and its down to 13-12. By the end of the 9th the game is tied at 15. Finally, in the 10th Schmidt bats again and crushes his 4th straight homerun this time a 2 run homer and now at last after Dave Cash adds a sac fly the Phils are ahead for good 18-15. The Cubs score again in the bottom of the inning before Tug Mcgraw finally ends this wild affair. All told the two teams combine for an incredible 43 hits and 34 runs. As for Schmidt, he is still the last Phillies player to hit 4 homeruns in a game, and the only one to do it consecutively. Not bad for a day's work and you were wondering why people frequently call him the greatest 3rd baseman ever.

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