Sept. 17, 1984
Tonight, Curt Young makes his Phillies debut against the Mets’ Ron Darling. Luckily, we miss Dwight Gooden in this series.
Game 1984-151: Veterans Stadium - Mets 4, Phillies 3 / 67-84
Young allows four runs in four innings, while walking three and striking out two. Not gonna cut it. Darren Daulton homers, and Jeff Stone gets another hit; he now has a 10-game hitting streak and has hit safely in 11 of 13 games.
Sept. 18, 1984
No Von Hayes tonight, as I continue to let Jeff Stone wreak havoc on National League pitching.
Game 1984-152: Veterans Stadium - Phillies 10, Mets 1 / 68-84
Kevin Gross and Juan Samuel put on a show. The former goes all nine, giving up just three hits and a walk while striking out eight over a tidy 97 pitches. The latter smacks two home runs (he now has 17) and a double (his 36th) in a 4-for-4 outing, capping it off by swiping two bags (he now has 63). One bit of bad news: The Jeff Stone hit streak has ended at 10.
Over in the Northwest League championship series, Bend and Bellingham are back tied at 2-2.
Sept. 19, 1984
Game 1984-153: Veterans Stadium - Phillies 2, Mets 1 / 69-84
What a nice win. Steve Carlton surrenders an early run, and we have trouble getting on the board, but in the eighth, Von Hayes doubles, Juan Samuel singles, and Mike Diaz singles home the winning run. That winning run, by the way, is Jeff Stone, who pinch runs for Glenn Wilson, steals second and gets to third on a groundout. Speed in ‘85, baby.
Sept. 20, 1984
The current standings, featuring only the teams that remain in contention:
AL East
Detroit - 102-50
Toronto - 96-56 (6 GB)
AL West
Kansas City - 87-65
Seattle - 87-66 (0.5 GB)
Minnesota - 82-69 (4.5 GB)
NL East
Pittsburgh - 91-61
St. Louis - 85-67 (6 GB)
New York - 84-69 (7.5 GB)
NL West
* Los Angeles - 89-63
We get the Pirates next; the way we’re playing, we might be able to make it interesting at the top of the East. Meanwhile, those Tigers are amazing: Since July 15, they’re 45-18.
Sept. 21, 1984
Game 1984-154: Three Rivers Stadium - Phillies 2, Pirates 1 / 70-84
Win No. 70. Von Hayes hits a homer, then Jeff Stone singles home the winning run in the eighth. Charles Hudson goes 6.1 innings with 7 K, while Kenneth Walker helps the bullpen finish it off, earning his second-career save.
Tough news out of Washington: Bellingham beat Bend to take the Northwest League championship. That ends our playoff season, with two of our farm teams winning titles and a third getting to the championship series. Not bad.
Sept. 22, 1984
I wake up to bad news for our free-agent hopes: LF Kirk Gibson has signed a four-year, $3.62 million pact with the Tigers. Shoot.
That means 32-year-old Fred Lynn is the top outfield free agent. He does play a good right field (65, +10.7 ZR, 1.053 EFF), but his 1984 shows a decline not unlike Mike Schmidt’s (654 PA, .252/.337/.405, 46 XBH). Behind him is Gary Ward (53/53) before a large gap. Not a lot of options.
If I wanted to pivot, Paul Molitor (62/66) is the top free agent. He’s exceptional in the field, but he only plays third base. Could I really move Mike Schmidt to first base? We’ll return to all of this soon enough.
Meanwhile, John Denny has kidney stones. Poor dude. We’ll skip his next start.
Game 1984-155: Three Rivers Stadium - Pirates 5, Phillies 4 / 70-85
Mike Diaz’s three-run home run in the eighth ties it, but Tug McGraw allows three singles in the ninth to win it for Pittsburgh, who stays four ahead of a hard-charging St. Louis.
Sept. 23, 1984
Today we have Curt Young against John Candelaria (220 IP, 2.43 ERA, 180 K, 34 BB). While Candelaria is suffering from a strained forearm, I still expect a loss.
Game 1984-156: Three Rivers Stadium - Pirates 8, Phillies 3 / 70-86
More reason to fire Paul Owens: Kevin Gross (and not Young) started this game, and as he was still recovering from his last start, he went just 3.2 innings and allowed five runs. Great. Anyway, Juan Samuel went 3-for-5 to raise his average to .303, while Mike Diaz added two more hits and three RBI.
The power rankings have us at 18th. The top-five:
1. Detroit Tigers - 104-51
2. Toronto Blue Jays - 99-57
3. Pittsburgh Pirates - 93-63
4. Seattle Mariners - 90-66
5. St. Louis Cardinals - 89-67
The latest standings:
AL East
Detroit - 104-51
Toronto - 99-57 (5.5 GB)
AL West
Seattle - 90-66
Kansas City - 88-67 (1.5 GB)
Minnesota - 84-71 (5.5 GB)
NL East
Pittsburgh - 93-63
St. Louis - 89-67 (4 GB)
NL West
* Los Angeles - 90-66
The Mariners! An eight-year-old franchise that has never finished above sixth place (!) is now 1.5 up with six to play! The Mets have been eliminated, and amazingly, the Blue Jays are a loss and a Tigers’ win from being ousted, too.