The Philadelphia Phillies and Astros Share an All-Time Classic History

The Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros played what may have been the greatest postseason series of all time in 1980. Now they head for a rematch.

Author:
Ben Silver
Oct 24, 2022 6:06 PM EDT

In this story:

Philadelphia Phillies

Were you feeling it too when David Robertson walked two batters in the ninth inning and Ranger Suárez entered in relief? Was it anxiety, a knot in the pit of your stomach? Did you have goosebumps when Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate?

Now draw that feeling out over five heart-rending contests and you might have an idea of what it was like to witness the 1980 NLCS between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros.

Of course, the Astros were a National League team back in 1980, so when they won the NL West, they advanced to face the Phillies in a five-game Championship Series, often crowned the greatest postseason series in baseball's modern history.

The series featured five future Hall of Famers, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan, who were each at the absolute peaks of their careers, while Astros second baseman, Joe Morgan, was still a very productive player at 36, and Pete Rose still played with the tenacity of a man half his age.

Four of the series' five games went to extra innings, and the one game that didn't, NLCS Game 1, featured a come-from-behind, late-inning home run from Greg "The Bull" Luzinski.

Luzinski put up with a lot of adversity in the regular season, constantly on the verge of losing his job to rookie Lonnie Smith. In 1980, the Phillies' big left fielder was approaching 30 years old and his production was slowing down.

From 1975-78, he earned four straight All-Star appearances, in the process slashing .295/.386/.535 with 129 home runs. But in 1980, something turned, and Luzinski hit for an OPS of just .783 and 19 home runs.

Smith was hot on his tail the whole season, coming for the veteran's job. Baseball was less forgiving to youngsters back then before everyone earned millions per year. If a player lost his big league position, he might soon find himself working at a Radio Shack a few years down the line instead of cozied up in a California mansion sleeping on a Smague-esque fortune.

So when Luzinski crushed a ball off the left-field press box to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning of NLCS Game 1, some weight was lifted off his shoulders, as was the stress unburdened from every Philadelphian watching.

That home run though, would be the only ball hit out of the park from either team the whole series.

NLCS Game 2 was another back-and-forth contest, something the two teams would soon get used to.

The Astros took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but the Phillies grabbed their own lead in the fourth, 2-1, on singles from Luzinski and Garry "Secretary of Defense" Maddox. Houston tied the ballgame in the seventh and took the lead in the eighth, but Philly rolled right back and knotted the game 4-4 in the bottom of the inning.

With two runners on in the bottom of the ninth, the rookie Smith strode to the plate and blooped a single into right. With speedy right fielder Bake McBride on second, it should have ended the ballgame. But McBride held up at third, unsure if the ball was going to be caught. With the bases loaded and one out, the Phillies were unable to bring the winning run home.

The Astros scored four times in the tenth, but for some reason, the blame for the loss fell squarely on third base coach Lee Elia, who could be seen waving McBride on even after he hesitated.

In the end, Elia put up the stop sign, and stuck to his guns about the decision; asked about it years later in 2000, he said, "[Terry] Puhl threw a strike to the plate, and to this day in my heart, I don't think [McBride] would have scored."

While Games 1 and 2 had been all about offense, Game 3 was a pitcher's duel between Larry Christensen and knuckleballer Joe Niekro.

In one of the all-time great postseason pitching performances, Niekro stifled Philadelphia bats in the tepid humidity of the Astrodome for 10 innings. He didn't allow a single run, and besides the third inning, in which runners reached second and third with one out, the Phillies never threatened.

But Christensen and the Phillies' bullpen matched the Astros for 10 innings of their own. Screwballer Tug McGraw got out of the ninth and 10th inning facing only six batters, but in the 11th, things unraveled.

Morgan led off with a triple and Denny Walling brought home the winning run on a sacrifice fly, the Phillies were in a 2-1 series hole, looking down the chute at the two final games of the series in Houston.

"You might be down two games to none or two games to one and something inside, you kick it. If it was going to take place it has to be now, and your back's against the wall," said Carlton, NLCS Game 4 starter.

Tied 0-0 with none out in the fourth and runners on first and second, things started to get weird.

Maddox hit a soft one-hopper back to the pitcher Vern Ruhle who threw to first for the force out, but suddenly the Astros began running around the infield touching bases. The umpires differed on the call.

The first base ump had signaled out, but after a discussion, the crew got together and ruled that the ball had never touched the ground; it was a triple play.

Manager Dallas Green came out of the dugout furious. He screamed and threw his cap, kicking the infield dirt on his way back to the bench. Somehow, he was never ejected and the umpires ruled a double play. It seemed like a compromise, but the way in which they arrived at that conclusion is still a mystery.

Phillies President Ruly Carpenter remembers having to hold back General Manager Paul "Pope" Owens from getting in the middle of things, "I'm holding Pope. [He] wanted to get over there and get in the middle of the argument. 'Just sit here, they'll work it out.'"

Owens said of the moment, "What else can happen?! What else can happen to keep us from winning it?"

After all the madness, the Phillies still didn't score, and the Astros took the lead in the bottom half of the inning.

Doom.

The Phillies were down 2-0 in the eighth, staring down their fourth straight NLCS defeat since 1976. But the team wouldn't die.

Four straight hits tied the game and Manny Trillo gave the Phillies the lead with a sacrifice fly.

Of course, with the way the series had gone, a mere come-from-behind victory was all too simple and Houston tied things up in the ninth, sending the game to extras once again.

But the Phillies, having overcome so much to get to that point, rocketed out of the gate in the 10th. With two outs and Rose on first, Green sent Luzinski to the plate to hit for McBride.

On a 1-0 count, Luzinski lined a ball into the left field corner as Rose hammered around third and made the turn for home. He was going to be out, the ball beat him to the plate by four steps.

"What happened next is an image I'll carry in my mind forever," said Green.

"The play was in front of me," Rose remembered. "I knew it was gonna be close and I knew I wasn't scared of contact."

Rose barreled into Astros' catcher Bruce Bochy. He leveled his forearm into Bochy's collarbone, knocking the ball lose, giving the Phillies a 3-2 lead.

"I can still see him coming," John Vukovich recalled. He was a utility player on that team and a future Phillies' coach. "I knew he was gonna score. I guess Bochy will always remember that forearm shiver."

Rose once said as a young player, "I'd run through hell in a gasoline suit just to play baseball." He may not have run through hell, but he certainly ran through Bochy.

McGraw polished off the victory in the 10th to force a winner-take-all Game 5.

The Astros would send Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan to mound, the most fearsome pitcher in baseball at the time, and perhaps the most feared pitcher in baseball history. The Phillies, well, they would start Marty Bystrom, a rookie with five games of Major League experience.

"If anything works in Marty Bystrom's favor," Andy Musser said on the broadcast, "It's that he just doesn't know what's going on down there."

For five innings, the rookie and the vet dueled, exchanging blow for blow. Houston took a lead in the first, but Bob Boone gave the Phillies their own lead, 2-1, just minutes later in the top of the second.

Again in the second, the Astros threatened with a runner on first with one out. Craig Reynolds came through with a double down the right field line that looked to score Luis Pujols. But between Bake McBride in right field, and Manny Trillo at second, the Phillies had two of the best arms in baseball on the right side.

At one point during the dog days of summer, they had muffed a relay throw. So for hours during the long, hot days of August and September, the duo went out and practiced balls hit into the corner.

9-4-2 was the scoring on the putout as McBride made a perfect throw to Trillo who made a perfect throw to Boone to nab Pujols at the plate as the Astros runner slid into his ankle. Both throws were strikes and the game remained tied.

"I was blessed with a high threshold of pain," Boone said. "I was so fortunate playing in my career that we didn't have MRIs... X-rays couldn't see the little cracks and the things."

For four innings, no runs scored until Alan Ashby singled Walling home for the tie in the sixth and Bystrom left the game.

The Astros tacked on three more runs in the seventh to all but send the Phillies on their flight home. With the all-time strikeout king on the mound, the Phillies trailed by three in the seventh. The odds just kept mounting and Nolan Ryan needed only six outs to send the Phillies packing.

The eighth inning began with little hits. Defensive whiz shortstop Bowa choked up on the bat and lined a single to center.

"Pete [Rose] came up to me and said if you get on we're gonna win, I said, 'I'm gonna get on,'" Bowa recalled.

Boone followed him with ground a ball back to the pitcher that Ryan couldn't field cleanly. Two runners were on. Greg Gross came up next with the biggest little hit of his career, a perfectly-placed bunt to load the bases for Rose as the tying run.

On a 3-2 count, Rose worked a walk and sprinted to first, staring down Ryan the whole way up the line.

Ryan was done, exiting the game in a dire situation as the Phillies threatened 5-3 with the bases loaded and none out. Backup catcher Keith Moreland then grounded out to make it 5-4. With runners at the corners, up to the plate stepped 1980's NL MVP Mike Schmidt, who had been silent all series.

"We needed a sacrifice fly to tie the game, or a hit to put us ahead. We needed something from me and I struck out," said Schmidt. "I was stunned, the camera right by the dugout following me. I was starting to think about the off-season and trying to go out of my house, exist in public life in Philadelphia.

"Del Unser goes up to get a base hit and totally bail me out of that situation."

Again the Phillies had come through and the game was tied. Everyone remembers the name Schmidt, but few remember Unser who came through with two outs to knot the score at five apiece.

Coming up behind Unser was Trillo, who had already gotten his name in lights for his masterpiece of a relay throw. Runners stood at first and second as Trillo lined a ball down the left field line for a base hit. We'll let Harry Kalas take it away:

Of course, that 7-5 lead was not enough to bury the Astros.

McGraw had pitched in every single NLCS game to that point, a total of 100 pitches in five days, now Green called on him for another six-out save. It was too much for the lefty who allowed two runs to cross the plate in the eighth to tie the game.

McGraw's effectiveness was gone, so Phillies' number two starter Dick Ruthven came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, sitting down Houston 1-2-3.

In the 10th, Unser came through again, lining a one-out double to set up Garry Maddox who doubled in Unser for the go-ahead run. The Phillies were three outs away from their first pennant in 30 years.

Ruthven came back out for the 10th and quickly got two outs as Enos Cabell came to the plate.

It is said that two thirds of the earth is covered by water, the other third is covered by Garry Maddox. So when Cabell lined a flyball into the left-center gap, there was no holding your breath, Maddox drifted under it for the catch and the Phillies clinched the pennant.

Dallas Green called Maddox's 10th inning RBI, "Maybe the biggest in Phillies history."

Bryce Harper might have something to say about that now as Philadelphia heads for their first postseason rendezvous with the Astros since 1980. Now on an even bigger stage, all of America will be watching as the Philadelphia Phillies go to battle for a World Series title against the Houston Astros.