Wilmington Evening Journal - August 14, 1980
Ruthven wades into one jam too many
By Ray Finocchiaro, Staff Writer
CHICAGO – For awhile it seemed like Dick Ruthven would pitch out of any jam, no matter how threatening, yesterday at Wrigley Field.
The Phillies' starting pitcher had waded out of several early trouble spots, then waded out of the dugout after 98 minutes of rain, only to get into – and out of – still another jam.
But Ruthven's luck wasn't going to last all day, even if rain made it seem like the game might.
The Chicago Cubs finally turned some tentative Philadelphia fielding into an eighth-inning run. Then after Mike Schmidt dramatically tied the game with his 30th homer in the ninth, Ruthven waded in over his head in the bottom half of the inning.
The Cubs finally won 2-1 on Jerry Martin's bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Despite the loss, Phils Manager Dallas Green wasn't about to rap Ruthven's effort, only his ill-fortune.
"Rufus pitched super," gushed Green, who is given to gushing easily and sincerely. "Even after the rain, he came back with super stuff, and it's just a shame that he had to lose this one.
"The bottom line is that he might have maintained his stuff longer without the rain delays. In a normal game, he wins easily. I haven't seen him have that kind of stuff in a long time. It was a pleasure to watch."
Ruthven wasn't as pleased with the loss, his eighth against 10 victories, but he wasn't demeaning his effort.
"I lost some location in the end," he said, dressing quickly for the flight to New York, "but I felt like I had pretty good stuff. Sometimes when you come back (from a delay), you have it; sometimes you don't. When I first came back, I didn't feel like it was affecting me."
Even though the Phillies fell a few runs short of a three-game sweep here, Green could find no fault with the Phils' play, particularly considering their four-game destructo in Pittsburgh that ran the club's road losing streak to 10 games before Tuesday's two victories over the last-place Cubs.
"Even though we didn't get a lot of hits in this series, I was happy with the way we played," he said. "We went after these games. We had the intensity I liked.
"It was interesting to see how we reacted after Pittsburgh, and we reacted fine. I have no qualms about saying that we're a good baseball team again and we'll be in it right to the end."
The first seven innings yesterday featured a scoreless duel between Ruthven and the Cubs' Rick Reuschel, who is 7-1 at Wrigley Field, 4-1 since the All-Star Game and has a 1.44 ERA in his last six starts.
"You cry because you lose this kind of game, but we had a good effort," said Green. "Mike hit the clutch homer we'd been looking for for quite some time. He really came through for us, but the other guy (Reus-chel) pitched like hell. Seven innings went by in an hour and a half, so he had to be doing something. He's just a tough pitcher."
Reuschel's 13-8 lifetime mark against the Phils indicates as much.
But after rain delays of 78 and 20 minutes, separated by two minutes of playing time in the bottom of the seventh, the clubs went at it again with renewed vigor.
Bill Buckner tripled with one out, but he died at third as Ruthven got Dave Kingman on a fly to shallow left and caught Martin looking at a third strike.
"I had no qualms about letting Dick work out of a jam today because his stuff was so good," said Green, who tried to let him do it again in the final two innings.
In the meantime, the Phils tried to break the scoreless deadlock against Bill Caudill, who walked the bases loaded with two out in the eighth, but Bake McBride flied out to end the inning.
The Cubs finally broke through against Ruthven in their half of the inning. Lenny Handle led off with a double that left fielder Lonnie Smith misplayed, then had to play off the wall.
"Hell, that ball was halfway up the vines!" barked Green, though the replays showed that the ball was catchable had Smith retreated straight to the wall.
Tim Blackwell followed with a bunt that catcher Bob Boone fielded before slipping on the wet grass, giving Blackwell a bunt single on an attempted sacrifice.
Pinch-hitter Larry Biittner promptly doubled to the gap in right center, easily scoring Randle. But Blackwell was cut down at the plate on a sharp relay from Manny Trillo.
That play looked good when Schmidt hit his 28th career Wrigley Field homer to tie the game against Dick Tidrow. But Ruthven's control problems got the best of him in the ninth as he sandwiched walks around Buckner's single to left to load the bases with nobody out.
"What Dick lost mainly today was his location in the last inning,'' Green shrugged. "The ball that Buckner hit was up. Then Dick got himself into some base-on-ball trouble."
Green brought in Ron Reed to face Martin, but the ex-Phil's fly ball won the game for Tidrow.
"He had to throw it down the chute," said Boone of Reed's choices. "You go at 'em hard with the pitcher's best stuff and I know what Ron's best stuff is by now."
But Reed's fastball and Ruthven's flirtation with Lady Luck just weren't enough for the Phillies yesterday.
EXTRA INNINGS - Three of the Phils' first four batters who got hits were wiped out in unsuccessful stolen-base attempts, as were the first two Cubs to get hits... Buckner is 5-for-7 against Ruthven this season... Bake McBride has hit in six straight games and 15 of his last 17... The homer by Schmidt, his sixth in six games at Wrigley this season, was the first run Tidrow has allowed in his last six appearances... Nino Espinosa starts against the Mets' Pat Zachry in the first of five against New York tonight at Shea Stadium.
NL rejects designated hitter
By Ray Finocchiaro, Staff Writer
CHICAGO – The vote gets closer every time, but the designated hitter is still an American League exclusive after National League executives voted 5-4 with three absentions against the DH rule yesterday during summer meetings in Detroit.
The Phillies were one of the three teams that abstained, joining Pittsburgh and Houston. But the Phils' vote – "aye" several seasons ago and "nay" the last time the DH was mentioned and defeated by a vote of 11-1 – could be a big factor when another vote is taken at baseball's winter meetings.
The Phillies camp is divided on whether the DH should become a two-league gimmick. And everybody keeps mentioning "the good of the game" as their reasons for or against the designated hitter.
Paul Owens, the Phils' player personnel director, now favors the DH, at least on a one-year trial basis.
"I don't know the details of what happened in Detroit or what the arguments were," he said as the Phils bussed to O'Hare Airport for a flight to New York, "but I would've been in favor of it, for at least a year on an experimental basis.
"I know Dallas (Green) was against it. Bill Giles was leaning toward it and Ruly (Carpenter) was up in the air. I personally don't like two sets of rules. For the good of the game, I don't think it looks good to have one league doing things one way and the other league another. We should all have the same rules."
But Green, also citing the good of the game, is against the DH rule.
"I think there are too many disadvantages to it," said the manager. "I'm talking about the good of the game and nobody's been able to tell me why it's good for the game.
"Everybody knows I'm not a DH man. I don't think it's good for baseball or the National League and regardless of what some people seem to think, I don't think it's any good for our club."
Outfielder Garry Maddox has mixed emotions.
"I think it takes away quite a bit from the game," he said. "Selfishly, I'd like to see it here because of Greg Luzinski, but I still think it takes away too much strategy."
The Mets, Cardinals, Braves and Padres voted for the DH yesterday, with the Reds, Dodgers, Giants, Expos and Cubs against the proposal. Owens feels a change of heart (or two) could emerge with the next vote. Seven "yes" votes are needed for passage.
"I imagine there are some clubs who are still interested in it," Owens said. "Why else abstain? If you're simply against it, vote no. But the clubs in favor told us they had five clubs for it and everybody wanted to see if they had. And I guess they did."
Both the abstaining Phillies and Astros were likely counted in the "aye" column, considering their support of the DH when it went down 10-2 several seasons ago. The Pirates could be the swing vote, possibly following the Phils' lead.
"Some clubs are obviously changing their minds," said Owens, "because the vote is getting closer. I don't think that changing your mind is the worst thing in the world."
What might rank among the worst in Owens' view is the further loss of veteran National Leaguers to the AL's DH paradise.
"We've got players who've become stars in the National League," he said. "Why let them go to the American League? A guy like Pete Rose – he's got several more playing years left, but the bat is the last thing to go. We'd like to keep him – and some of the others – in our league."
It still could happen. Resistance to the dreaded DH seems to be weakening every time the NL owners vote. But whatever's done, rest assured that it will be "for the good of the game."