Giants' manager part of Phillies lore

The Phillies have run into Bruce Bochy once before in the postseason. Actually, "run into" is too mild of a phrase. They bowled him over like a duckpin.

The Phils are hoping the 2010 National League Championship Series meeting with Bochy that begins Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park winds up like their first one, 30 years ago, with them still standing and with the San Francisco Giants manager wondering what hit him.

A third-string Houston Astros catcher at the time, Bochy earned his indelible black-and-blue mark in Phillies history when, in the 10th inning of Game 4 of the 1980 NLCS, he was hit by a history-bound train.

As an onrushing Pete Rose bore down on him that crazy Saturday afternoon in the Astrodome, the Phillies were in the midst of the breathtaking two-game comeback that would win them the NLCS and, in 15 days, bring the forlorn franchise its first world championship.

At the end of that pivotal play, Rose was stomping on the plate and the dazed Bochy was prone on the Texas dirt, the baseball he'd dropped resting alongside him like a period on 97 years of Phillies frustration.

Now, three decades later, safe in the dugout, Bochy and his Giants must again contend with a Phillies' quest for history, this time the club's attempt to become the first NL team in 66 years to reach three straight World Series.

But win or lose, nothing will diminish Bochy's role in the story of how the Phillies endured the heart-stopping suspense of Game 4.

"There has never been a game I've ever witnessed," Tug McGraw, the late Phils reliever, said afterward, "that has been more exciting, more controversial, more interesting. . . . It was like a motorcycle ride through an art museum. You see the pictures but afterward you don't remember what you saw."

When Game 4 began, Bochy, 25, who backed up catchers Alan Ashby and Luis Pujols, was in the Astros' bullpen.

Houston had won two straight and led the best-of-five series, two games to one, needing just one more victory in two home games to reach its first World Series.

Steve Carlton and the Astros' Vern Ruhle started the 3 p.m. (Houston time) game, broadcast nationally by Keith Jackson, Don Drysdale and Howard Cosell on ABC. It would last 3 hours, 55 minutes and be, by most any standard, one of the strangest postseason contests ever.

There would be a triple play transformed into a double play after a 20-minute delay, a huddle involving the umpires and the NL president and official protests filed by both teams.

There would be five double plays, four of which were initiated by outfielders.

In all, 32 players would take part, some, like Bochy and Pujols, would be hurt. There would be trapped balls, a throw that traveled backward, a successful appeal at third base and, of course, the famous crash between Rose and Bochy.

And if all that weren't odd enough, the lengthy contest delayed a Texas A&M-Houston football game, which had been scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Astrodome. By the time the baseball ended and the field was remade for football, kickoff was 11:33 p.m. It didn't finish until 2:41 a.m., at which time workers had to refit the field again, for Sunday night's Game 5.

With his team facing NLCS elimination for a fourth time in five years, Carlton wasn't sharp, lasting just 51/3 innings. Houston led, 2-0, by then but couldn't enhance its lead despite bases-loaded threats in the sixth and seventh innings.

In the seventh, Pujols had fouled a ball off his ankle and was unable to continue. With Ashby nursing an injury as well, manager Bill Virdon turned to Bochy, who had just 22 at-bats in 22 games that season.

The Phils' bats awoke in the eighth as they scored three off Joe Sambito to go ahead. But, typical of the memorable series, Terry Puhl's bottom-of-the-ninth single off Warren Brusstar sent it to extra innings, tied at 3-3.

Pinch-hitter Del Unser struck out to start the Phils 10th. Rose singled to center but couldn't advance on Mike Schmidt's line out to left. Manager Dallas Green then sent up Greg Luzinski to pinch-hit for Bake McBride.

Luzinski, in his final Phillies season, smoked one to the base of the wall in left. Rose read it immediately and, even at 39, roared around the bases. Leftfielder Jose Cruz played the ball off the wall and hurried it to relay man Rafael Landestoy.

"I can see Pete now," Phils pitcher Larry Christenson said Wednesday. "I was hanging on the [third base] dugout railing, so I had a great view. Here comes Pete, hair flying, legs churning as he makes a wide, wide turn at third, barreling toward Bochy."

Third-base coach Lee Elia had no choice but to wave him home.

"I know Pete Rose," Elia said. "Pete Rose was never going to stop."

The throw beat the runner, but short-hopped Bochy, who tried to corral it as he braced for a crash.

As Bochy and everyone else knew, Rose had gilded his "Charlie Hustle" reputation a decade earlier when, in the 1970 All-Star Game, he overran Cleveland catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run. Fosse, hurt in the fierce collision in what essentially was an exhibition game, was never the same.

"I hadn't played in six weeks," Bochy recalled recently, "and I'm called in in the eighth inning of a playoff game that's tied. And here comes Pete Rose."

As Bochy fumbled for the ball, Rose, a high school football star, raised his left arm like a battering ram and smashed into him.

"What I saw when I came around third was the catcher fighting with the throw," Rose said afterward. "The throw wasn't a good one. It would have been hard for anybody to handle it. So I went in any way I could."

Christenson said Rose wasn't trying to hurt Bochy but "it didn't bother Pete. He did whatever he had to. But Bochy took an incredible lick."

The ball rolled away, Bochy tumbled to the ground, and the Phils led, 4-3. Rose clapped his hands and headed for an emotional round of high fives.

Later, after his head cleared, the catcher told reporters he had no hard feelings. "A runner has no choice a lot of time," Bochy said then.

Some 30 years later, Bochy was diplomatic. "Every one of those games could have gone either way, extra innings," Bochy said Wednesday in San Francisco. "There was a play at the plate. We had a collision. You're going back 30 years ago. I can't hardly remember that."

Unser did remember. "It was good old rock 'em, sock 'em baseball," he said Wednesday.

Rose was still being congratulated when Manny Trillo singled in Luzinski, who had taken third on the play at the plate.

McGraw got the 1-2-3 save, and the Phils survived for what would be an even more intense Game 5, rallying again, this time from a 5-3 eighth-inning deficit against Nolan Ryan, to gain their first pennant in 30 years.

Except for one at-bat as a Padre in the 1984 World Series, those three innings against Philadelphia - he lined out to second in his lone at-bat - would be the extent of Bochy's postseason playing experiences.

Decades later, Bochy, who was bruised in the collision, was asked what he'd learned from the play.

"If I learned anything," said Bochy, "it's to be ready."

The Phillies and Giants split the season series at three games apiece. Most of the games were lopsided. But the series finale in San Francisco on April 28 was a memorable one. Here is a look at the six meetings:

April 26: Giants 5, Phillies 1

Hours before the game, Ryan Howard officially signed a five-year, $125 million extension, one of the largest contracts in history. Howard promptly went 0 for 3 with a walk against San Francisco lefthander Jonathan Sanchez, who was effectively wild in five innings. Giants backup catcher Eli Whiteside delivered two big blows off Roy Halladay - an RBI double in the second and a solo homer in the seventh. It was Halladay's first loss of the season.

April 27: Giants 6, Phillies 2

Todd Wellemeyer had a tenuous hold on his spot in the Giants' rotation but allowed just two runs in seven innings against the Phillies. (He was later released, in August.) Matt Downs, an infielder who also was later released, homered. For the second straight night, San Francisco tallied 10 hits against a Phillies starter; this time it was Jamie Moyer. Chad Durbin didn't help matters by allowing two runs in relief.

April 28: Phillies 7, Giants 6 (11 innings)

This stands as one of the most bizarre games of the season. Tim Lincecum was outstanding through eight innings, having allowed just a solo home run to Howard. But after issuing a one-out walk to Shane Victorino, manager Bruce Bochy pulled Lincecum. Giants closer Brian Wilson proceeded to allow a bases-clearing double to Jayson Werth that tied the game with two outs. After the Phillies took the lead in the 10th, Ryan Madson blew the save in the bottom half of the inning. He then kicked a chair in the clubhouse and broke his toe, which forced him to miss two months. In the 11th, the Phillies scored twice and journeyman Nelson Figueroa made it stick with his first professional save.

Aug. 17: Phillies 9, Giants 3

The fans cheered Pat Burrell in his return to Philadelphia. Then, he homered in the first inning off Roy Oswalt and some of the cheers turned to boos. But both Jimmy Rollins and Victorino had two-run singles in the fifth and sixth innings to open up a lead. In the eighth, they padded the lead with some San Francisco miscues. Rollins finished with three RBIs. Carlos Ruiz had two. Oswalt struck out seven in seven innings and didn't walk a batter.

Aug. 18: Phillies 8, Giants 2

Joe Blanton allowed yet another first-inning run, but he was almost spotless after that. The Phillies' fourth starter pitched 61/3 innings, allowing two runs (both on solo homers) on eight hits. He struck out seven and walked none. The Phillies beat up on Matt Cain, who was victimized by a Mike Fontenot error that led to three unearned runs. Rollins blasted a three-run homer to right to cap the four-run fourth.

Aug. 19: Giants 5, Phillies 2

Cole Hamels was not himself and it was evident early. In the first inning, he struck out Aaron Rowand but the Giants followed with a single, wild pitch, double, walk, single and another single. By then it was 3-0. Rookie Buster Posey had two hits and drove in two runs. Hamels was gone after the fifth, allowing five runs on seven hits. Hamels would allow four runs total over his next six starts. Once again, Jonathan Sanchez defeated the Phillies, this time going much deeper. He pitched eight innings and allowed just two hits. - Matt Gelb

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