Philadelphia Phillies Retro Scorecard Recap: July 7, 2000

Recapping all the “action” of a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles from 20 years ago today.

I’m going to take a bit of a break from my normal habit of recapping Philadelphia Phillies losses to the Atlanta Braves in these retro scorecard articles to talk about a game that the Phillies lost to the Baltimore Orioles. Different, right? This particular defeat at the hands of the O’s came 20 years ago today on July 7, 2000, just past the midpoint of a season that I’ve been hammering for the past few months.

Let’s get to the action.

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It’s a pleasant Friday evening at Veterans Stadium, and we’ve got a great pitching matchup, with Mike Mussina taking on Curt Schilling. We don’t know it at the time, but this will ultimately be Schilling’s final home start as a Phil, with a trade to Arizona just a few weeks away. Mussina is in his tenth and final season with Baltimore, and he’s making just his second-ever start at the Vet.

The Phils get the scoring started in the bottom of the first after Doug Glanville leads off with a single, advances to second on a Bobby Abreu walk, then comes home on a base knock by Mike Lieberthal. Pat Burrell then walks to load the bases but Mickey Morandini whiffs, allowing Mussina to escape the first frame with just one run against.

The Phillies should have quit right here.

The O’s get the run right back in the second inning, when a Greg Myers (who?) single brings home B.J. Surhoff to tie it 1-1. The Phillies get men on base in every inning between the second and fifth against Mussina but are unable to put any more runs on the board, so we’re now on to the sixth inning and you can officially call this “a pitcher’s duel”.

Mike Bordick tags Schill for a double to start the inning. Two batters later, great hitter but horrible human being Albert Belle delivers an RBI single to give Baltimore the lead. Belle is actually in the last season of his career, which will be derailed by a hip condition. He’s probably a Hall of Famer if he gets a few more years out of his body and/or wasn’t hated by just about everybody.

The Phils go down meekly against Mussina in the sixth and seventh, and then a two-out Burrell double in the eigth fails to produce anything either. We’re headed to the ninth, with the Orioles still clinging to a 2-1 lead. Schilling puts the Orioles down in the top half of the inning. He’s done his job. Nine innings, two runs allowed on seven hits, eight strikeouts, 135 pitches thrown. Yes, 135! Baseball was different.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies break out the big guns.

Mussina (118 pitches in eight innings) finally cedes the mound to Buddy Groom. With Desi Relaford due up, Terry Francona makes his big move off the bench for…Brian Hunter. And Hunter delivers with a single. But that’s not all, as Tito sends out Kevin Sefcik to pinch run for him.

Oh, man. It’s on.

Then, with Schilling’s spot due up, Francona sends Alex Arias to the plate. To bunt. And he gets it down! The sac is good, Sefcik is at second, and we’re all set for an exciting finish.

The O’s summon future Scott Rolen-trade piece, Mike Timlin, from the ‘pen, hoping he can get the final two outs. Doug Glanville and Ron Gant oblige, with both of them failing to hit the ball out of the infield. Game over, Orioles win 2-1. At least there are only 78 more games to go for the 2000 Philadelphia Phillies. (They’d go 27-51 in those games.) Ugh.