Amazin’s take 2 of 3 from Phightin’s

8/3-8/5 - Veterans Stadium
GAME 1 - PHI 2, NYM 1
Tom Seaver vs Terry Mulholland
The Phightin's surprised everyone by tapping unheralded southpaw Terry Mulholland for opening day duties.  Most fans in attendance expected to see the historic matchup of Seaver vs Carlton.  Surely they were disappointed with what looked on paper to be a lopsided matchup, but none were disappointed in the result.  Simply put, Mulholland bested Tom Terrific in this classic opening day pitcher's duel.  Mulholland went 8 2/3 innings before giving way to former Met Tug McGraw who nailed down the 1 out save.  Mulholland's offense scored solo runs off of Seaver in the 1st and 2nd.  After that, "the franchise", found his stride, which meant Philly couldn't touch him.  Unfortunately for Seaver his offense could not muster up any run support for him until HoJo hit a solo shot in the 7th.  New York had a chance to tie it in the 9th when Mex led off with a single and HoJo walked with 2 outs.  Lee Mazzilli was called on to pich hit for Kevin McReynolds, and that's when McGraw was called on to stem the rally.  Philly had 6 hits on the day as Pete Rose, Greg Luzinski and Garry Maddox had them all with identical 2 hit days.

GAME 2 - NYM 4, PHI 3
Doc Gooden vs Robin Roberts
No surprise rotation changes here in this battle of workhorse righties.  Philly got to Doc early with 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st.  "Whitey" singled to lead off the inning and stole second off of Gooden, who is notoriously bad at holding runners close.  Bowa walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd and Richie Allen hit a bullet threw the hole to score Ashburn.  Up came Michael Jack Schmidt who was a tad under a Doc Gooden rising fastball.  That split second late movement produced a tailor made 6-4-3 DP.  On the play Bowa scored, but Gooden limited the would be damage.  New York would post a solo run on a similar DP scenario in the 3rd to cut Philly's lead to 2-1.  Daryl Strawberry would lead off the 4th with a solo shot off of Roberts, who is know to throw the gopher ball.  Cleon "If the van is a rockin', don't come a-knockin" Jones followed that up with a gapper that was just beyond the reach of "the secretary of defense" (Garry Maddox) in center.  When the dust cleared, Jones was standing on 3rd with a triple.  A sac fly by "the kid", Gary Carter gave New York it's first lead of the series (3-2).  After striking out Dutch Daulton to lead off the 5th and getting Roberts to ground out weakly to Millan at second, Gooden gave up a 2 out double to Ashburn.  Larry Bowa followed and was quickly staring down the barrel of a loaded gun with an 0-2 count.  Philly's hard nosed shortstop choked up on the bat and flared one to right to score Whitey to tie the game a 3- 3.  Roberts would suffer the same fate as Gooden suffered in the 5th when he allowed a 2 out double to Met lead off man Mookie Wilson.  Up next was Bowa's mirror image, Buddy Harrelson, who performed the same magic by flaring one to left to score the speedy Wilson.  With the score now in favor of New York (4-3) it was time for the bullpen to do it's magic for the Amazin's.  McGraw, who is doing double duty in this series, pitched a perfect 8th and Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco would split time in the 9th with the latter locking down the save.  Doc Gooden would get the win on a day where he fanned 6 and threw 122 pitches in 7 innings of work.

GAME 3 - NYM 4, PHI 2
Jon Matlack vs Steve Carlton
The rubber match of the series would feature Steve Carlton's debut performance in this young season.  "Lefty", who doesn't talk to the press, was somewhat upset by being bypassed for opening day duties as well as game 2 duties.  New York answered with an unsung lefty of their own Jon Matlack, who actually holds the record for the best ERA in the history of Shea Stadium.  Of course that little known stat wasn't going to help him today, since the game was 90 miles south of the "Big Blue Toilet in Flushing".  Still Matlack was poised to go toe to toe with Carlton.  Philly got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd when Michael Jack Schmidt was able to touch them all on just one mighty swing to lead off the inning.  An inning later Felix Millan would triple home Matlack (who walked) to tie the game at 1-1.  Philly would take a 2-1 lead courtesy of a throwing error by center fielder Mookie Wilson who mishandled Granny Hammer rope to center and was forced to hurry his throw.  That miscue allowed the enigmatic Richie Allen to score all the way from first on a play that he shockingly hustled on.  Cleon Jones would greet Carlton with a solo shot to lead off the 7th to tie the game at 2-2.  Carlton was done after 7 innings of fine work where he fanned 7 and allowed just 2 to score.  Jon Matlack would continue on into the 8th and began to show signs of wear.  After allowing a lead off single (Del Ennis) and a walk (Allen), Matlack was fortunate to get Schmidt to hit into a DP.  With Ennis on 3rd with 2 out Matlack was given strict instructions to give the next two batters (John Kruk & Hamner) intentional passes.  That brought up Stan Lopata, who hit a weak fly to Jones in left to end the inning.  Jim Lonborg, who pitched a scoreless 8th, would take the hill once again to start the 9th.  After getting Carter and Strawberry to fly out he gave up a 2 out triple to Cleon Jones.  Philly, taking a page out of New York's book, issued intentional passes to the next two batters (HoJo & Harrelson).  With Matlack due up Philly had forced New York's hand and so Dave Magadan was called on to pinch hit.  Unlike Lopata, Magadan was up to the task of being a hero and lined a two out two run opposite field single to score Jones and HoJo.  New York would take a 4-2 lead into the 9th.   Ron Taylor would get a chance to close out the game.  Taylor, who in his post baseball life practices medicine, decided to pick the corners and perform fine surgery.  That did not bode well for him as Juan Samuel was able to get a lead off pinch hit single and Whitey wound up walking.  Taylor re-adjusted his prognosis and decided to go straight at his patient's ailments.  In 3 pitches he struck out "the Bull" and in 4 pitches he dispatched Ennis.  Johnny Callison was up next to pinch hit for Allen, who was none too happy about being lifted.  Callison fought off a Taylor fastball and hit a bullet to HoJo at 3rd to end the game.