Yes, what happened on a Thursday night, June 8, 1989 at Veterans Stadium was supernatural. Final score: Phillies 15, Pirates 11 before 18,511 fans, some of whom might have left in the very first inning. How many stayed through the entire three-hour and 20-minute game? No one knows.
Supernatural? You decide.
**Former Phillies pitcher Bob Walk was the Pirates starter. Bob singled in two runs and had a 10–0 lead before he threw his first pitch. He lasted only 3.2 innings.
**Steve Jeltz, who replaced Phillies starting second baseman Tom Herr in the bottom of the 1st inning, hit a two-run homer from the left side in the bottom of the 4th inning that sent Walk to the showers with his team still leading by 10–4.
**Von Hayes, who played 1B-RF-1B, hit a pair of two-run home runs but no one noticed.
**Bottom of 6th inning with his team trailing, 11–6, Jeltz, now batting right-handed, became the first Phillies player to hit a home run from each side of the plate in the same game. His three-run blast pulled the Phillies to within 11–9.
**Jeltz finished the night with five RBIs. Going into the game, he had six total for the season. His two homers doubled his season output total.
**Bottom of the eighth, still trailing, 11–10, the Phillies tied the game on a wild pitch by Pirates pitcher Jeff Robinson that scored newcomer John Kruk. Then Darren Daulton followed with a two-run single to give the Phillies their first lead at 13-11. Curt Ford, a double-switch replacement two innings earlier, tripled in two more to make it 15-11. Ford was out at home plate trying for an inside-the-park homer. That’s 7–5–2, if you are keeping score. The left fielder who started the relay? 24-year-old, third-year outfielder named Barry Bonds.
**After falling behind, 10–0, Phillies outscored the Pirates, 15–1.
**Steve Bedrosian closed the door in the 9th. He would be traded to the San Francisco Giants just 10 days later in a deal that would bring Terry Mulholland and Charlie Hayes to the Phillies. Don Carman (2–9), who was the fourth of five Phillies pitchers, was the winner.
**Oh, Pittsburgh broadcaster Jim Rooker was a former pitcher with 13 years in the big-leagues, including 1973-80 with the Pirates. He was a member of their 1979 “We Are Family” world champions rotation. When the Pirates led 10–0 in the first inning, Rooker turned to his broadcasting partner John Sanders and famously said, “If we lose this game, I’ll walk back to Pittsburgh.”
**Well, that October 5th, Rooker and a friend left Philadelphia for a 327-mile walk to Pittsburgh. Took them 12 days. Backed by a sporting goods company and four corporate sponsors, “Rook’s Unintentional Walk” raised over $100,000 for charity in Pittsburgh.
Text originally published at Phillies Insider on June 8, 2020 as “Supernatural Comeback” and republished here by permission of the author.
MATT VEASEY 