The Main Event

  • September 9, 1970 – The Phils struck out 26 times in a doubleheader against the Mets; Nolan Ryan fanned 13 in a Phillies loss in game one, and Ray Sadecki fanned 12 in a complete-game win for New York in game two.
  • September 9, 1970 – Greg Luzinski made his major league debut, striking out as a pinch-hitter in the second game of that Mets doubleheader — the team’s first player born in the 1950s.

On a Wednesday night at Shea Stadium, the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets played a doubleheader that had originally been rained out back on June 21. Neither club had much on the line. The Phillies were buried in a rebuilding year under manager Frank Lucchesi, and the Mets, the defending World Champions, had already fallen out of the 1970 pennant race. What the twin bill lacked in stakes, it made up for in pitching theater, a franchise milestone, and a strikeout total that still shows up in Phillies trivia questions more than fifty years later.

Game One: Nolan Ryan’s Wildness Meets Barry Lersch‘s Best Day

Nolan Ryan started the opener for the Mets, and by 1970 his career was still very much a question mark. Injuries and control problems had kept him from claiming a permanent rotation spot, and he had not pitched at all that spring before the season began. None of that showed early against the Phillies. Ryan was overpowering, working eight innings and striking out 13 Phillies batters while allowing just two runs on six hits and two walks.

The trouble for the Mets was that Barry Lersch matched him. The Phillies right-hander, in his first full big league season, threw a complete game, scattering six hits and two walks across nine innings while striking out nine Mets. Catcher Tim McCarver gave Philadelphia an early cushion with a two-run home run off Ryan in the second inning, and it held up until Cleon Jones tied it with a two-run shot off Lersch in the sixth. Ryan was lifted after eight innings, and reliever Danny Frisella came on to start the ninth. He struck out one more Phillies hitter, but he also let the go-ahead run score, taking the loss as Philadelphia held on to win 3-2.

Game Two: Ray Sadecki Shuts the Door

If game one was a strikeout showcase split between two staffs, game two belonged almost entirely to one pitcher. Ray Sadecki started for the Mets and went the distance, allowing just one run on four hits over nine innings while striking out 12 Phillies. Grant Jackson took the loss for Philadelphia, working six innings and allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts of his own, and Fred Wenz closed out the game for the Phillies with two scoreless, hitless innings in relief. The final score was 3-1, Mets, giving New York a split of the doubleheader.

A Debut Buried in the Box Score

Tucked into the bottom of the Phillies’ lineup in game two was a 19-year-old outfielder named Greg Luzinski, pinch-hitting for Grant Jackson. He was retired in his only plate appearance of the night, the first at bat of a major league career that would eventually produce four All-Star selections and a run to the 1980 World Series title with Philadelphia. He also happened to be the first Phillies player born in the 1950s, a small but tidy marker of the changing of the guard on a team that was about to spend most of the decade rebuilding around young talent like Luzinski, Larry Bowa, and Mike Schmidt.

Ray Sadecki, the Most Underrated Arm of His Generation

Sadecki’s dominant complete game against the Phillies is a fitting showcase for a pitcher whose career deserves more attention than it usually gets. Signed by the Cardinals as a bonus baby out of Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City, Kansas, at just seventeen years old, Sadecki was in the big leagues by nineteen. He broke out in 1964, winning 20 games as the left-handed complement to Bob Gibson on a Cardinals team that came from well back in the standings to win the National League pennant on the final day of the season. Sadecki started Game One of that year’s World Series and beat the Yankees, then made another start in Game Four as St. Louis won the title in seven games.

Two years later, Sadecki became a footnote in someone else’s headline when the Cardinals traded him to the Giants for Orlando Cepeda, who went on to win the 1967 NL MVP award in St. Louis. Sadecki spent the rest of the decade as a steady, sometimes hard-luck starter in San Francisco before the Giants sent him to the Mets after the 1969 season. It was with New York that he found his second act as a swingman, capable of starting or closing out games in relief. That versatility paid off in 1973, when Sadecki threw eight scoreless innings across three appearances during the Mets’ pennant-clinching series against the Pirates, then pitched in four games of that year’s World Series against Oakland, picking up a save in Game Four and allowing only a single run across the whole series.

By the time he retired in 1977, Sadecki had pitched eighteen seasons for seven organizations, finishing with a 135-131 record, a 3.78 ERA, and 1,614 strikeouts. He is remembered, when he is remembered at all, mostly as the player traded for Cepeda. But he was a 20-game winner and World Series starter at 23, a key bullpen piece on another pennant winner nine years later, and one of the rare bonus babies of his era who built a long, genuinely useful career instead of flaming out. His performance against the Phillies on September 9, 1970, striking out a dozen batters in a complete game, was simply one more quiet, excellent night in a career full of them.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for September 9

  • September 9, 1914 – George Davis of the Braves no-hit the Phils in the second game of a doubleheader in Boston; two Phillies reached on errors and five more on walks.
  • September 9, 1945 – Jimmie Foxx hit his 534th and final career home run as the Phils beat Pittsburgh 14-3 in the second game of a doubleheader; he’d also homered in the day’s first game.
  • September 9, 1947 – Second baseman Emil Verban struck out facing St. Louis’ Murry Dickson — his eighth and final strikeout of the year, a team record for fewest by a batting-title qualifier.
  • September 9, 1950 – Curt Simmons made his last start of the year, a 7-5 win over Boston; his National Guard unit had been activated for Korea, and he’d been pitching on day passes until reporting for training that month, missing the rest of the pennant chase and the World Series.
  • September 9, 1992 – Signed free agent Jose DeLeon.
  • September 9, 1998 – Acquired Doug Nickel from Anaheim to complete the August 8, 1998 trade for Gregg Jefferies.
  • September 9, 2003 – The Phils beat the Braves 18-5 behind grand slams from Tomas Perez and Jason Michaels — the first career slam for each.
  • September 9, 2004 – In Atlanta, Jason Michaels bobbled a fly ball so badly he pushed it over the wall for a home run; the Phillies still won 9-4, hitting four homers of their own, including two on the game’s first two pitches.

ICYMI

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for September 9

  • Dots Miller (born 1886) – Infielder who closed out his career with the Phillies in 1920-1921, splitting time at first, second and third after starting out on the pennant-winning 1909 Pirates.
  • Hugh Mulcahy (born 1913) – Right-hander who pitched for the Phillies through the late 1930s and 1940s, earning the nickname “Losing Pitcher Hughie” for leading the NL in losses in back-to-back seasons; in 1940 he became the first major leaguer drafted into military service ahead of WWII.
  • Earl Averill (born 1931) – Backup catcher/infielder/outfielder — son of Hall of Famer Earl Averill Sr. — who closed out his seven-year big-league career with 47 games for the 1963 Phillies, mostly as a pinch-hitter.
  • Ron Stone (born 1942) – Outfielder who played four seasons (1969-1972) with the Phillies, valued for his speed, defense and strong throwing arm.
  • Tom Foley (born 1959) – Utility infielder who played short, second and third for the Phillies in 1985-1986 after coming over in the Bo Diaz trade with Cincinnati, before being dealt to Montreal.
  • Todd Zeile (born 1965) – Veteran third baseman/first baseman who signed with the Phillies for the 1996 season, hitting 20 home runs and driving in 80 runs before an August trade to Baltimore.
  • Félix Rodríguez (born 1972) – Right-handed reliever the Phillies acquired from San Francisco in July 2004; went 2-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 23 games before being traded to the Yankees for Kenny Lofton that winter.
  • JoJo Romero (born 1996) – Left-handed reliever developed by the Phillies who made his major league debut in August 2020, striking out all three batters he faced.
  • Otto Kemp (born 1999) – Utility infielder/outfielder who debuted with the Phillies in June 2025 and remained on the big league roster into the 2026 season. Currently at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

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