1985 Game 15 - 1985 Fleer #653 John Russell / Steve Jeltz

Cubs 7, Phillies 3
Game 15 - Friday Night, April 26th in Philadelphia
Record - 4-11, Tied for 5th Place, 7 games behind the Cubs

One Sentence Summary:  Jerry Koosman was hammered in his latest outing and didn't make it out of the second inning as the Cubs cruised to a 7-2 win.

What It Means:  This was the second straight rough outing for Koosman after he had shut down the Cubs earlier in April.  He'd make one more start on April 30th before missing the month of May with a bad left knee.

What Happened:  The Cubs scored five runs off Koosman in the first two innings.  Dennis Eckersley was in control for the Cubs from the outset, pitching a complete game and holding the Phillies to three runs (two earned).  Ryne Sandberg and Davey Lopes both had three-hit games for the Cubs with Lopes hitting a three-run home run in the first before the Veterans Stadium crowd of over 27,000 fans had even settled in for the night.

Glenn Wilson prolonged Eckerlsley's outing with an RBI triple in the ninth.  Steve Jeltz had a pair of errors at shortstop and went 0 for 3 to drop his season average to .186.  Mike Schmidt went 0 for 4 and was hitting .157 through the first 15 games of 1985.

Featured Card:  At this point in the season, Juan Samuel had started every game at second, Schmidt had started every game at third and Jeltz had started every game at shortstop.  The slumping Jeltz was about to get his first day off on Saturday night in game 16, and Schmidt would get a few days off a week later.  John Russell and Tim Corcoran had split first base duties with Russell hitting just .158.

1985 Cramer Hawaii Islanders #244

1985 Cramer Portland Beavers #50

Transaction:  The Phillies and Pirates swapped minor league catchers before this game with the Phillies sending Mike Diaz to Pittsburgh and getting back Steve Herz in return.  Neither would appear with their respective new teams in 1985, so this was a strange trade then and a strange trade now.  Diaz, acquired from the Cubs with Bill Campbell in the awful deal that sent Bob Dernier, Gary Matthews and Porfi Altamirano to Chicago, would go on to appear in 247 games with the Pirates between 1986 and 1988.  Diaz hit 16 home runs and drove in 48 as a back-up catcher, first baseman and corner outfielder with the Pirates in 1987.  He'd also spend four seasons playing in Japan between 1989 and 1992.

Herz appeared in 85 games for the Portland Beavers in 1985, his last year in professional baseball.