1985 Game 17 - 1984 Tastykake Phillies Phillie Phanatic

Phillies 3, Cubs 2
Game 17 - Sunday Afternoon, April 28th in Philadelphia
Record - 6-11, 5th Place, 5 1/2 games behind the Expos

One Sentence Summary:  Kevin Gross and Larry Andersen handled the Cubs offense as the Phillies squeaked by with a 3-2 win.

What It Means:  The good news was this win allowed the Phillies to crawl out of the N.L. East cellar and they wouldn't spend another day in last place for the rest of the season.  The bad news is the Phillies would pretty much park themselves in fifth place for the rest of the season.  The Pirates were now behind the Phillies in the division and this win helped the Expos overtake the Cubs for the top spot.

What Happened:  With the frequent off days in April, this was the first time the services of the team's fifth starter, Kevin Gross, were needed.  Gross pitched six solid innings, allowing two runs on five hits.  Andersen pitched the final three scoreless innings to record his second save of the season.

There wasn't much offense in the game as two of the Phillies runs were unearned.  In the first, Juan Samuel reached on an erroneous throw from Cubs shortstop Larry Bowa.  Samuel stole second and third and came home when Von Hayes grounded out to short.  In the fourth, Mike Schmidt reached on an error from third baseman Richie Hebner, scoring Hayes who had doubled to lead off the inning.  Ozzie Virgil then singled Schmidt home.  The badly slumping John Russell went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts, dropping his average to .120.

Featured Card:  Many years later, as one of the team's broadcasters, Andersen would comment it seemed to be a strange coincidence how the Phillie Phanatic's birthday always fell on a Sunday with a home game.  The Phanatic's birthday was celebrated before this game with all kids receiving a free Phanatic undershirt.  The Phanatic was left out of the 1985 and 1986 team-issued photo card sets, so here's his card from the 1984 set.

Below is a look at the team's promotional give-aways for the 1985 season.  There's a typo with the Phanatic undershirt, as the giveaway happened on the 28th and not the 23rd.  How many of these did you get?