© Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports
This Day in Phillies History: September 25
It was a late September day at Veterans Stadium in South Philadelphia, just under a month before the Philadelphia Phillies would hoist the World Series trophy. And the Phillies were hosting the lowly 63-90 New York Mets, whom they narrowly beat 2-1.
Marty Bystrom was the starting pitcher for the Phils that day, going up against the 1976 NL Rookie of the Year Pat Zachry.
Bystrom pitched 6.2 strong innings for Philadelphia, in which he allowed just one run on four hits, and struck out six.
However, Mets pitching kept the Phils lineup quiet through four innings, until Manny Trillo hit a lead-off triple off of Roy Lee Jackson in the fifth.
The next batter, Garry Maddox, then singled to score Trillo to put the Phils up 1-0.
Larry Bowa singled to keep the inning rolling, and a few batters later, Lonnie Smith hit an RBI-single to extend their lead to 2-0.
The Mets were able to get one run back in the seventh versus Bystrom, but that was all they would get.
But it wasn't Tug McGraw who closed the game out for the Phils, it was former Cy Young award winner Sparky Lyle who got traded to the Phillies from the Texas Rangers just about a week prior.
Lyle picked up the 8-out save, his tenth of the season. He did not appear in the postseason for the Phils that year though.
Following this game, the Phillies finished out their final ten games of the season 7-3, to conclude their season at 91-71.
And as they say, the rest is history.
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