Ah, the 13 game road winning streak back in 1976. With tonight's come from behind 4-3 win in Florida the 2023 Phillies have certainly reached some atmospheric heights. Winning on the road is always tough, winning 13 in a row is almost unheard of. But as impressive as this year's club winning streak is, a strong case can be made that the streak in 1976 was even more historic. Why? Let me count the ways.
First, it began in the most amazing way. Off to a dismal 1-3 start, the Phils found themselves trailing 12-1 in the 4th of Game 5 in Chicago. Steve Carlton had been bombed, the Cubs had ace Rick Reuchel on the hill, and the Phils looked as if they were sleep walking through the first week of the season. In the dugout, Dick Allen called the team together and told the players to just have fun and play ball as if it was a sandlot game. Mike Schmidt said it certainly inspired him...and 4 home runs [by Schmidt] and 7 innings later the Phils had a most improbable 18-16 victory.
Second, this game would also be the LAST game won by a reliever during the streak. No misprint here, 12 more wins, 12 more wins by starting pitchers. Larry Christenson won 4, and Tom Underwood, Jim Kaat, Jim Lonborg and Carlton each won 2. Not only that, but in the last 11 wins they allowed only 14 runs. Yep, an ERA of 1.1.
Third, during the final 12 games they trailed only ONCE, a 1-0 deficit in Houston, and this lasted only 2 innings. Thats correct. In 108 innings of play the Phils either led or were tied in 106 of them.
Fourth, not surprisingly, when the streak ended the Phils record was 32-11, and all of that after starting the season 1-3. so for six glorious weeks the Phils played to a 31-8 record. The team was playing so well that one night as the team bus was driving past a college diamond featuring two ranked teams the aforementioned Allen stood up and exclaimed "stop the bus, we'll go play them and kick their butts too!"
The team would go on to win 101 games and initiated what would become a wonderful [76-83] era in Phillie baseball, an era that punctuated players like Schmidt, Luzinski, Bowa, Maddox, Carlton, Boone and McGraw into historic Phillie icons.
