The Phillies, who started the season 8-0 and 11-1, had just a one-game lead through games of Sept. 7 before they caught fire down the stretch.
Oct. 1, 1950: Phillies 4, Dodgers 1
If you thought trying to forget the 1964 collapse was bad, consider this: The 1950 Phillies had a 7-game lead with 11 games to play and, but for the grace of Richie Ashburn's arm and Dick Sisler's bat, would have been headed to a three-game playoff.
The Phils held a one-game lead over the Dodgers when the season finale at Ebbets Field got under way. Robin Roberts , starting for the fifth time in 13 days, battled Don Newcombe to a 1-1 tie entering the bottom of the ninth.
With runners on first and second and no outs, Duke Snider laced a single to center, where the shallow-playing Ashburn fielded it and rifled a perfect throw to the plate to nail Cal Abrams.
Roberts got out of the inning, and then led off the 10th with a single. After another single, Roberts was erased at third on an attempted sacrifice, but Sisler, with a badly sprained wrist, belted a 1-2 fastball into the leftfield stands, his fourth hit of the game sending the Phillies to their second World Series.
Oct. 12, 1980: Phillies 8, Astros 7
Handing Nolan Ryan a three-run lead with six outs to go is not the easy way to end a 30-year World Series drought. But the Phils did it anyway.
Larry Bowa started the five-run eighth-inning rally. Ryan stayed around long enough to allow two more singles to load the bases and a walk to Pete Rose for the first run of the inning. Keith Moreland's groundout plated another and Del Unser tied it with a single. Manny Trillo capped off his LCS MVP performance with a triple, scoring the two runs the Astros would match in bottom of the inning.
