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The 1986 Philadelphia Phillies season was the 104th season for the Phillies. Under second-year manager John Felske, the Phillies stayed just below the .500 mark for roughly two-thirds of the season, until a charge after the All-Star break pushed the club past the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos into second place in the NL East. The eventual World Series champions rival New York Mets finished with a Major League best 108-54 record, and finished 21 1⁄2 games ahead of the Phillies. The Mets and the Phillies were the only teams in the National League East to post winning records. Mike Schmidt became the first third baseman in the history of the National League to win the MVP Award three times.
Contents
Offseason
Regular season
On August 20, 1986, pitcher Don Carman took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park. Giants catcher Bob Brenly hit a long drive into the gap in left-center field. Phillies center fielder Milt Thompson was positioned to make a running catch but the ball hit the base of his glove and was ruled a hit. Carman pitched nine innings, gave up one hit, and was the winner when the Phillies scored in the top of the tenth on a Juan Samuel solo homer to win the game 1 to 0.
The Phillies were the only team in the National League to post a winning record against the World Series champs, going 10-8 with a 7-2 mark at Veterans Stadium. The high point of the season for the Phillies was the three-game sweep of the Mets in mid-September. On September 12, up by 22 games, the Mets needed to win one game to clinch the division and came to Philadelphia for a weekend series. The Phillies won all three games, finishing the weekend by beating the Mets 6-0 behind a six-hit shutout by Kevin Gross who also tripled home two runs. The sweep still left the Phillies down 19 games but was both especially satisfying given the significant number of Mets fans who had traveled to Veterans Stadium for the weekend hoping to see the Mets clinch, and necessary because they were swept in a three-game series in Chicago preceding this series and did not want to see a visiting team's division-title celebration at Veterans Stadium. Had the Mets won one of the three games, it would have been the first time that a division title was won at Veterans Stadium. During the series, Mets fans at Veterans Stadium became unruly and damaged seats in the upper deck. One Mets fan was arrested after striking at two Philadelphia police officers.
The club scored a season-high 19 runs in a 19-1 throttling of the Chicago Cubs at the Vet on June 23.
Hall-of-Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt won the NL MVP for the third and final time in his career with a league-high 37 home runs with 119 RBI and a .290 average. The Phillies distant second-place finish made Schmidt the first major-league MVP to have played on a team that finished at least 20 games first place.
Notable transactions
Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts