In 1993 the Philadelphia Phillies 97-65 managed by former player Jim Fregosi faced the world champion Blue Jays in the WorldSeries.
Philadelphia was led by Lenny Dystra 19HR/.305BA/37SB/143RS, John Kruk .316BA/100RS, Darren Daulton 24HR/105RBI, Kevin Stocker .324BA and Pete Incaviglia with 21 home runs.
Their strength was in their pitching staff led by Curt Schilling 16-7, Danny Jackson 12-11, Tommy Greene 16-4, Terry Mulholland 12-9, and Ben Rivera 13-9 with Mitch Williams in the bullpen with 43 saves.
The Blue Jays 95-67 returned many of the same players from the previous year but added Paul Molitor .332BA/24HR/111RBI/121RS/211HT who together with the American League batting champion John Olerud .363BA/24HR/109RBI/107RS, Roberto Alomar .326BA/55SB/109RS/200HT, Rickey Henderson 22SB and Joe Cater 33HR/121RBI led the Toronto offense.
Juan Guzman 14-3, Pat Hentgen 19-9, Dave Stewart 12-8 and closer Duane Ward with 45 saves led the Jays’ pitching staff.
The additions of Stewart, Molitor and Henderson to their championship team made them favorites in the Fall Classic.
Game one was in the skydome in Toronto with Schilling opposing Juan Guzman. Toronto got to Schilling for seven runs helped by home runs by Devon White and John Olerud and the Jays win game one 7-2 and go up 1-0 in the series.
In game two Terry Mulholland started against Dave Stewart and the Phillies got to Stewart for five runs with home runs by Lenny Dystra and Jim Eisenreich providing enough for a 6-4 Philadelphia victory and the series is tied at one game each.
Game three switched to Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia but the visiting Blue Jays teed off on the Phillie pitching scoring ten runs led by Roberto Alomar with four hits and Paul Molitor with three, including a home run and Toronto wins 10-3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
Game four was one of the stranger games in World Series history as a total of 29 runs were scored off of eleven pitchers in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Phillies were ahead 14-9 after seven innings with the help of two home runs by Lenny Dystra and one by Darren Daulton but their bullpen allowed Toronto to score six runs in the top of the eighth to win the game 15-14 and go up three games to one over the Phils.
In game five Curt Schilling showcased the skill that would show up in later WorldSeriesas he pitched a five hit shutout to win the game 2-0 and pull Philadelphia to within one game of Toronto 3-2 as the teams move back to Canada.
Dave Stewart made his eighth career World Series start against Terry Mulholland and the Blue Jays staked him out to a 5-0 lead until the top of the seventh inning when the Phils came up with five runs to tie the game with the big hit being another home run by Lenny Dystra.
The gameproceded to the bottom of the ninth inning with the Phillies” hard throwing closer Mitch Williams in to face the Blue Jays. Williams walked Rickey Henderson to open the inning and got the next hitter to fly out before Paul Molitor singled with Henderson going to second base with Joe Carter coming to the plate.
Carter then lofted one of the most famous home runs in World Series history to leftfield and the Blue Jays win the game 8-5 and the series four games to two.
Paul Molitor with two home runs, eight RBI’s and who batted .500 and tied World Series records with 12 hits and 10 runs scored in a six game series, won the series MVP. Toronto has not been back to the WorldSeries and Philadelphia returned in 2008.
Even though the Bengals lost Joe Burrow had another good game, passing for over 400 yards against the Browns. He leads the NFL in completions with 195 and is third in passing yardage with 2023.
