1986 Philadelphia Phillies season

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 National League East.

Background
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.

Offseason

 * December 6, 1985: Jerry Koosman was released by the Phillies.
 * December 22, 1985: Tim Corcoran was released by the Phillies.
 * January 16, 1986: Ronn Reynolds was traded by the New York Mets with Jeff Bittiger to the Philadelphia Phillies for Rodger Cole and Ronnie Gideon.
 * March 17, 1986: Alan Knicely was released by the Phillies.

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 twenty-two 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 nineteen 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 nineteen 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 thirty-seven 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 twenty games out of first place.

Notable transactions

 * April 19, 1986: Tom Gorman was signed as a free agent by the Phillies.
 * May 9, 1986: Dave Stewart was released by the Phillies.
 * June 2, 1986: Chuck Knoblauch was drafted by the Phillies in the 18th round of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft, but did not sign.
 * June 24, 1986: Steve Carlton was released by the Phillies.
 * July 24, 1986: Tom Foley and Lary Sorensen were traded by the Phillies to the Montreal Expos for Dan Schatzeder and Skeeter Barnes.

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

Awards and honors

 * Garry Maddox, Roberto Clemente Award
 * Mike Schmidt, National League MVP