There’s bad, and then there’s really bad

Gene Mauch with the Phillies

The last-place Phillies must be feeling just fine 63 years ago today, having snapped a five-game losing streak just the night before with a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium.

That victory gives the Phillies their 30th victory in 94 games of what already is a lost season in 1961.

Well, the Phillies are about to find out just how lost they really are that summer as they lose 63 years ago tonight to the Giants by the same 4-3 score, thanks to a first-inning grand slam by future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda.

The Phillies not only lose this game in their second season with Gene Mauch as their manager, they also will lose their next 22 for a 23-game skid that is – and remains – the major leagues’ worst since the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenies drop 23 straight.

During the losing streak, the Phillies drop 17 straight on the road and six at home with eight of those 23 losses coming by one run.

At one point, they go 31 innings over five games without scoring a run.

The Phillies finally win again in 1961 on Aug. 20, beating the Milwaukee Braves 7-4 in the second game of a doubleheader at old County Stadium, prompting some players to give Mauch a celebratory ride on their shoulders after the team returns to Philadelphia.

The long-awaited victory in Milwaukee pulls the Phillies within 56 games of .500 at 31-87.

Alas, they finish the 1961 season entrenched in last place with the majors’ worst record at 47-107 – a mere 17 games behind the seventh-place Chicago Cubs in the National League and 46 games behind the pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds.

“If it’s true that you learn from adversity,” Mauch later says, “then I must be the smartest SOB in the world.”