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

The last-place Phillies are managing a bit of a smile 64 years ago this morning, 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 much-needed victory gives the Phillies their 30th victory in 94 games of what already is a lost season in 1961.

The mood, though, quickly shifts as Phillies are about to find out just how lost they really are that summer as they lose 64 years ago tonight to the Giants by the same 4-3 score.

All of the Giants’ runs come on a first-inning grand slam by future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda off Phillies starter Don Ferrarese.

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.

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.”