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Minutiae Break: 5-Hit Games

On Friday night, Jose Reyes had 5 hits in a 14-inning win against the Braves. With the help of page 139 of the 2006 Mets Media Guide, here are some interesting nuggets about Mets 5-hit games.

* This was the 29th time a Met had at least 5 hits in a game (though the team media guide says it's the 27th, a count reveals 29 such instances). The only 6-hit game belongs to Edgardo Alfonzo (August 30, 1999 at Houston). The other 28 occurrences were 5 hits.

* Reyes became the 25th different Met with at least 5 hits in a game. Keith Hernandez (3), Mike Piazza (2) and Rusty Staub (2) are the only Mets to get at least 5 hits in a game on multiple occasions.

* Reyes became the first Met to get at least 5 hits in a home game since Dave Magadan (July 24, 1987, Game 2 of doubleheader vs Houston). He's only the 5th Met to get at least 5 hits in a game at Shea Stadium (Magadan, Wally Backman, Staub and John Milner).

* Reyes became the 2nd Met named Jose to get at least 5 hits in a game. The other is Jose Vizcaino (September 23, 1995 at Florida).

* This was the 6th time that a Mets player had at least 5 hits against the Braves. The other 5 are Jim Hickman, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds and Mike Piazza.

* This was the 5th time a Mets player had at least 5 hits in an extra-inning game and the first since the 19-inning encounter against the Braves on July 4, 1985 (Gary Carter).

* Reyes became the first Met to go 5-for-7 in a game. Every one of the other games was either a 5-for-5 (16 occurrences), a 5-for-6 (9 occurrences), a 5-for-9 (2 occurrences) or a 6-for-6 (1 occurrence)

* Reyes became the first Met to triple in a 5-hit game since Alex Ochoa (July 3, 1996 at Philadelphia). It was the sixth time that a Mets player tripled in a 5-hit game.

* Reyes became the third Met with no RBI in a 5-hit game, joining the previously mentioned Vizcaino and Ty Wigginton (May 10, 2004 at Arizona). Wigginton was the last Met to get 5 hits in a game, prior to Reyes.

True Metpents know...The first player to get at least 5 hits in a game for the Mets is first baseman Dick Smith, who did so as the leadoff man in a 19-1 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on May 26, 1964. "This Date in Mets History" tells the story of how a Met fan called a newspaper looking for the score of the result of that day's game. The newspaper man informed the fan that the Mets scored 19 runs. "Great," the fan said, then asked "did they win?"

Smith had 2 hits in his next game then went into a 0-for-23 slump. His Mets career was finished less than a month after his 5-hit game with just 31 total hits, the same total with which he would end his big league career after an 0-for-6 stint with the Dodgers the following season.

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