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Odds and Endys

Wanted to share a few discoveries from a couple days worth of studying.

With the help of Baseball-Reference.com, I compiled a list of all the times the Mets had gotten a game-tying RBI (but not a game-winner), down to their final out in either regulation or extra innings (regardless of home/road location). It's something that's already happened twice this season, so I figured it was worth looking into.

* Julio Franco's hit in Washington on Saturday marked the 74th time in club history that it got a game-tying RBI with 2 outs in the 9th inning. It happened twice last season (Xavier Nady in an eventual loss to the Brewers on May 14th and Carlos Delgado in a win over the Marlins in Florida on September 13th).

It's something that has happened as often as four times a season in Mets history (most recently in the very forgettable 2004 season), and last happened at home on May 18, 2004 against the Cardinals (Kaz Matsui tied it with a hit and then Cliff Floyd followed with a walk-off hit.).

Julio became, I believe, the oldest Met to get a 2-out, 9th-inning game-tying RBI, by my guess supplanting Willie Mays, who got one in a loss to the Expos on July 2, 1972.

Some may also recall Franco nearly getting a 9th-inning, 2-out game-tying RBI against the Mets, as a Brave on May 23, 2003. That instance is recalled here in our famous list of Mets "tag-offs."

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/04/brief-history-of-agony-to-ecstasy.html

* What Damion Easley did on April 24, tying the Rockies game with a 2-out, extra-inning HR, was a much rarer feat. It was only the 8th time in Mets history that one of their players tied a game with a 2-out extra-inning RBI.

I can recall having attended a game in which the Mets did so. In fact, it's one of my all-time favorites. I blogged about it here nearly two years ago:

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/inspired-by-charles-schulz.html

Hitting a home run to tie a game with two outs in extra innings is extraordinarily rare. Consider that Easley joined a list consisting of only other two other Mets to do that: Hubie Brooks (May 6, 1983 against the Reds) and Lastings Milledge (June 4, 2006)

So now that I've got these two nifty lists, I'm looking for an appropriate name to describe these moments, such that if I wanted to write about them in the future, I could refer to them by a catchy moniker. Greg of Faith and Fear in Flushing has already provided the term "walk-ups" to describe games won by scoring the go-ahead runs in the bottom of the 8th. Should I just call these "tie-ups," or can anyone come up with something better?

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