Skip to main content

Cardinals Walk-Offs and Other Minutiae

"You should treat that Cardinals-Phillies game like a Mets walk-off win. It was as important as any Mets win this season."
-- E-mail from my dad at around midnight, as we chuckled at the notion of the season coming down to rooting for Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina.

OK, I can do that...

* Let's start here: Yadier Molina is the first player in baseball history to beat the Mets with a Game 7 9th inning home run, then help them out with a walk-off hit the following season.

* It was Molina's 3rd career walk-off hit, his first since 2005. The first of the three came against the Mets and Mike Stanton, on August 7, 2004, a bases loaded, two-out single to give the Cardinals a 2-1 win.

* Molina's 3 walk-off hits break a tie with Bengie for most hits by a Molina brother. Bengie has 2. Jose has none.

* It was the Cardinals 4th walk-off win of the season and their first against the Phillies since a Jim Edmonds 13th inning walk-off home run on April 29, 2004.

* It was the Phillies 8th walk-off loss of the season and the 2nd that ended with Brett Myers on the mound. It was their second 2-1 walk-off loss of the season, with the other occurring against the Reds (Brandon Phillips single) on April 20).

* It was the first time since August 2, 1997, in which the Cardinals beat the Phillies, despite scoring 2 or fewer runs. The Cardinals had lost their last 7 games to the Phillies in which they scored 2 or fewer runs.

* The difference in the standings? Well, this is the 3rd time this season that the Phillies have lost a game in which they allowed 2 runs or fewer. They were 32-0 in such games last season.

* Had it been the Mets winning, it would have been only the 2nd time in team history that they earned a 2-1 walk-off win against the Phillies. The other was on April 8, 1975, when Joe Torre opened the season with a game-ending hit.

True Melinas know...This was not the most crushing Phillies walk-off defeat to take place on a September 19. Let's harken back to September 19, 1964, for a moment. The first-place Phillies went 16 innings with the Dodgers, losing 4-3. The winning run scored on a straight steal of home by daring Dodgers outfielder Willie Davis. The loss didn't seem like such a big deal at the time, since the Phils still led the NL by 5 1/2 games, but it turned out to be. Two days later began a 10-game losing streak and a historic Phillies collapse that ended with the Cardinals as NL (and eventual World Series) champs.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess...
10 comments
Read more

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu...
8 comments
Read more