Skip to main content

'Complete'ly By Surprise

You know what's more rare than a complete game these days?

How about a complete game walk-off win.

The Mets haven't had one of those in 10 years.

The last one came on August 1, 1998. The Mets and Dodgers dueled that day in a contest with a rather thrilling payoff.

The game was a scoreless pitchers duel for seven innings between Rick Reed and Carlos Perez. With two outs and nobody on in the eighth, Luis Lopez inserted for defensive purposes, booted a likely inning-ending grounder from Alex Cora. The next hitter, Eric Young, made Lopez pay, lining a double down the left field line to plate Cora and give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

The Mets put two men on base in the home eighth, but reliever Antonio Osuna worked wonders, setting down Mike Piazza, Brian McRae and Lenny Harris, to maintain an edge for Los Angeles.

Reed, whose turn didn't come around in the eighth, stuck around for the ninth and got the side out. It looked like he'd end up on the short end with a complete-game defeat, but the Mets rally in the ninth did well to take care of him.

With one out, Matt Franco came up as Reed's pinch-hitter and came through in a big way against Dodgers closer Jeff Shaw. His home run tied the score at one and took Reed off the hook. Todd Hundley followed with a four-pitch walk, putting the winning run on first base.

New acquisition Tony Phillips fanned for the second out, but Edgaro Alfonzo picked him up, doubling on an 0-2 pitch, and when centerfielder Trenidad Hubbard couldn't play the ball cleanly, Hundley came all the way around with the winning run.

The truly Metplete fan knows...Johan Santana has as many CG for the Mets as, among others, Neil Allen, Mike Bacsik, Mike Bruhert, Scott Holman, Dick Rusteck and Charlie Williams.

Comments

czaradio said…
great post - nice to have you back posting on walkoffs again.
6:11 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

Been There, Won That

The Dodgers had 19 hits in their loss to the Mets on Thursday night in a game that, no offense (pardon the ironic pun), was excruciating to watch for many, many reasons, none of which I feel like getting into at this hour. Willie Randolph summed it up in his press conference afterwards, saying simply "It's not fun!" I wonder if Tom Hanks, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano and Kareeem Abdul-Jabaar (all in attendance) stuck around for the finish? I do wish to note briefly, again with the aid of Baseball-Reference, that the last time the Dodgers had 19 hits and lost a game, it was to the Mets. The difference between that game and this one was that this contest, of May 24, 1973, lasted an interminable 19 innings., with the Mets winning, 7-3. Rusty Staub's fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run. Ken Boswell added an RBI single and Ed Kranepool salted the game away with a two-run double. Some other noteworthy anecdotes from a quick box score gleaning: * Like Thursday's...
9 comments
Read more