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'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
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