Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

You can now follow me on Twitter, under the name "Metswalkoffs." A blast from July 4th past can be found here: http://www.metswalkoffs.com/2005/07/fireworks-knight.html

I don't usually write about members of the opposing New York team, but I'll make an exception as we approach a 70th anniversary of note (the famous speech at Yankee Stadium) to reference the three walk-off home runs hit by Lou Gehrig. August 25, 1932 vs Indians One of the fun things about reading old-time newspaper game stories is that you get writings such as this from John Drebinger of the New York Times. "As every good hunter knows, there is nothing like a trusty double-barreled gun to bring down big game, and it took all of two shots, right on the mark, for the Yankees to overcome the Indians in the second game of the current series at the Stadium yesterday." Drebinger was referring to the home runs of both Msrs Ruth and Gehrig, the latter of which ended a contest that, amazingly enough, was played to nine-inning conclusion in 92 minutes. June 20, 1934 vs Indians Walk-off home runs were celebrated a little bit differently in Gehrig's playing days. A photo with...

I'll give a very gentle fistbump to Fernando Tatis (so not to ding him up any more), as well as Ryan Church and Brian Stokes for Mets extra-inning road win #181 (including postseason). Remember that fistbumps are awarded for all last at-bat wins this season, and are logged in the right-hand margin of this blog. * It was the 2nd road extra-inning win this season, the other coming on June 5 against the Nationals. * It was the Mets 20th extra-inning road win in Pittsburgh. It was their first extra-inning road win in Pittsburgh since an 8-7 win on September 18, 2004. * The only other Mets road extra-inning win to take place on a July 2 took place in 1969. The Mets beat the Cardinals in St. Louis, 6-4, in 14 innings. * The Mets have had four walk-off losses on July 2, so they were walking a rather dangerous line late this afternoon. * The Mets had a player get hit by multiple pitches for the 24th time (Damion Easley had it happen twice last season). Fernando Tatis tied a club record wit...

I built a 1-0 Mets wins database a few months ago just for the purpose of finding the answers to questions such as: What pitchers have lost multiple 1-0 games to the Mets in the same season? Yovani Gallardo joins two others. Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins: July 11 and September 11, 1968 and Nelson Briles: July 27, September 18, and September 29, 1972 For more information on the history of the previous 115 1-0 Mets wins, check out http://www.metswalkoffs.com/2009/05/one-nil.html * Gallardo also makes it an even dozen times that a pitcher has struck out 12+ Mets and lost the game. The last, as was mentioned on the SNY broadcast, was John Smoltz in Willie Randolph's first managerial win in 2005. One pitcher is on the list twice, and while you probably have heard reference to Steve Carlton's 1969 effort in which he struck out 19 and lost to the Mets (on 2 home runs by Ron Swoboda), you may not be as familiar with his other effort. On September 16, 1981 (12 years and a week after th...

There are few questions that the folks at Retrosheet can't answer. So when I asked about plays in which four runs scored without the scoring being a grand slam, David Smith came through big-time. Since the Mets inception in 1962, that play has happened 54 times, with Ryan Braun being the most recent slammer. It was the fourth involving the Mets in some manner, and the first AGAINST them in 35 years. That doesn't include the time it happened in my little league career, a series of blunders by our team, the Cougars, against the No. 2 team, the Panthers. Fortunately, we rallied from the 4-0 first-inning hole to win, 5-4, on a walk-off hit, the most difficult win of our unbeaten season. As for the Mets, here are the details on the other instances. Howard Johnson- Mets at Expos, April 19, 1992 New York Times writer Joe Sexton called it a "grand scram." With the Mets trailing, 4-3 in the 7th inning, Johnson lined a bases-loaded double into the left field corner. Expos left ...

In honor of this being my 100th post of the 2009 calendar year. * The Mets have won exactly 100 games in a season twice: 1969 and 1988. * The 100th win in Mets history was their 9th win in 1964. It was a 4-2 win over the Giants in San Francisco. Three Mets combined on a three-hitter. Don Larsen took the loss. The Hall of Fame trio of Mays, McCovey and Cepeda were 0 for 11. * Mike Piazza (2005) Darryl Boston (1990) Elliott Maddox (1978) They share the common bond of being the three Mets who had exactly 100 hits in a season. Maddox, oddly enough, also had a 101-hit season in 1980. At least he was consistent. * If you include postseason games, the Mets 100th walk-off win was their Opening Day win in 1975. Joe Torre beat the Phillies with an RBI single. * If you ranked the Mets in alphabetical order by last name, the 100th name on the list would be Hubie Brooks. * The 100th win of the 1986 season was really exciting. It was a 6-5 win over the Cubs in Wrigley Field on September 25. The team...

Here are the Mets hit totals from their last 4 games 5, 3, 1, 5 If the Mets get 5 hits or fewer in Monday's game against the Brewers, they will match a team mark for most consecutive games with 5 hits or fewer. It's a mark shared by 3 teams. The 2004 Mets did it. So did the 1963 Mets. What's most interesting is how the 1989 Mets did it. May 4-May 9 1989 Mets Offense 5-Game Summary .142 Batting Average .206 Slugging Percentage .424 OPS 42 strikeouts 14 walks 2 home runs Those are the marks of a team that 99 times out of 100 would go 0-5. This team didn't. The 1989 Mets somehow managed to go 3-2 in that span. Win #1 was a 3-2 victory over the Reds in what was a matchup of first place teams. Ron Darling and Danny Jackson dueled for most of the night before Howard Johnson hit a walk-off home run, the Mets fourth hit of the game, to beat Rob Dibble in the 10th inning. Win #2 was a 2-1 squeaker over the Astros. The Mets had all four of their hits by the end of the third innin...

Patience is a virtue if you're Mariano Rivera. Patients (ie: injured ones) is not a virtue for the Mets... ---- The Mets have now walked the opposing pitcher 13 times this season. Do you know how many times they walked the opposing pitcher last season? 13. They haven't walked the opposing pitcher more times in a season since 1999 (17). That season ended with a walk, by the way. The 1962 Mets were so bad, they walked 26 opposing pitchers. This team is halfway to that tally. The Truly Walking Mets Fan knows ...Hall of Fame pitchers to draw bases-loaded walks from the Mets include: Juan Marichal Don Drysdale Sandy Koufax Don Sutton The 11 walks were one shy of the club record for most walks in a nine-inning home game, previously set with 12-walk efforts in 1998 and 2003.

Please do not be offended by the title of this blog. As fellow blogger Greg at "Faith and Fear" noted when I dropped the line on him: "I'm not offended. When you're a Mets fan these days, you're unfamiliar with the concept of offense." You know you've had a bad week at the ballpark when the highlight is discovering that the urinals in the Caesar's Club have dividers. Those for us common folk in the promenade do not. But enough talk about luxuries. If you think that being one-hit and two-hit in the same week is bad (not to mention also being three-hit, four-hit, and five-hit within an eight-game span), ponder rooting for the 1967 Mets. The 1967 Mets had seven games in which they were held to either one or two hits. They had it even worse than the current squad. They were one-hit and two-hit in consecutive games. The difference is that they managed to win one of those. On April 29 in Cincinnati, the Mets got beat by Gerry Arrigo 7-0. It was a domin...