Skip to main content

A 'Mitch' In Time Saves Nine

Let's extend the feel-good 1986 flashback for one more day, since it beats the alternative of pontificating about blood clots, Piazza-beaners, and Albert Pujols.

Of the Mets 30 walk-off wins against the Cardinals, the one that's relevant to this particular subject matter took place in the first game of a doubleheader on August 14, 1986, a "Mitch-mash" as the New York Daily News referred to it the following day.

I don't believe this game was referenced in any way this past reunion weekend and that may be because of what followed- a 4-game losing streak, the only such skid of that season.

The hero of this particular contest was among those who returned to Shea Stadium for this past Saturday's festivities, Kevin Mitchell. The Mets most versatile player during that memorable season (he played six positions), Mitchell was in the No. 2 spot in the batting order, but in this game, he was second to none.

With Ron Darling and the Mets trailing 2-1 in the 7th inning, Mitchell, fresh out of a recent slump smacked a 2-out 2-run home run off Tim Conroy to put the hosts ahead (earlier in the frame, pinch-batsman Lee Mazzilli, making his first appearance in his return to the Mets, whiffed).

The defending NL champ Cardinals, long ago put to sleep and simply trying to climb back to .500, rallied to tie the score at 3 in the top of the 9th on Rafael Santana's bases-loaded error. St. Louis had a chance to take the lead, but Ozzie Smith botched a suicide squeeze attempt and Andy Van Slyke wound up getting picked off third base. Roger McDowell was able to escape the inning without further damage, so the Mets, as was their custom that year, had a chance to win in dramatic fashion.

It took three hits in the 9th against Cardinals closer Todd Worrell to get the winning run home, the first a double by Rafael Santana, the second a single by Mookie Wilson (in which Santana was thrown out at the plate by the pathetically armed Vince Coleman), and the last, a single by Mitchell to bring Wilson home with the winning run.

True Metchells know...That for all the success the Mets had against Todd Worrell, particularly in the mid 80s, this was the only time in which they beat him with a walk-off hit.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

They Don't Make Em Like The Mook Any More

"There are certain things that stay with you, your whole life in sports. Mookie flying is one of those things." -- Blogger's father, 1:10pm on Feb 9. During the 1987 season, Mookie Wilson was on first base in seven instances in which the batter at the plate hit a double. How many times do you think Mookie scored? I'll give you a hint: Every time. According to some recent reading I've done, The average runner scores from first base on a double around 40-45 percent of the time. Mookie's career percentage: 65 percent (45 of 69) The average runner goes first to third on about 27 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 50 percent (120 of 240) The average runner scores from second base on about 58 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 75 percent (162 of 215) How good was Mookie Wilson? Let me put it to you this way. The guy turns 54 years old today (and got an early present by being re-hired by the Mets as a minor league instructor). I'd take...
8 comments
Read more