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The Agony of Minutiae

* An unpleasant family tradition continued on Friday, though I was not in attendance, my sister was in the ballpark for So Taguchi home run. We also had family presence at two other unfortunately significant Cardinals home runs at Shea Stadium: Cesar Cedeno (September 11, 1985) and Terry Pendleton (September 11, 1987) for those who need reminding.

* This is the 2nd time in Mets postseason history that they lost a game in which the decisive run was scored in the top of the 9th inning. The other was Game 5 of the 2000 World Series.

* So Taguchi joins Wilson Betemit and Josh Willingham as opponents who hit go-ahead home runs off Billy Wagner this season (I believe that's the full list...). For those curious, Taguchi had never homered against the Mets before and was 0-5 against Billy Wagner.

* That was the 2nd go-ahead HR hit against Wagner in postseason play. The other was hit by Chipper Jones.

* The 9 runs allowed is the most allowed by the Mets in a postseason game since allowing 10 in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS

* On a positive note, Carlos Delgado joined Edgardo Alfonzo, Gary Carter and Rusty Staub as Mets with multi-HR games in postseason play. The Mets are 3-1 in postseason play when one of their players hits 2 HR in a game.

* Also good news: The Mets are 5-2 in postseason series in which they are even 1-1 after two games. The five they won: 1969 World Series, 1973 NLCS (a best of 5), 1986 NLCS, 1999 NLDS and the 2000 NLDS. In each of those five series that they won, they won Game 3.

* By my tally, the Mets are 14-7 following a loss in postseason play, when they're in the situation of having to play another game (ie: there's not counting after a series-ending loss)

* Best examples of the Mets recovering from a painful postseason defeat: They're all from 1973. In Game 1 of the NLCS, the Mets led the Reds 1-0 in the 8th inning. Pete Rose homered to tie it and then Johnny Bench hit a walk-off HR to win it. The Mets bounced back the next day as Jon Matlack pitched a 2-hitter and shut Cincinnati out, 5-0.

In Game 4 of that same series, the Mets led 1-0 in the 7th, lost the lead when Tony Perez homered, then lost the game when Rose homered in the top of the 12th. The Mets bounced back to win the next day, 7-2, to clinch the series.

In Game 3 of the 1973 World Series, the Mets had a 2-0 lead but Oakland tied it with a run in the 6th and another in the 8th, then won in 11 innings, 3-2 on Bert Campaneris' RBI single. The Mets bounced back to win the next day, 6-1, behind 8 stellar innings from Matlack, and 4 hits and 5 RBI from Rusty Staub.

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