Mets Walk-Offs And 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

I begin with a question... I've seen a couple of colleagues note how important Paul Lo Duca's hit was, just prior to Carlos Beltran's go-ahead two-run home run, and I totally agree with them. My first look at the replay tells me that Jeff Weaver made a great pitch, and Lo Duca used his great bat control to place the ball in just the right spot. There's luck involved once the ball is hit, but putting the ball in play is the key to success. Anyone out there who can think of other Mets postseason scenarios in which a Mets batsman came through in a big spot against a GREAT pitch. The one example that comes to mind (and perhaps this is a blog entry in itself) is Ray Knight fighting off an 0-2 pitch that jammed him almost in on the bat handle, for a base hit to center field, keeping alive the 2-out rally just prior to Mookie Wilson's AB in the last of the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series. Wilson's foul ball on a 2-2 count (the one after which Dwight Evans lea

Since our LDS predictions were successful though not accurate, we thought it appropriate to give it another go for the League Championship Series, and to expand our prognostications to cover some of the most unique walk-offs in LCS history. We believe that the Mets will become the first team to win all of its games in a postseason series in walk-off fashion, and they'll do so in this manner. Game 1: Lifelong Mets admirer, 14-year-old Louie Govnor earns his place in Mets fans hearts, lunging to the edge of the bleachers in the 8th inning to catch David Wright's long fly ball, an admirable feat considering the degree of difficulty . Tony La Russa pleads for a fan interference call to no avail, despite replays showing he's right , and Wright's drive is ruled a game-tying home run. Carlos Beltran sends everyone home for the night, wrapping a drive around the foul pole in left field against Tyler Johnson in the 11th inning. Game 2: In one of the weirdest endings you'll

Well, this is what happens when I get a day off from work and can't find a way to get baseball out of the brain. I challenged myself to come up with a list of the 10 best Mets wins over the Cardinals in the history of the rivalry. The criteria was simple: If I felt it belonged on the list, it made it. I may have wrongfully included and excluded...that's up for you to decide. Hopefully you'll enjoy the stroll down memory lane. Oh, and when you're done, click on my other blog entry for the day, a nice companion to this list. #10 Games 1 and 4 of the 2000 NLCS ( October 11 and 15 ) These games don’t stick in the minds of Mets fans as much as some of the others on this list will and that’s okay because Metmorability tends to clutter the brain a bit. A brief refresher tells us that the Mets set the tone for the series with two runs in the top of the first inning of Game 1. Timo Perez started things off with a leadoff double and after that, the Cardinals were never able to

Every bit of minutiae you ever wanted to know about the Mets and Cardinals, but didn't know where to go to look it up... * The Mets are 311-352 against the Cardinals in regular-season play and 4-1 against them in postseason play (31-32 in walk-off decisions). The Mets have won the regular-season series against the Cardinals 15 times, tied the regular-season series 6 times, and lost the regular-season series 24 times. * The longest win streak for the Mets against the Cardinals is 8 games, accomplished during the 1986 season. The last of those victories happened to be a walk-off win, referenced here http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/08/mitch-in-time-saves-nine.html * The most runs the Mets have ever scored against the Cardinals is 15, on October 3, 1964. The Cardinals record for runs against the Mets is also 15, accomplished 4 times. * A total of 112 players have played for both the Mets and Cardinals, including 45 pitchers. Among those 112 are 7 whose playing career was spent on

Answers to the questions found here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-special-bonds-october-notables.html 1) Jorge Posada joins current Mets manager Willie Randolph as the only Yankees to strike out to end a postseason series. Randolph pulled a Carlos Beltran, striking out looking to end Game 3 of the 1980 ALCS against the Royals. 2) A tough one for you youngsters...The Giants catcher the day of Bobby Thomson's HR was the second Mets manager, Wes Westrum . The Dodgers catcher later became pitching coach and worked under Gil Hodges on the 1969 Mets, Rube Walker . 3) "Future" Met is the clue that tells you that the answer wasn't Jesse Orosco. Instead, it was Alejandro Pena , who got the win when Kirk Gibson homered off Dennis Eckersley. 4) The Braves used a former Met, Jeff Reardon , to close the top of the 9th, prior to Francisco Cabrera's walk-off hit in the bottom of the frame, which clinched the 1992 NLCS for Atlanta. 5) 1960 World Series goat (and

*The Mets concluded their 13th postseason series by sweeping the Dodgers in 3 games. Of the 13 postseason series in which the Mets have appeared, this is the 7th in which there have been no Mets walk-off wins. * This will be the 4th time that the Mets played in an NLCS against an opponent whom they had walked-off against during the regular season. They previously did so in 1969 (Braves), 1986 (Astros) and 1988 (Dodgers) * The Mets have had 3 NLCS walk-off wins- 2 in 1986 (Len Dykstra HR and Gary Carter single) and 1 in 1999 (Robin Ventura single). The Cardinals have had 3 as well- 1 in 1982 (Ken Oberkfell single in Game 2), 1 in 1985 (Ozzie Smith HR in Game 5), and 1 in 2004 (Jim Edmonds HR in Game 6). * The Mets have had 1-run walk-off wins against the Cardinals by scores of 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, 5-4 etc....all the way up to 10-9. * Fill-in SNY broadcaster Todd Zeile had a walk-off hit for the Cardinals against the Mets (1992). Absentee SNY broadcaster Keith Hernandez had 2 walk-off hit

We'll have another post summarizing the series, probably on Monday... * The Mets completed their second postseason sweep in franchise history with this Game 3 win. The only other one was in the 1969 NLCS against the Braves. * The win combined with the Yankees loss marked the first time that the Mets completed a postseason series victory on the same day that the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason. * The 3-hours, 51 minutes of angst was the second-longest nine-inning Mets postseason win in terms of time, surpassed only by the 3-hour, 59-minute torturefest that was Game 2 of the 2000 NLCS * The first seven batters in the Mets starting lineup each scored a run. That's a Mets franchise first for a postseason game. * Shawn Green and Paul Lo Duca each had 2 RBI, among a group of many who have had at least 2 RBI in a Mets postseason clincher. The team record for RBI in a postseason clincher is 3- by Ken Boswell (1969 NLCS), fill-in broadcaster Todd Zeile (2000 NLCS) and absent