Skip to main content

Busch Administration

I'd imagine the Cardinals approval ratings are about as low as our current President, especially after...

* This, which was the third time in the history of the Mets-Cardinals rivalry that the Mets scored 10 or more runs and the Cardinals tallied none. The first was a Jon Matlack 13-0 shutout at home on July 1, 1976. The second was an 11-0 Sid Fernandez gem in St. Louis on August 1, 1989.

* It was the first time the Mets beat the Cardinals by 10+ since a 13-1 romp on September 7, 1989.

* The 2 runs allowed by the Mets in their first three games were the fewest they've surrendered in an opening trio in team history. The previous best was 4, in 1981, a season interrupted by strike. The Mets are 3-0 for the first time since 1994, also a season wiped out by strike.

* John Maine became the 2nd Mets starter ever to pitch at least 7 innings, allowing 1 hit or fewer, within his team's first 3 games of the season. The other was the "great" Bruce Berenyi, who matched Maine's effort with seven one-hit innings against the Reds in a one-hit shutout on April 12, 1985.

*This was the 36th time in team history that a Mets starter threw at least seven innings, allowing one hit or fewer. The Mets are 32-4 in those 36 games, though it's hard to believe they lost any of them. For those curious, Tom Seaver pitched 5 such games. David Cone had three. Steve Trachsel and Nolan Ryan, along with Jon Matlack, Tom Glavine, Gary Gentry and Sid Fernandez have each had two. A bunch of others have thrown one, Maine now among them.

* It was the first Mets sweep in St. Louis since May 26-28, 2000, but the Mets only outscored the Cardinals in those games by an 23-12 count.

* It was somewhat reminiscent of a 4-game sweep that the Mets had in St. Louis from April 24-27, 1986, their first trip back to St. Louis after a heartbreaking conclusion to the previous campaign. The Mets outscored the Cardinals in that one, 23-10, and had a 9-0 rout within that quartet. The Mets enjoyed an immensely successful run through St. Louis that season, winning 8 of 9 games there.

* The Mets failed to turn a double play, but did turn 7 in this 3 game series, reducing the pace they're on to 378 double plays for the season. The good news though is that with his performance in the series finale, Carlos Beltran is now on pace to drive in 322 runs and Jose Reyes is on pace to score 270.

* And lastly, as a "walk-off" reward for those who have read this far. The win in the series finale came 11 years to the day of a Mets walk-off win against the Cardinals, and they scored 10 runs that day too!

It was a rather bizarre contest, one that marked Paul Wilson's major-league debut (6 innings, 3 runs, 6 hits) and the only reason a walk-off was necessary was because of an 8th inning for the ages, in which the Cardinals scored five runs on three hits and four(!) Mets errors. St. Louis took a 9-8 lead in the top of the 9th on Willie McGee's two-out hit, but the Mets got some good fortune in their final frame.

With two outs and Edgardo Alfonzo on second base, Chris Jones hit a potential game-ending grounder to third. Fortunately for the Flushing faithful, Gary Gaetti played the role off Bill Buckner and Alfonzo came home with Jones going to second after the ball went through Gaetti's legs.

And then in a most appropriate twist, given Wednesday's events, the Mets had a Maine man, or in this case, a Mayne man ready to be the hero. Catcher, Brent (not pitcher, John), singled to right off future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley and Jones came home with the game-winning run.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

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

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b