Skip to main content

Short and Sweet

Have the Mets ever won a game via walk-off due to a shortstop's miscue? You betcha. In fact, we've written about it twice previously

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/fatherson-walk-off-memory.html
http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/win-like-flynn_21.html

Those two games represent half the number of times that the Mets have triumphed via the E6 and for the purpose of moving towards completing the set, we'll tell you about the most recent of this quartet of occurrences today.

Even though the Mets home opener wasn't a walk-off win (and the E6 only tied the game), there is a parallel to what happened Monday at Shea (and if you couldn't tell, we love historical parallels) in that the game a)took place in April and b) was against a team from Pennsylvania, but we doubt that Pirates shortstop Kevin Polocovich made any comments about his squad being a team to beat. It's a good thing because the Pirates went on to finish 69-93 and games like this didn't help matters much.

It was the third game of the season, back on April 3, 1998 and the Mets had already won once via walk-off, so they were already establishing a trend for this sort of thing. The contest began as a pitchers duel between Rick Reed and Esteban Loaiza. The Pirates scored once in the fourth, but the Mets tied it in the fifth on an RBI double by pre-Piazza catcher Tim Spehr.

The game stayed knotted till the 9th and that's when it got highly entertaining. In the top of the frame, Jose Guillen reached on a one-out single off Greg McMichael. Doug Strange followed with a double to the left field corner. Had Guillen been held at third, the Pirates would have had a nice threatening position from which to work, but alas on this occasion, Guillen was waved home. Leftfielder Bernard Gilkey dug the ball out of the corner, threw to cutoff man Rey Ordonez, whose subsequent peg home beat Guillen by an estimated 40(!) feet.

The last of the 9th began as all good rallies do, with a walk, this one to first baseman John Olerud. After a failed bunt by Carlos Baerga, the Pirates made a double switch, bringing Marc Wilkins in to pitch and Polocovich in to play shortstop. Brian McRae, typically a rally killer, walked to put runners on first and second, but Spehr whiffed for the second out.

With Ordonez up, the Mets got some good fortune with the help of a wild pitch that pushed runners to second and third. Thus, when Ordonez hit a potential inning-ending grounder to shortstop, the game came down to whether Polocovich could make the play right. He couldn't. Polocvich's throw to first was high and Ordonez dove safely for first base under the tag of first baseman Kevin Young, allowing failed bunter Carlos Baerga to score the winning run.

True Metllins know...The only walk-off E6 that we've failed to write about was made by the Padres Luis Salazar, usually a third baseman, on May 14, 1989.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess

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

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