Skip to main content

Felix the Splat

* Monday marked the 78th time that a pitcher hit a home run against the Mets in regular season play (74 games, with 4 pitchers hitting 2 in a game) and the 6th time that a pitcher hit a grand slam against the Mets. It was the first home run against the Mets since Hong Chih Kuo's on June 12, 2007.

* The Mets have been outhomered by opposing pitchers in regular season play, 78-46. This may have something to do with the fact that it's been nearly 12 years since a Mets pitcher homered ON THE ROAD.

* Felix Hernandez is the first pitcher to hit a grand slam against the Mets since Dontrelle Willis in 2006. That also marks the last time an opposing pitcher homered at Shea Stadium.

* Hernandez came one RBI shy of the record for most RBI by a pitcher in a game against the Mets. The record of 5 is shared by Milt Pappas (1972) and Tony Cloninger (1966).

* You could have shut the game off right then...Only twice has an opposing pitcher homered at Shea/the Polo Grounds, then had his team lose the game. The pitchers were Mike Hampton (2002) and Bob Gibson (1969). Mets opponents are 39-2 at Shea/the Polo Grounds when their pitcher homers.

* There was also no hope for a walk-off. The Mets have never won a game by walk-off in which either their pitcher homered, or the opposing pitcher homered.

* Perhaps it's good for the Mets to have gotten this off their chests. The Mets allowed 5 home runs to pitchers in both 1969 and 2006, tying the club mark previously set in 1965.

* But perhaps it was a bad sign. In Davey Johnson's entire Mets managerial tenure, the Mets allowed only one pitcher homer, against Pirates hurler Jeff Robinson on September 9, 1989. Jerry Manuel has already matched that.

True Metdexs know...Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson share the record for most home runs by a pitcher against the Mets, with 4.

Comments

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...

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...