Skip to main content

Let's 'Red'minisce a Little Bit

A friend of mine says that I've gotten away from reminiscing about previous Mets walk-offs on this site, and in scouring through my database, looking for games I haven't written about, I realized that there are some good stories left to be told, ones that are just as good as winning 10 in a row by rallying from two runs down in the ninth..

Since we're currently in a Mets-Reds phase, we might as well tie them into the mix, and we can do so by reminiscing about the matchup of Darryl Strawberry and John Franco.

As most of you know well, Franco's sinkerball vexed many a lefthanded hitter. Lefthanders had 1,100 at-bats against Franco and managed a slugging percentage of only .306 with 11 home runs.
Barry Bonds hit .229 against Franco, and made a rather enormous couple of outs against him in the 2000 postseason. Mark Grace, another solid lefthanded batsman of the era, managed just a .148 batting average against Franco. Strawberry wasn't even that good. In 14 at-bats, he managed just two hits, and in 1986, Franco struck him out to close one-run wins on two occasions. But sandwiched around that were two rather memorable moments.

The first came on April 13, 1985, the first Saturday of the baseball season. The Mets, 3-0 at that point (with two walk-off wins), battled the Reds in a rather entertaining, albeit low-scoring afternoon affair.

There were some intriguing moments in this one, as Ed Lynch and Tom Browning each held their opposition to one run in seven innings. The Mets lone tally came in the seventh, with the aide of an Eric Davis three-base error on Kelvin Chapman's allegedly harmless fly ball (he'd score on a Keith Hernandez sacrifice fly.

Cesar Cedeno would flummox the Mets with a key home run for the Cardinals later that season, but on this occasion of needed clutchness, he'd fail, hitting into a double play against Roger McDowell to help squash a threat in the Mets ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Franco was working his second inning of relief. Perhaps he got a bit fatigued, because on a 1-1 pitch to Strawberry, he left the ball up too much. Strawberry crushed it to right field, for his first home run of the season and his first career walk-off home run.

How about this quote from Davey Johnson after the game: "The good guys won."

A few years later, the Mets weren't such good guys, but the Strawberry-Franco matchup came into play again. This time it was May 6, 1988, by which time Franco had established himself as a dominant reliever, on the way to a 39-save season. He was a reliever who hadn't allowed a home run to a lefty hitter in more than three years.

The Mets were 18-7 and would go on to win 100 games on the strength of wins like these. They took an early 2-0 lead in soggy surroundings, with both runs coming via Strawberry. The Reds would tie in the seventh inning against Dwight Gooden on RBI hits by Dave Collins and Chris Sabo. The Reds managed 11 hits against Gooden and had chances for more scoring in regulation, but were unsuccessful.

In the 10th, Sabo gave the Reds a 3-2 lead on a home run against Mets closer Randy Myers. Franco appeared on the way to a save, retiring both Mookie Wilson and Tim Teufel without issue. But then, inexplicably, he threw four straight wide pitches to Keith Hernandez, setting up another confrontation with Strawberry.

This wouldn't last long. Strawberry banged the first pitch off the scoreboard in right center field for a walk-off two-run home run and another rather satisfying Mets victory.

True Metberrys know...Strawberry had all 4 Mets RBI in the 4-3 win. That's the most RBI by a Met, who accounted for ALL OF THE METS RBI in a walk-off win.

Also of note: The Mets have now had eight win streaks of 10+ games. This current streak is the first one that didn't include a walk-off win.

And also worth mentioning: The last time the Mets came back from 2+ runs down in the 9th against the Reds was in 1986.

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/07/thank-you-dave-parker.html

Comments

czaradio said…
Thanks for the memories. I actually (kind of, vaguely) remember watching this game. Sticks out because Straw drove in all the runs...
Anonymous said…
First four games of '85 were one-run Mets victories. I think that was a record, at least at the time.

Popular posts from this blog

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

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