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A Quick Observation

And we thank Scott "I'm Jewish but my favorite holiday is Christmas" Schoenweis for not taking Friday night off to observe Yom Kippur. And to reward those who endured that particular game, we offer up the following tidbit. This was the third time in Mets history that they scored at least nine or more runs, but the opposing staff yielded one earned run or fewer. The most recent occurrence, I believe I've referenced before: a 16-4 victory over the Astros in the opener of a doubleheader on July 27, 1985 (attended by this blogger, than a puzzled 10-year-old scorekeeper), in which all 16 runs were unearned, thanks to five Astros errors. The other was a 10-inning 11-9 loss to the Braves on June 5, 1963, a game in which the Mets rallied from 9-1 down to tie, only to lose in extra innings.

Uggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!

* Walk-off loss #370, arguably one of the most brutal regular season ones of my lifetime was the Mets 4th walk-off loss of the season. Notice that I skipped over #369, and that's because I discovered I was missing a game from 2005 from my database (blocked it from memory, so to speak). So I've added September 7, 2005, when Ryan Langerhans beat Shingo Takatsu with a two-run, 10th inning bases-loaded single (uggggggggggggggggg!) to the list and thus my documented tally is now at 370 and counting. * It was their first walk-off loss against the Marlins since August 1, 2006, when Josh Willingham beat them with a 2-run HR off Billy Wagner. * It was the first 8-7, 10-inning walk-off loss in Mets history and the 7th Mets walk-off loss to be decided by such a score. The last such 8-7 loss was on September 6, 1996, when Terry Pendleton (ugggggggggggggg!) and the Braves beat them with a 9th-inning single. * Dan Uggla is the second Dan to beat the Mets with a walk-off hit. Dan Driessen bea...

Cardinals Walk-Offs and Other Minutiae

"You should treat that Cardinals-Phillies game like a Mets walk-off win. It was as important as any Mets win this season." -- E-mail from my dad at around midnight, as we chuckled at the notion of the season coming down to rooting for Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina. OK, I can do that... * Let's start here: Yadier Molina is the first player in baseball history to beat the Mets with a Game 7 9th inning home run, then help them out with a walk-off hit the following season. * It was Molina's 3rd career walk-off hit, his first since 2005. The first of the three came against the Mets and Mike Stanton, on August 7, 2004, a bases loaded, two-out single to give the Cardinals a 2-1 win. * Molina's 3 walk-off hits break a tie with Bengie for most hits by a Molina brother. Bengie has 2. Jose has none. * It was the Cardinals 4th walk-off win of the season and their first against the Phillies since a Jim Edmonds 13th inning walk-off home run on April 29, 2004. * It was the P...

Mission Accomplished but Another Awaits

As Greg over at Faith and Fear noted on Monday, the Mets were at the point at which they had met one of my silly preseason goals. They were assured of finishing 2007 with a worse record than they had in 2006. Y'all may remember my preseason slogan- "Ya Gotta Get Worse!" in which I illustrated how the Cardinals took the biggest tumble among teams from 2005 to 2006, yet still won the World Series and how I felt if the Mets took a small step back, they'd be able to take a small step forward in October. Looking back on it today, I can tell you this. That mantra sucks. This is no fun. But I'm not ready to start an essay on Mets Choke-Offs and Other Minutiae just yet. Instead, let's for a moment harken back and remember the way of the 2005 Indians. The AL Central wasn't really a race that season, not until the very end. On August 17, the Indians got shut out by the Rangers and were 11 games out of first place. The White Sox were the team to beat, having played g...

Our Special Bonds: Ron Darling (questions)

Equal time for the other member of the Mets broadcast crew as we continue to wallow in the misery of this great malaise Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-special-bonds-ron-darling-answers.html 1) Ron Darling lost to the Phillies in his major-league debut. I'd ask who the winning pitcher was for the Phillies, but I don't believe that's a challenging question, once I refer to him as a former Met. So I ask instead: What future Hall of Famer struck out as the first batter of that game? 2) On the subject of strikeouts. Name the Hall of Famer who was Darling's most frequent strikeout victim? From 1983 to 1991, this player (not a pitcher) had 82 AB against Darling and whiffed 21 times. 3) The first 3 batters to hit home runs against Ron Darling all played for the Mets at some point in their careers. The first played only a season for them, playing 79 games, with 10 home runs on a team that didn't hit many home runs. The second hit a grand slam, one...

Our Day Was Ruined

Please try to think happy thoughts today. I know its difficult, but at least let me offer this as consolation. Monday marks the 21st anniversary of the Mets NL East division clinching. And keep this in mind: The 1986 squad couldn't beat the Phillies either. And they turned out just fine. The 1986 Mets went 8-10 against the Phillies, the only team against which they had a sub-.500 record. And the Phillies beat them 6 straight in one stretch, including a 3-game sweep when the Mets needed only 1 victory to clinch the NL East. Those Phillies were a pain in the ass. Von Hayes was their Chase Utley, hitting .357 against the Mets with four home runs and 16 RBI in 17 games. Mike Schmidt was Ryan Howard, hitting .373 with 15 RBI against the Mets, and he copped an MVP along the way. And while the rotation wasn't too impressive, it did feature a rookie lefty, Bruce Ruffin, who pilfered two victories from the Flushing 9. Had their been a wild-card in 1986 (though with 2 divisions, that wo...

Rosh To Judgment

In celebration of Shawn Green and the holiday of our people, a few nuggets worth sharing. * Wednesday was the 4th time in Shawn Green's career that he won a game with a "walk-up" hit (defined as a tiebreaking hit in bottom of 8th inning), his first since July 1, 2004. * It was the first of those four hits to be a single. He had a home run and two doubles previously. * It was the third time the Mets won a game this season via walk-up RBI and the second time they did so against the Braves. Lastings Milledge got one on a 2-out single July 14 to beat the Reds, 2-1. Moises Alou hit a walk-up home run on August 8 to beat the Braves, 4-3 in a game better remembered for Billy Wagner "tighroping" (surviving bases loaded, no outs) the 9th inning. The 3 walk-up RBI matched the team's total from 2006 * With 2 more hits against John Smoltz, Green is now 19-for-35 against Smoltz in his career and that .543 batting average is his best against any active pitcher he's f...

Our Special Bonds: I'm Keith Hernandez (Questions)

Wednesday is the 22nd anniversary of one of my favorite regular season walk-off wins and since I don't feel I could write it any better than this http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/08/ode-to-playgrounds-and-egg-creams.html I'm going to use it as a means of segue to ask some trivia about a favorite, whose base hit won that game, for whom there's a short film out bearing his name, and who has taken some flak from local media for spending too much time goofing off in the booth. So without further ado, let's get to some Keith Hernandez trivia questions. As always, mucho thankyous to Baseball-Reference.com, without which such frivolity would not be possible. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/09/our-special-bonds-im-keith-hernandez.html 1) Keith actually shortchanged himself on the air the other day, claiming he only he had one multi-homer game in his career. That wasn't true. He had three, and his first was against the Mets. But getting back to the t...

Guest column: The No-Walker

Another guest column, this one from regular reader Nate Little, who was looking for an outlet for some of his Mets research. He noted that my "Met nerdery is unparalleled" and when someone says something so nice, I figure, why not offer him the space for his work. I came across this excerpt from the always-excellent Hardball Times: "#1 Boston Red Sox (Dartboard Factor = 98, 100): Congratulati[ons] to Clay Buchholz on the no-hitter. It is kind of weird that [we] celebrate so many luck-driven events in baseball. Johan Santana strikes out 17 Rangers and walks none [in] 8 innings, but because he gave up two harmless hits along the way, not many people will remember his performance. Buchholz strikes out only 9, walked 3 and hit a batter. But since he yielded no hits, his day will be much talked about." This inspired me to propose a new stat: the no-walker. 9 IP, 0R, 0BB, and however many hits may have landed. I wondered how the Mets compare to other franchises ...

Wright Man For The Job

Yes, I know that everyone may be talking about the Most Valuable Pedro today and that's fine, as I'm sure I'll have something to say about that in the near future. Today I'd rather talk about the Mets best chance at winning Most Valuable Player. I hadn't really bought into the David Wright for MVP talk until the last week or so, but a few things (victories) have happened to change my mind. I took a closer look at the numbers and it got me to thinking that the Mets have a really good chance to have their first MVP winner. The last two days, David Wright has hit go-ahead home runs and that prompted me to take a closer look at his 26 homers this season. What I found is that all 26 could be considered meaningful. 11 of the 26 snapped ties. Add the one he hit on Monday against Aaron Harang and you have 12 home runs that have given the Mets the lead. The other New York third baseman doesn't have that many go-ahead dingers and he's got a lot more to work with. Wrig...

Showing Some Sack

Guest columnist Barry Federovitch was looking for an outlet for this material, and thought this would be a good place. On the day of perhaps college football's greatest upset, Appalachian State over Michigan, the Mets (after one of their most devastating regular-season series in years) showed, in lieu of a more appropriate term, ''some sack’’ on Saturday, winning a second straight game in their traditional chamber of horrors, Atlanta. The 2007 National League title is far from being resolved, but while in football the term ''sack'' means being knocked down, in baseball it means getting up, which the Mets did with a vengeance. It means responding when things are bleakest, toughest, showing character when the momentum is very much against you or the prognosticators say you have little chance. Some of the all-time ''sack'' performances by the Mets, as a team and individually, have been: 1964 (Oct. 2-4, at St. Louis) - The Mets had 108 losses whe...

Don't Torture Yourself, It's Not Worth It

* Walk-Off loss #368, 3rd of the season * First time the Mets have lost 2 games in a series via walk-off since dropping a pair to the Twins June 8 and 10, 2004 * First time they've suffered 2 walk-off losses in a series against the Phillies since September 4 and 7, 2003 * Fourth time the Mets have scored 10+ in a walk-off loss. The last was July 23, 1996, when the Rockies beat them, 11-10, on Eric Young's walk-off single. * The other two such games were May 26, 1994, against the Pirates (11-10) and May 6, 1995 against the Reds (13-11). The common thread that those share with Thursday's loss is that in both of those games, the Mets had a 9th-inning lead. Do you really need to know any more?

Stupid Chalk-Offs

Oh, and add Paul Lo Duca to the list of those who need to be defensively replaced at the end of games. * Walk-off loss #367 was the 2nd this season, with both coming on home runs. The other was by Brewers outfielder Geoff Jenkins on July 31. * It's the 38th of those walk-off losses to come against the Phillies, with the last coming on May 9, 2006 on Aaron Heilman's throwing error. * It's the 15th time that the Phillies have beaten the Mets on a walk-off home run. Phillies Walk-Off HR vs Mets Last 25 Years Bo Diaz 1983 Luis Aguayo 1987 Dickie Thon 1989 Von Hayes 1989 Kim Batiste 1993 Bobby Abreu 2004 Ryan Howard 2007 * The Mets are now 7-2 in games decided by walk-off this season. Do you really need to know any more?

Taking It's Stole

I've been wanting to write an ode to the stolen base for the last week or so, since the Mets have been thefting with such regularity recently, and today seems like a good time to do so. (Cap-tip, as per usual, to Baseball-Reference.com ). The Mets had a franchise-record tying stolen base streak snapped at 11 games with Monday's loss to the Phillies. Those who have read my previous tributes to the walk , the double , the slow Met , and to the ball which you can't tell is fair or foul ("chalk-off"), will hopefully garner an appreciation from some of these nuggets. * Jose Reyes holds the Mets record for steals in a season with 71 (and counting). Mookie Wilson's club record of 281 figures to go down next season. * The most steals by a Met in a season without getting caught is 21, by Kevin McReynolds in 1988. Manny Alexander's 11 in 1997 rank second. In fact, Manny holds the Mets career mark for steals without getting caught, with 11. * Vince Coleman and Roger ...

Aloumost Famous

Boy, if Moises Alou had just pushed the ball a little bit more to the left of second base, we'd have had a walk-off for the ages, or at least one that would have matched that of the comeback against the Cardinals a year and a day prior (Carlos Beltran's walk-off HR off Jason Isringhausen, for those who forget). It got me thinking about "Almosts." When I reference an "almost," I'm thinking back to a game most probably forgotten by most, by now, but one that would have made for a heck of a memory had the Mets pulled out the victory. I don't have a lot of time and this is certainly a subject on which we could pontificate for an extended period (let's save our lamenting about Kevin McReynolds/Orel Hershiser in Game 4 of the 1988 NLCS for another time, shall we?). I'll toss out one of prominence to me and those who wish to add can do so in the comments section. For some reason, September 7, 1987 comes to mind first, and I don't know why that i...

Castillo of Thousands

More to come when I wake up... * Walk-off win #348 was the Mets 7th of the 2007 season and the first since June 25. The Mets are 7-1 in walk-offs in 2007. * It was the Mets 20th walk-off win against the Padres, the first since Chris Woodward's 2-run HR, July 19, 2005. * It was the 6th career walk-off RBI for Luis Castillo, 5 of which have been walk-off singles. The one that wasn't was a walk-off walk, against none other than Jesse Orosco and the Orioles, June 8, 1999. * It was Trevor Hoffman's 4th career walk-off loss against the Mets, his first since Mike Piazza beat him with a two-run HR on April 28, 1999. * The win came nearly a year to the day of another 9th-inning comeback walk-off win, the one against the Cardinals on August 22, 2006, in which Carlos Beltran hit a walk-off HR against Jason Isringhausen. * August 21 is a popular day for Mets walk-off wins. They've gotten them in 1962, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1995, and 2007. * Luis Castillo is the first Luis in Mets histo...

Stitch in Time Saves Conine

Don't know if you've seen this " Actober " contest that FOX has been promoting all season, inviting fans to recreate famous moments in baseball history. Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Orlando Hudson joined in the fun, staging his version of Kirk Gibson's limp-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. The Mets could stage their own version given that they now have three integral parts from one of the most infamous moments in postseason history. The connection between Luis Castillo and Moises Alou regarding the "Bartman ball" from the 8th inning of Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS has been well-documented, but oft forgotten among baseball historians is that it was new Met Jeff Conine who hit the sacrifice fly that gave the Marlins a 4-3 lead in an eventual victory. It was also Conine, then the Marlins left fielder, who made the throw to cut J.T. Snow down at the plate to end the 2003 NLDS in dramatic fashion. This is a guy with a knack for the big moment. He...

Capital Offense

Sorry I didn't get to post in Washington D.C. Here are a few quick-hitter leftovers from the trip. * Got to the Air-and-Space Museum, the Natural History Museum (both Smithsonians), the National Archives, and the Lincoln Memorial. Much to my chagrin, the American History museum was closed for renovation, the FBI no longer gives tours, and the Supreme Court was closed on the weekend. Wasn't the best weekend as far as sightseeing went, but I was able to make a Mets tie-in or two along the way. When my sister lamented how we left the Natural History Museum before seeing the dinosaurs, I told her she got to see the next best thing- Tom Glavine and Moises Alou. * They gave out Abraham Lincoln bobblehead dolls on Saturday and the craftsmanship is far better than those used in Mets bobbleheads. I wouldn't trade my Lincoln for any of the current David Wright incarnations, none of which have been very impressive. * Final tally from the 6 games I saw: 43 runs, 71 hits, and one blogge...

Styx and Stones

Forgive me for skipping the post-game (Styx) concert and fireworks show on my final night in Pittsburgh, but I was in an "unfun" kind of mood. Now it's on to Washington D.C. and I make no guarantees that the travelogue will continue, because I'll be "with people" on this part of my expedition, but I'll try to sneak in the necessary postings. * Thursday was a game that was for the birds, literally, because it made the highlight of my day the National Aviary, America's only independent indoor non-profit bird zoo. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but it proved to be a good way to kill a couple hours (30 minute walk from the ballpark, an hour's worth of entertainment). My favorite bird was one named "Franklin" after Benjamin, the inventor of the spectacles. Franklin had a 'stare-of-death' for those who walked past him, akin to the one I had as I walked out of PNC Park on Thursday evening. * Speaking of which, Guillermo Mota has t...

Conn Job

So I spent nearly four hours Wednesday, prior to the ballgame, at the John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh's version of the Smithsonian Institution, combined with the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. While there, I learned about, among other things, Lewis & Clark, the history of ketchup, and the story of former light-heavyweight champion/Pittsburgh sports hero Billy "The Pittsburgh Kid" Conn. Conn's story is a tale of woe, one in which he got the opportunity to fight then-heavyweight champ Joe Louis, and had the bout won, until he got greedy, went for the knockout punch, and got staggered by Louis to the point of crushing defeat. That could have been the tale of Wednesday's Mets game (thank you Aaron Sele/where the hell are you, Pedro Feliciano?), one of the weirder games I've witnessed this season. From this game, I'll sing praises for Moises Alou and Jorge Sosa, laud the good fortune the Mets got on a ninth-inning error that led to the night'...