Hot Foot
June 2, 2023
The biggest crowd of the season of 49,122 attended this Saturday night game. It was such a big crowd partly because the Mets had won four in a row and were only three games out of first, but mostly because it was RC Cola Sports bag night. I had one of those in the late '80s and early '90s, which is the only reason I know I was there that night. The Mets also had an RC Cola Sports Bag night in 1988, but I checked the box scores, and I'm sure that this was the game where I got the RC Cola Mets sports bag.
There is no recording of this one on YouTube, but I found a few highlights which jogged my memory, mainly the fact that Gregg Jefferies had his breakout night for 1989, going 3-4 with a home run, falling only a single short of the cycle. Gregg was one of my favorite players in 1989 so I'm sure I felt like his good luck charm while I was cheering his second-inning home run.
In 1989, Gregg finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting, and most Mets fans consider his season a disappointment, but what I didn't realize until now is that in the first half, he had 1 HR, 27 RBI, a .230 BA, and .602 OPS. Then in the second half he had 11 HR, 29 RBI, a .287 BA, and .815 OPS (including 8 HR in September). If he had put two of those second halves together, he would have trounced Jerome Walton for the ROY and more importantly, the Mets would have won the division.
Back to this one. In the top of the 8th inning, Rick Aguilera relieved Don Aase to hold a 5-2 lead with two men on base. Five pitches into his outing, he gave up a blast to Dale Murphy. There is no highlight of this, but I'm sure that when he got his only out to end the inning, the crowd (including me) heartily booed the bearded Aguilera off the mound. I was a great booer in my youth and Aguilera was never one of my favorites.
In the bottom of the 8th, Gregg Jefferies lined out in his bid for a cycle, but hits by Phil Lombardi, Kevin Elster, and a pinch hit by Lee Mazzilli rallied the Mets to retake the lead, then a fielder's choice off the bat of Juan Samuel gave the Mets a 7-5 lead.
In the ninth inning, Randy Myers (my favorite Mets pitcher) sealed the win for his 15th save, bringing his ERA to 1.44 and the Mets within three games behind first place Montreal.
Therefore, Rick Aguilera had another one of his patented 'Rick Aguilera wins', which means he gives up a bomb that blows the game, but then a Mets rally gives him the win.
Fittingly, this was Aguilera's last win as a Met. For the rest of July he went 0-3 with a 6.43 ERA (with the Mets losing seven in a row for good measure) before they shipped him off to Minnesota.
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