National League Standings, July 4, 1990
METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE JULY 4, 1990 GAME:
Michael
April 27, 2020
I remember watching this one on TV as a kid in between running in and out of the house also watching the neighborhood fireworks. The Mets were on one of their best hot streaks in team history and Strawberry hit another homer as he was probably the hottest hitter in baseball at that point.
Dave VW
August 19, 2022
To get a feel for how hot Strawberry was, his first-inning homer was his 5th in six games and his third in his last four at-bats! Hojo also homered in the pivotal 8th inning, one of only two longballs reliever Larry Andersen gave up over 73.2 innings all year. Andersen was traded to Boston later in the season for Jeff Bagwell in one of Houston's best trades in franchise history.
Gooden won his fifth straight start, a streak he would extend to seven. He went 8 innings despite dealing with a blister on his pitching hand, which seemed to start to affect him by the 6th inning when he allowed three runs on four hits, including a home run to Franklin Stubbs, and a sac fly but was helped out of the inning when Sasser threw out Biggio trying to steal. Houston tied it up in the 7th, but the Mets rallied in the 8th for the win. Interestingly in that 8th inning, with runners on the corners and 1 out, Buddy pinch hit for Gooden with Mike Marshall, and Houston countered by taking out lefty Juan Agosto and inserting the righty Andersen. Even with lefty Tom O'Malley on the bench, Buddy stuck with Marshall, who delivered his last Met RBI with a sac fly. Next up was Hojo, who hit his 2-run shot to put the icing on the cake.
A couple last notes on McCarver and Kiner, who were in a particularly upbeat and jovial mood tonight. McCarver was already talking no-hitter in the third, and as soon as he mentioned it Rich Gedman doubled off Gooden. The jinx effect is real, my friends. Also, here's a convo the two had during the 2nd inning after McCarver said Bill Doran has a "broken big left toe": McCarver, correcting himself, "You don't have a big left toe." Kiner, "Yeah you do, you have a left big toe and a left little toe." McCarver, "But that would imply you only have two toes on your left foot." Kiner, "Yeah but a lot of people run around life with two left feet." The two giggle for a while before moving on. Even the antagonistic McCarver knew when it was best just to drop a subject with Kiner.
Now it's your turn! Tell us what you remember of this game:
Please note:
We're looking for your comments about this specific
game. We've had people use this space to share their thoughts on how the
current season is going, or on ways that the Mets can improve the team.
Such comments, unless in the context of
this particular game,
will be considered off-topic and will be removed.
Example One
The Mets suck! They need to trade Smith and get somebody like
Jones.
This comment is off-topic and will be removed. It has nothing to do with
any specific game. But here's an acceptable alternative:
Example Two
The Mets suck! Smith made three errors in this game, and hit into a
double play, and the Mets blew a 5-0 lead. They need to get rid of Smith
and get somebody like Jones.
See the difference? Here you're getting the same point across, but it's in
the proper context. We wouldn't consider this message to be off-topic, and
we would let it remain.
We do appreciate anybody who takes the time to share their thoughts on our
site, and we hate to remove anybody's postings. But if we didn't take
steps to ensure that only on-topic messages were retained, The Ultimate
Mets Database would become a confusing jumble of unrelated comments,
and would thus be less enjoyable to visitors like you.
Thank you!
