Dave VW
March 15, 2023
After the first inning and a half of this game, with the Mets jumping out to a 4-0 lead and Saberhagen on the mound, I thought there was no way they were possibly losing. But with baseball, you just never know. Alas, the Phillies would hang up a 6-spot in the 2nd inning, highlighted by a 3-run opposite-field blast my the light-hitting Milt Thompson, a double off the top of the wall by opposing pitcher Shawn Boskie, and a throwing error by Bobby Bonilla, along with RBI hits by Lenny Dykstra and Dave Hollins. Saberhagen allowed another run in the 4th before getting pinch-hit for during a Mets rally in the 5th, ending what was arguably his worst start of an otherwise terrific 1994 season.

In that 5th inning the Mets did manage to tie the game at 7-7, with Todd Hundley getting the big 2-run double to knot things up. But the Phils came right back with two runs off Doug Linton and never lost the lead again. From what I've seen so far from Linton, it boggles my mind how he stayed on the team for the entire season (outside of a brief demotion to AAA in July). He was awful, and it's painful knowing the Mets likely chose to keep him over Pete Schourek when spring training ended, which led to Schourek getting waived and signing with Cincinnati, where he had two really good years.

Down by 2, the Mets made things interesting in the 7th, as Bonilla led off with a double off southpaw reliever Andy Carter. After an out and a walk, Hundley was due up. Though the catcher was notoriously bad vs. LHP, the Phillies still countered by bringing in RHP Larry Andersen, a move the Mets must have welcomed. Hundley drilled the 7th pitch of the at-bat over the RF wall -- but foul by about 10 feet, just missing a 3-run homer. On the next pitch he popped out to second. David Segui followed with an RBI single off first baseman Ricky Jordan's mitt, but then John Cangelosi struck out looking on 3 pitches as a pinch hitter to end the inning. That was pretty much that.

Bob Wells picked up his first win in just his third big-league appearance by getting 2 outs in relief in the 5th inning, and Carter notched his first and only hold of his career. For the Mets, Josias Manzanillo looked incredible, getting 4 of his 6 outs via strikeout -- including fanning the side during the 8th inning. Josias did, however, comically walk Andersen in his final career plate appearance, even though Andersen was standing at the very edge of the batter's box with no intent to swing at all. On offense, Ryan Thompson was the only starter on either side not to get a hit. After he began May with a .279 batting average, his average stood at .219 following this loss -- and would bottom out at .211 after going 0-for-4 the next day. Meanwhile, Jim Lindeman received his first start for the Mets and responded by going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles. He and Jeromy Burnitz probably would have made for a nice OF platoon in 1994 but the Mets evidently had other plans.

Scoey
September 11, 2023
I made the 100-mile trip from my home in northern New Jersey to Philadelphia to see this game. I sat in the upper deck along the first base line behind the Phillies' dugout at the now (thankfully) defunct Veterans Stadium. The game was a hitting battle over the first five innings in which both the Mets and Phils fell behind and then caught up to tie or go ahead. Solid relief pitching then took over on both sides and it ended when Todd Hundley struck out after not quite checking his swing in time.

On Milt Thompson's home run during the Phillies' six-run second inning, the ball seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to get over the fence. It looked like it was going to be a shallow fly ball that left fielder Jim Lindeman would catch easily. However, it kept rising until it somehow found its way into the Mets bullpen. I had never seen a baseball travel like that before.

I also remember the double hit by Phils' pitcher Shawn Boskie in the bottom of the fifth. It was a high drive that caromed off the top of the center field wall. There was a dispute between Phillies' manager Jim Fregosi and the umpires about whether the ball hit the wall itself or the backdrop behind it and, therefore, should've been ruled a home run. Boskie wound up with a two-base hit after things were settled. This was the closest that a pitcher would come to hitting a homer in any major league game I ever attended.

After arriving back home very late that night, I watched a few innings of the game's rebroadcast on the SportsChannel cable station. I stayed up just long enough to see Hundley's two-run double in the top of the fifth for the second time. Knowing how the game turned out after that point, I then shut off the TV and went to sleep.