Mario Lanza
August 6, 2002
This was the major league debut of John LeRoy, whom I played with as a teammate, growing up in Bellevue, WA. He got the win in relief for the Braves, never again pitched in the majors, and died of an aneurysm in 2001 at the age of 26.

Mets2Moon
November 27, 2004
Nobody has noted that in this game, Rafael Belliard hit a 2-run HR in the 7th inning off of Brian Bohanon. This is quite a notable feat. The last time Rafael Belliard had hit a Home Run previous to this was on May 5, 1987. That is 1987. 10 years and 1,869 at-bats in between HRs. And, of course, it beat the Mets. Simply remarkable.

Dave VW
November 13, 2023
I just watched this game back (well, most of it, as the video I watched cut off after the 8th inning), but I, too, made notes to write about both John LeRoy and Rafael Belliard. I know it's 20 years after your post, Mario, but I'm sorry for your loss. And to Mets2Moon, Belliard's home run was indeed a notable feat. His dingers against Show and Bohanon were the only two of his Major League career! Although he did hit 4 in the minors and one in the Indys in 1999. A slight correction, however: his HR didn't actually beat the Mets, but instead tied the score at 6-6. But geez, if this doesn't tell you everything about the Braves' fortune during the 1990s. This dude only hits 1 HR for the Braves over 8 years, and it just happens to tie a game during the latter innings of what would be an eventual Atlanta win. It's so infuriating.

There was one other rarity from this game: In the top of the 3rd, with the Braves starters just looking to get their swings in and get the rest of the night off, Brian Bohanon threw a 3-pitch inning, retiring Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff and Andruw Jones in order.

The teams treated this a lot like a spring training game, as the Braves replaced their entire starting lineup (save for Andruw Jones and Tony Graffanino) by the 4th inning, and then saw LeRoy get his first, and only, career win in his only ML appearance, and Kerry Ligtenberg his first ML save. The Mets also went with largely a B team lineup. New manager Carlos Mendoza received his last of 2 starts as a Met, and Roberto Petagine saw his only action in the outfield as a Met, playing the final 5 innings in LF.

Prior to Belliard's heroics, unlikely catalyst Alberto Castillo delivered a big 2-out, 2-run single with the bases loaded in the 6th. Atlanta led off the 8th with a single and a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out, but Greg McMichael came in for Bohanon and was spectacular, striking out the next 3 batters to hold serve. Later on, the Mets had another chance with the bases loaded and 2 outs, this time in the 10th with Luis Lopez at the plate, but he flew out to end the threat. The Braves then rallied off Mel Rojas in the 11th to take the lead, and the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame to call it a night.

Earlier in the day, Todd Hundley underwent elbow surgery that kept him out of the lineup until the following July. But this was essentially the end of the line for Todd in New York. By the time he came back, Mike Piazza was already on the team, and an experiment in LF didn't go well at all, leading to him getting traded to the Dodgers after the 1998 season. But despite looking washed up, Steve Phillips still managed to turn him into Roger Cedeno and Armando Benitez. Kudos to you, sir.

And hey, what would a 1990s game on UPN 9 be without some classic Kinerisms? The telecast had Steve Phillips in the booth for a couple innings and Kiner introduced him as "Steve Peters." After Kiner corrected himself a short time later, Phillips jokingly said "Nice to meet you Ralph," to which Kiner replied, "I guess I should go look for another job." He also later called Greg McMichael "Greg McAndrew" and Andruw Jones "Anthony Jones."