Ultimate Mets Database: Game of June 25, 1998

Dave VW
December 28, 2023
How ironic for Benitez to take a walk-off loss in his last appearance against the Mets before the team traded for him in the offseason. This was Baerga's last of 3 walk-off RBI for the Mets, with 2 being hits and another being a walk.

This also marked the first time the Mets won with Hideo Nomo starting. From what I remember about Nomo's brief time on the Mets, it seemed like he'd alternate between looking completely hopeless one start, to looking dominant in his next. Luckily, we got the dominate Nomo here. He didn't get the win though, as the Mets once again had a tough time scoring (they got exactly 1 hit in every inning of this game). After going down 2-0, Matt Franco got a run back with an RBI triple in the 5th, then Mike Piazza tied it up with an RBI sac fly in the 7th. In the 9th, Benitez walked two and struck out two before he gave up the hit to Baerga, which was a no-doubt frozen rope to center field and gave the Mets 4 wins out of their last 5 as they headed into a big weekend series vs. the Yankees.

In something I considered to be an odd occurrence, Roberto Alomar hit cleanup for Baltimore, one of only 11 times in his career he started a game hitting 4th. He actually hit a homer, which was the only one he ever recorded as a cleanup hitter. Along with Franco, Wayne Kirby also tripled for the Mets. Sadly, however, it was actually the second to last hit of his major league career.

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