Masato Yoshii, who hadn't lost since mid-August and pitched well vs. the Braves in his last start of the regular season, unfortunately picked a bad time to regress back to the mean, failing to make it out of the 5th inning. He had an inauspicious start, giving up a run after facing just 2 batters. He did manage to limit the damage and retire 9 in a row at one point, but he got beat up in the 5th, allowing a leadoff double to Weiss, and then appeared to roll his ankle when fielding Maddux's sac bunt. Gerald Williams followed with an RBI single and took 2nd on a Rickey Henderson error, and then Roger Cedeno made a sparkling defensive play, catching a Bret Boone liner on a full-extension dive to save a run. The Mets then elected to intentionally walk Chipper and go to the bullpen, and Pat Mahomes retired Brian Jordan to escape the inning.

After Piazza drove in a run with a groundout in the 4th, the Mets offense did little else. Alfonzo was stranded on 2nd after a 1-out double in the 6th, and Maddux made a miraculous behind-the-back catch on an Ordonez line drive in the 7th to end the inning with a runner on. A leadoff walk by Mora in the 8th went for nothing, and a 2-out rally in the 9th brought the tying run to the plate but Ordonez grounded out to end the game.

The Mets also had a great chance for a big inning in the 3rd when Cedeno led off with a double and took 3rd on an error, but then Ordonez hit a swinging bunt that barely stayed fair and was thrown out when he failed to run to 1st. Then Yoshii was asked to lay down a bunt on a suicide squeeze attempt, but he flat out missed the ball and Cedeno was a dead duck running down the line. Yoshii then grounded out and that, folks, is how you lose postseason games to the Braves. Failed execution and bad luck.