tvdude
February 6, 2002
this was a rough one. the Mets made like no errors the whole year, and their best offensive player's error cost the Mets a biggie. Leiter was superb, but had nothing to show for it.

jimmy "sweet" pea
October 22, 2003
The first playoff game at Shea stadium in many, many years. Friend of mine got tickets and four of us made the drive down from Albany. Met other friends at Shea, but the friend with the tickets hadn't shown yet. Jimmy Cadillac talked with a cop, expalined the situation and the cop let us into a pre-game party going on in the left field bullpen. Incredible. Ice sculptures, live music, open bars, sushi, BBQ. Wilpon was working the crowd, as was former Senator Al D'Amato, who was stuffing his face with the free food. Great seats and an incredible game with several plays at the plate. Braves scored only once -- in the first inning, but the Mets couldn't put a run across and lost. Tough ride home. Ventura's grand-slam single two games later would lift our spirits, but Kenny Rogers walking in the game and series winner was a killer.

Shickhaus Franks
April 11, 2011
I was at this game. A tight one to nothing loss with Leiter pitching his guts out but the highlight was me yelling to John Rocker "RUN, FORREST, RUN" as he entered the game in the 9th and that was 2 months before he almost ruined Christmas and Y2K with his ignorant comments about New Yorkers and the 7 train.

Dave VW
July 25, 2024
What a gross loss. Out-hit the Braves 7-3 but can't score against Tom Glavine, who looks like he's throwing batting practice but no one can ever get a good swing against him.

First inning really took the wind out of the sails, too. Leadoff walk, error by Leiter just trying to throw a meatball over to 1st base, then Piazza airmails one into CF on a Braves double steal, allowing them to score the only run of the game. Only get out of the inning when Brian Jordan hits what should be an RBI sac fly, but Melvin Mora, in his first playoff start and only 2nd start for the Mets in CF, guns down Bret Boone at the plate for his second OF assist of the postseason. Piazza got pulverized by Boone, somehow holding on to the ball, but got diagnosed with a slight concussion in between innings. Add that to his balky knee, bad back and sore thumb. And yet he stayed in the game, which is something I bet would never happen in today's game.

Rickey Henderson of all people also threw out a pair of Braves trying to stretch singles into doubles, despite not having an OF assist during the entire regular season! After he nailed Eddie Perez to lead off the 5th, the Braves actually didn't get another hit the rest of the game. But alas, despite putting at least 1 runner on base in every inning but the 8th, the Mets just couldn't score. Valentine tried to counter the Braves' deployment of John Rocker by reordering his lineup to further separate Olerud and Ventura, putting Olerud 2nd, Alfonzo 3rd and Ventura 6th. Neither Olerud or Alfonzo hit in those positions all season. Though Olerud reached base twice, Alfonzo and Ventura combined to go 0-for-7 with 4 strikeouts. Thanks guys.

But of course, the Mets had to tease us in the 9th when Agbayani reached base on an error to lead off. I thought, with Ventura up next, they could have asked Robin to bunt Agbayani into scoring position, as he was hopeless swinging the bat against Rocker. But instead Valentine pinch-hit with Pratt, who struck out on 3 pitches. Mora then flew out to CF and Ordonez bounced out to short and that was that. Glavine tied his career playoff high with 8 Ks and the Mets were shutout for the first time in the postseason since losing Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS to the Dodgers, 6-0.

And since no team at this point had ever come back from a 3-0 series hole, I remember losing all hope. Smoltz would probably throw a no-hitter in Game 4, and the Yankees would never lose a game again. It was nothing but bad feelings following this one.