This was the Mets' first ever game against the San Diego Padres. The Padres won this game but the Mets won the next 11 games against the Padres in 1969.

This was also the first win in what would become a club record 11 wins in a row...putting the National League on notice.

OK, y'all--how does the song go? "This could be the start of something BIG..." And indeed it was; because THIS is the game that "slammed the door" on the Mets being the perennial doormat of baseball. For with the completion of this game, the day before my 14th birthday, my Mets have embarked on a never-to-be-done- before-in-their-history ELEVEN GAME WINNING STREAK with this victory over the Padres.

Oh, and it only gets better...A few days after the streak concludes, WE GET CLINK!!!!--Slugger Donn Clendennon comes to the Mets!!! Sing it again, y'all... "This could be the start of something BIG!..."

I'm from Missouri, a big Cardinal fan, by the way. But on this date in 1969 I was in New York for the first time and four of us got field box seats (3.50) and we watched the Mets beat the Padres. We were on our high school senior trip.

A good friend of mine, who was a big Mets fan at the time and a Jerry Koosman fan in particular, couldn't wait for me to get back into town to show me the box score of a game in which Koosman had struck out 15. He showed me the box score--and I then I showed him the ticket. I think we were good luck for the Mets that year.

I'm not really a Mets fan anymore, but the BEST baseball book ever written for my money is still "Can't Anybody Here Play this Game?", by Jimmy Breslin. Funniest adult baseball book ever.

I believe this was the first game of the ten game winning streak. I had just finished my last college final (a make up art exam ) and I went out to Shea to see Jerry Koosman against the expansion Padres and their adobe brown uniforms. I think Clay Kirby pitched for the Padres but the KOOS outpitched him. I also went on Friday, Sunday against SF and Wednesday against LA. What a homestand: 8-1 and we knew there was something going on with this team.

My first baseball game. I was nine years old. I wasn't even very aware of baseball before this game, but I'd have to say this game changed my life. Sat in the field box on the first base side with my father, brother and cousin. My father taught me how to keep score. From this point on, sports moved to the center of my life. It was as if something inside of me had been awakened. Looking back, it's no wonder that I prefer pitchers duels to slugfests.

This was the start of the 11-game winning steak In 1969.

The Mets swept the Padres and recorded their tenth straight victory in this game. Tom Seaver had fourteen strikeouts in only seven innings (that's Jacob deGrom-like) and got his ninth win of the season. Meanwhile, the Montreal Expos ended their 20-game losing skid by beating the Dodgers up the coast in Los Angeles. A significant day in baseball in regard to streaks.

In news of lesser importance, Mickey Mantle had his uniform #7 retired on this day.

Tom Seaver won his 17th with eight innings of shutout ball. Ron Taylor came on to pitch the top of the ninth. Tommie Agee and Bobby Pfiel drove in the Mets runs.

As noted on the earlier posting for game two of this doubleheader, Tommy Davis did not have a grand slam in these games; in fact, Davis never played for the Padres. Davis started the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and finished it with the Houston Astros.

The doubleheader win on this date in 1969 started the Mets push for the Eastern Division title.

I was 16 and a diehard Yankee fan, but the neighbor had tix and offered to take me along. I remember rooting against them but Seaver won a game and Tommy Davis hit a grand slam (I thought, but the scores don't reflect that).

This was a banner day doubleheader and my mother and I took the train to New York from Connecticut. We had Field Level seats down the right field line. About the third inning I went for some refreshments behind home plate. A gentleman came up the isle and gave me four tickets for the seats behind home plate 2 rows back. I got my mother and we enjoyed the doubleheader from a pair of great seats! This game was a makeup from earlier in the season. In fact they played the Padres in back to back doubleheaders and got the Mets on the roll that ultimately sent them roaring past the Cubs. The only memory I have specifically is a Duffy Dyer home run which may have come in the second game. I don't remember.

Game 2 of a doubleheader. I was 11 years old, and in the 3rd inning, a message was put up on the scoreboard announcing that my best buddy and I had won a prize in the Banner Day parade.

The Mets swept four from San Diego that weekend, and we were given tickets to a future game, a weeknight vs the expansion Expos. Little did we know, the Expo game would be the night the Mets would move into first place for the first time in their history.

Obviously, this day will be a Met highlight for me forever.

Went on a 6th grade class trip to this game. We had seats in the left field upper deck. Ivan Murrell was inserted as a pinch runner for the Padres and stayed in the game as the left fielder. Between pitches we would call out his name and he would look up and wave to us! Even though he was a marginal player, from that point on he became one of my favorite players!

I was lucky enough to be home, sick from school on this day, and watched on channel 9 as Tom pitched an absolute gem.

He struck out 19 Padres, which was the all-time MLB record, and most notably, he struck out the last ten in a row!!! You had the feeling that if the game had kept going he would've struck out even more.

It shocks me to see that San Diego scored a run that day. Possibly the most dominant, overpowering performance by the greatest Met of all.

This game was played during a week I had off from college; in a few weeks the entire term would be truncated because of the rippling effects of the Kent State incident. But on this day, I recall doing homework in my room and listening to the game on the radio. It was amazing- Tom had so many strikeouts in this game, and then to have fanned the 10 guys in a row to end it. What a performance!!!! The fact that it was San Diego, an expansion team in their 2nd year out of the gate, didn't seem to matter. They had guys like Ferrara and Gaston, and Tom struck them out along with all the others. A real gem. At this point, I felt sure we were going to win another pennant. So much for feelings.

I can still clearly remember listening to this game on my transistor radio and rooting Seaver on as he piled on the strikeouts. 10 in a row! Seaver was even exciting over the radio.

The only historical game I have witnessed in person. Took a school trip from Wade J.H.S 117 (Bx.) which turned out to be the first Earth Day of all things. Seaver was simply dominant that day. I believe a SD player hit a homer that day. From the 6th inning on probably the most dominant pitching performance I have seen! A MLB record of 10 consecutive K's.

My friend Howard L. and I went to the game and sat in box seats on the loge deck. Contrary to what the other comment said, the game was not televised.

Seaver gave up 2 hits, one was a homer to Al Ferrara.. I beleive the other hit was by Mike Corkins, the S.D. pitcher.

It was during passover, and being a good Jewish boy, we threw the buns away and just ate the hot dogs with our hands.

Tom's strikeouts by inning:

2 1 2 2 1 2 3 3 3=19

April 22, 1970 was the first Earth Day, and, surprisingly, the school district in which I was a 4th grader gave us the day off. I prevailed on my father to take me to this weekday afternoon game, despite my mother's protests about burning gasoline on Earth Day. The crowd was only 7,000, so we got Field Box seats on the first base side. The drama of what Seaver did not develop until very late, because it was the last 10 that he struck out (a record that still stands?). At the end of eight, they announced on the scoreboard that he had set a team record with 16 strikeouts. In the 9th, you just knew no one was going to touch him. I don't remember whether they announced anything about the 10 straight. They might well have. In any event, we knew he had to get the last guy for a record, whether it was 19 or the 10. My best friend was so excited he was waiting for me in my driveway when we got home.

My friend's Dad took us to the game because we had Easter Vacation and no school. We walked up and like the previous poster bought field boxes on the first base side for $4.00! I remember Al Ferrara hitting the HR. My most vivid memory was the 9th inning with everyone in the stadium standing on their seats as Tom struck out the side for the 3rd inning in a row.

My college pal Paul and I ditched school (CCNY) for this classic. As games went, this one was rather lackluster with not much offense to speak of. Of course this game was not about offensive sparks, but pitching superlatives. Of couse we're talking about Seaver's 19 punch outs against the Padres. What I remember most was that while Tom had a lot of early stikeouts, it became clear that to reach 19 he would have to strike out the side for not only the 7th inning, but the 8th and 9th as well. And he did. Unreal. To be sure, this was for the ages.

As a kid, I went to so many day games at Shea that I lost count, but this one was AMAZIN! It was Easter vacation, so my dad got my sis and I box seats for the game from a work contact. Tom Terrific was my favorite player, of course, and I was keeping score. In the late innings, everyone started noticing that our scorecards were reading K,K,K,K,K,...In the end, Seaver struck out 19, including the last 10 in a row. The perspective of time makes the latter feat stand out as one of the wonders of baseball history. In an age in which starters are on pitch counts, and rarely pitch past the 6th or 7th inning, I can't imagine any pitcher today being able to get more and more untouchable deep into the late innings, like Tom Seaver was on this April afternoon. The most amazing pitching performance I've ever seen, period! And I was blessed to be there at Shea that day!

Contrary to what Mr. Cohen wrote, the game was indeed televised that day. And Seaver defined the term "rising fastball" with his thrilling performance.

I was 8 years old, and Tom Seaver was already my one-and-only hero. My dad knew it and found me when the game was in the 5th inning. Seaver was so unique! As I came in the room first thing you look for is the marks on his right leg and the "hop." He already had a double mark and it may be my imagination but I recall just the beginning of a third. Immediately you knew he was strong and it was Seaver vs Seaver, there was really nobody else on the field that mattered.

The "hop" that day was unique. On days he was average Seaver you got a baby hop. On the days he was strong you got a hop as he came into his fielding stance and a second one forward toward the batter from the momentum of his leg drive. That second hop took him to the perimeter of the dirt on the mound.

In the last three innings of this game, his momentum carried him to the grass in front of the mound a good yard. It was beautiful to watch as even Seaver himself could not repeat such mechanics but a few times in 20 years. We watched and commented on the distance he went after each pitch, how his release point was as far from 60 feet 6 inches as you will ever see and the movement on his rising fastball that was on the black and unhittable. In the 9th, we witnessed perfection.

God I wish they sold games like that; it is a shame you cannot share it with today's kids

Note also that Jerry Grote set a Mets record with 20 putouts in this game. I do not recall what the putout other than the Seaver strikeouts was.

At the recent All-Star Fan Fest, my wife bought for me a painting of Tom Seaver pitching in the ninth inning of this game with the scoreboard in the background showing the score, lineups (with Joe Foy at 3rd) the Rheingold sign and the message board announcing the Wunderkind's accomplishment. Though the missus does not want to put it up this is priceless.

I was lucky enough to attend this game. It was a class trip with Mr. Schuler from JHS#7 on Staten Island. What a great class trip, to watch Seaver strike out 19.

I was 8 and this was the first ballgame I ever attended with my father, just the two of us; he was a Yankee fan (one of the few non-arrogant ones). He would usually bring a transistor radio and earphone so he could listen to the Yankee game! Strangely, he had Wednesdays off in those days and worked the other six days. And Catholic schools in NYC had Wednesday half days because of CCD. So that's how we ended up going to such a sparsely attended weekday game that ended up making history.

The glow of winning it all in 1969 was still with me. I remember seeing $4 for box seats on our way in and thinking we could never afford that. I also recall seeing the message on the scoreboard of Tom Terrific's historic feat. I'm pretty sure we were in Loge Section 7 on the first-base side, which became my preferred area to sit at Shea.

Ten consecutive strikeouts -- a single pitcher never did it before or since. And to do it to end a game! It may be a record as unbreakable as DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.

Ex-Dodger Al Ferrara was the first of the ten straight strikeouts and the last! A few years before this Ferrara, who had Hollywood friends, had played a henchman of a couple of the villains in some Batman episodes.

I've been to so many big Met games -- Ventura's 15-inning Grand Slam Single playoff game in 1999, the winning of the Pennant in 2000, Mlicki's 6-0 win striking out Jeter to end the first-ever interleague Met-Yankee game in 1997, Mo Vaughn hitting a homer half way up the scoreboard in 2002. And amazingly enough, the last game my father and I attended just the two of us was when David Cone took a no-hitter into the ninth in 1992 only to have it be broken up by a little dribbler to Dave Magadan at third from Hall-of-Famer Jeff Bagwell. It would have been the first no-hitter in Met history. (And in my book the Mets still have no no-hitters; there was that awful blown call in the Santana game, and combined no-hitters are an absurdity.)

Things like this make me so glad I'm a Met fan. They have more value to me than all the WS rings money can buy. Unfortunately, the great game of baseball continues to change for the worse. Scherzer pitched six perfect innings a week or two ago and Buck takes him out! When you think of that, will kids even ever again get to see anything akin to Seaver's feat? It's well worth listening to Lindsey Nelson's call of the final innings of this game. The time between pitches is so fast! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si_GfOGmkMQ

I took the previous commenter's advice and listened to the broadcast of this game on YouTube. It's so magical listening to the younger versions of Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner, as well as an all-time great like Lindsey Nelson.

In the top of first inning, Murphy noticed a "kitty cat" on the field that quickly ducked into the visitor's dugout, reminding him of the black cat from the previous year that hexed the Cubs and led to the Mets winning it all. Seems to me like cats on the field may have been some type of omen of good things to come for these Mets, as evidenced by Seaver's performance on this day.

Seaver's 16th strikeout topped Nolan Ryan's team record, which was set just 4 days earlier. His 19th strikeout tied Steve Carlton's all-time record for a 9-inning game, which was set just the previous year against the Mets. The 10 consecutive strikeouts are, as of this writing, still a record, having been tied by Aaron Nola and Corbin Burnes, both in 2021.

The only two hits Seaver allowed were a 2nd-inning no-doubter of a home run by Al Ferrara, and a 4th-inning hard grounder by Dave Campbell (of ESPN analytic fame) that ate up 3B Joe Foy. The announcers weren't sure if the play would be scored a hit or an error, but it went as a hit. Meanwhile, the only batter to face Seaver and not strike out during the game was light-hitting shortstop and leadoff hitter Jose Arcia. Coincidentally, Arcia was the only member of the Padres lineup (besides the pitcher) they chose to pinch-hit for. As you could probably guess, his pinch-hitter, Ivan Murrell, struck out in the 8th.

Two weeks after striking out 19 Padres at Shea, Tom Seaver struck out "only" 10 Padres in this game at San Diego.

Seaver improved to 5-0 with a four-hitter. The only San Diego run came on a sixth inning homer by SS Steve Huntz, who finished his career with a lifetime .206 batting average and 16 home runs. Former Met Chris Cannizzaro was the starting catcher for the Padres.

Donn Clendenon drove in both Mets runs with a bases-loaded single in the fourth off Irvington, NJ native Al Santorini.

A year earlier Seaver struck out 14 Padres in a 3- 2 Met victory that was also played in San Diego. Al Santorini was also the tough luck loser in that game as well.

This was Seaver's 4th straight complete game victory, and 8th time throwing a CG while tallying at least 10 strikeouts. His 42 total CGs with 10 Ks is almost double the total of the pitcher in second place in Mets history: Doc Gooden with 22.

Thankfully, the Mets scored just enough to get him his 5th straight win. After Clendenon's 2-run single in the 3rd, the Mets mustered just one more hit the rest of the game: a leadoff single by Duffy Dyer in the 4th. After that, just one more Met even reached base. That was Wayne Garrett, who walked in the 6th but was promptly erased when Dyer grounded into a double play. The lack of run support is something that will rear its ugly head quite often for Seaver in 1970.

Interesting game in San Diego.

Clay Kirby no-hit the Mets for eight innings but was losing 1-0. The San Diego manager went for the win and pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the eighth. San Diego didn't score and their bullpen lost the no-hitter in the top of the ninth when the Mets scored twice and went on to the 3-0 victory.

I recall listening to the game on the radio while in bed. Lots of dabate about whether the manager did the right thing in the days after the game.

Hot summer day in NYC for this 15 year old. I ate a chicken hero that didn't agree with me and was up all night feeling ill. Remember Jim McAndrew besting Clay Kirby who was removed by manager Preston Gomez despite throwing a no hitter, he was trailing 1-0 at the time. Given the sad state of the lowly 2nd year Padres, what was he thinking?

Dad and I got free mezzanine tickets from a neighbor. Seaver was in control from the start, fanning 13 Padres in a 4-2 win. Ollie Brown got around on him for 2-run shot. He fanned Nate Colbert 4 times. Cleon Jones popped a 3-run shot into the visitors bullpen. In April of that year, Tom Terrific struck out 19 Padres at Shea, the last 10 in a row! San Diego was a second-year expansion club with a dreadful lineup. However 32 whiffs in 18 innings is impressive.

I was invited to come to the game with my best friend and his parents to celebrate his 12th birthday. Both of us were huge baseball fans, and being from Connecticut I was a Yankees fan, he was a Red Sox fan, and we both sort of followed and liked the Mets (this was the season after the Miracle Mets of 1969). I remember a short rain delay, or maybe a brief shower, because the organist played " Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" as the shower was happening. We were under cover, fortunately. Yes, Seaver in control the whole way.

This was my first Met game. I was 8. It was the banner day doubleheader. I with everyone else who brought a banner walked the warning track around the field between games. I remember passing in front of the Mets dugout and seeing Gil Hodges and Ron Swoboda. A huge thrill for me! Too bad we lost both games. Poor Jim McAndrew. That guy pitched his heart out always and never could have a winning record.

Sunday, August 2, 1970 was the date of my first Met games at Shea Stadium. It was a Sunny Banner Day doubleheader against the San Diego Padres. The Mets lost both games. I remember Ron Taylor pitching in both games. My father and I sat in the Mezzanine section right over the Mets bullpen. Between games I remember a drunk Hispanic man yelling down to Jerry Grote for an autograph. Jerry Grote told him "&*$@ you." The man later broke a Mets replica batting helmet that he had purchased for his son by banging it on the seats. I remember the smell of cheap cigar smoke, and my ears ringing for days after the game!

Nolan Ryan improved to 6-1 as he struck out 16 Padres in the second game of a doubleheader at San Diego. It was the most batters Nolan would strike out while wearing a Mets uniform.

Ryan gave up a first inning unearned run and then clamped down on the Pods. Art Shamsky tied it in he fifth and had an RBI double in the seventh to drive in the winning run.

After the great 6-1 start, Ryan won just four more games the rest of the year and finished 10- 14. In 1972 he was wearing a California Angels uniform.

Tug set a Mets record for a relief pitcher in this game with 9 K's.

Tom Seaver was my favorite player. I remember how he and Dave Roberts pitched like they were the top two pitchers in the NL. I think Cleon Jones' home run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth hit the top of the wall before going over.

It was Saturday the 21st, possibly a night affair. It was anticipated as a pitchers’ duel: Tom Terrific and SD’s lefty Dave Roberts - 1-2 in the NL in ERA. It didn’t disappoint (in some small part due to the hitting status of both teams.) Exactly 2 hours time, no errors, no pitching changes - vintage MLB. Cleon Jones won it with a walk offer that barely cleared the CF wall, a few yards to the right. I recall telling my Mom “I had a felling.” She agreed! Despite a Mets fan’s long hot summer -a priceless memory.

Yet another hilarious outing at the park. My best friend and I never missed a weekend, either Yankee or Shea, we were there. Could afford it back then....Nate Colbert ties into one but we're more concerned with Jet-Giants game at the Yale Bowl.Great times were had, the game's so different now, so's the feeling!

This was one of those late night games from the west coast that was probably not tuned into by many New Yorkers. It featured Rusty Staub’s first home run as a Met and a homer by Jerry Grote that turned out to be a game-winner. Also, it was Don Zimmer’s debut as a major league manager. Zimmer had just taken over the Padres after the firing of Preston Gomez.

My first game ever! My best friend's communion and his father brought us to the game. Great seats, not far back from the Mets dugout. A beautiful day. A young kid, I was in awe of being at the ballpark. Two distinctive memories, naturally the Mets lost, a precursor to being a Met fan. The fondest memory: Watching Ed Kranepool's Home Run sail over the bullpen wall, standing on my seat to watch it go and go and go ! I was given money from my father for a souvenir; I got a Mets cap. I kept that hat for forever. I wish I still had it. I regret that I do not have the stub from that day.

I remember being mesmerized by the Padres uniforms and asking my father why we couldn't get Ed Kranepool's home run ball. I was fixated with that ball until a stadium employee lazily walked over and picked up what could have been a wonderful souvenir for this seven year old boy.

It was in this game that Tom Seaver suffered his first loss ever to the Padres. Seaver had dominated the San Diego team with wins in each of his first ten decisions against them since 1969. Nate Colbert drove in four runs with a double and homer in giving his club their first-ever victory over Tom Terrific. The defeat was just a temporary setback for Seaver. He would not lose another game to the Padres for another three years, during which he beat them eight more times.

I am 38, and this was the first ballgame I ever attended. Tommie Agee hit a walk off homer if I remember correctly.

Tony, you are correct! Agee's two-out homer in the bottom of the tenth after Bud Harrelson reached on an error gave the Mets an 8-6 win in this game.

The Mets were down 6-0 going to the bottom of the eighth but they scored five in that inning and one more in the ninth before Agee won it in extra innings. The Padres made six errors in the game, including four over the last three innings when the Mets scored all eight of their runs.

San Diego OF Johnny Jeter had two homers in the game.

This was the first game of a doubleheader and my first ever Mets game at Shea. I was 5 years old and I believe it was also batting helmet day. I remember that Willie Mays hit a foul ball which the man in front of me caught barehanded. Best of all was that Tom Terrific carried a no-hitter into the 9th inning. He was masterful. I also remember those awful mustard yellow Padres jerseys. The Mets won 2-0. Since this game, I have always wanted to be at the first no- hitter in Mets history. I've never been this close to a no-hitter or a foul ball since!!!!

I was at this game with my family - my last trip to Shea before starting at the Naval Academy on 7/6/72. It was Leron Lee who spoiled the no-hitter.

What is interesting about this game is that Tom Seaver retired all 27 batters yet didn't get a no-no. After Leron Lee got a base hit, Nate Colbert hit into a double play.

Metman, your comment is a little misleading. You make it sound as if Seaver had a perfect game going, but he didn't. He had four walks and faced a total of 31 Padre hitters. The walks were all left on base.

Tom had 11 strikeouts in the game and the Mets' two runs came on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Jim Fregosi and Ed Kranepool.

It was a double header and Navy day at Shea and Miss Navy was carried around the field in a battleship replica (on a truck bed) between games. I was 11 and accompanied my uncle (a Navy officer) in that battleship replica to the game but unfortunately was not allowed anywhere near Miss Navy and could not ride around the field in the replica. However, I got to watch both games from the bullpen and I met and got autographs on my baseball from Jon Matlack and Buzz Capra from the Mets and Johnny Jeter and Al Severinsen from the Padres. I still have the baseball. It was hands down the most awesome baseball experience of my life.

Another lefty dunker breaks up a Tom Terrific bid, also 1out-top of the 9th, for a special event in front of a Big Shea crowd: first it was July, 1969, now July 4, three years later. It’s to Tom’s credit that he makes these guys famous! This one however, Leron Lee was a respectable hitter. Like against Qualls (Who?) Tom pitched up in the zone (the image in my mind from a backstop camera angle which gives the hitter’s perspective, out of use today unfortunately) but that was his forte. Once again, a prolonged standing ovation, the Shea fans ensuring that this will nonetheless be an unforgettable performance. Despite another meaningless single, Tom authors 1 of his 61 shutouts -7th all-time, tied with protégé Nolan Ryan. Despite the best efforts of a bevy of pesky lefties looking to make a name for themselves -the premier RH power/control pitcher in MLB history! So, Happy 4th to the ex-Marine and virtuoso performer, G. Thomas Seaver!

I attended this game, stayed for the entire 14 innings and watched McGraw walk in the go-ahead run in the top of the 14th. Not a happy night.

The Mets managed just two hits in this fourteen inning game!

Padres RHP Steve Arlin threw ten innings, allowing just one hit, a leadoff single by Dave Marshall in the fourth. Jim Fregosi had the only other Mets hit with two outs in the twelfth off Gary Ross. Jerry Koosman pitched ten scoreless innings for the Mets, striking out twelve.

The Padres scored in the top of the fourteenth when they loaded the bases with nobody out. It looked like the Mets might escape as Tug McGraw got Nate Colbert to hit into a force play at the plate, and Clarence Gaston struck out. But Jerry Morales walked to force in the only run of the game.

The Mets threatened in the bottom of the inning when Bud Harrelson walked, went to second on a wild pitch, and to third on a sac bunt. But Dave Marshall grounded to short and was thrown out at first, and as the throw went to first Harrelson tried to score. Nate Colbert threw home to Pat Corrales and the game was over.

On this same night the Pirates won a 17-inning marathon at the Astrodome, so the Mets fell 2.5 games out of first place.

The fourteen inning game was over in three hours and twelve minutes!

I watched this entire game, right up to its bitter end. Bud Harrelson was thrown out at home to end it, but it happened a little differently than the way its described above.

With Harrelson on third and two outs, John Milner was batting. Gary Ross threw a pitch that got by catcher Pat Corrales. Harrelson raced for the plate, but Corrales recovered quickly. He threw to Ross covering home and Ross tagged Harrelson--late! But the umpire (who might have been tired and just wanted to go home) called Harrelson out. It was a terrible call. Buddy, Milner and Yogi Berra were all arguing intensely, and with good reason.

It was a frustrating end to a long game that should have been tied up at that point.

Hank M, thanks for pointing out my mistake in describing the play that ended the game! I misread the summary off retrosheet. I'm glad you have the real live memory of the disappointing ending of the game (although I wish Buddy had been safe!)

A successful major league debut for Dave Schneck. He hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to give the Mets the lead for good. Tom Seaver pretty much did the rest with a complete game five-hitter to continue his dominance over the Padres. The win was the twelfth in thirteen career decisions for Seaver against the San Diego team.

The Mets honored the POWs before the game.

I attended this game with my dad about 2 weeks before my 13th birthday and 6 days before my Bar Mitzvah! Thought I remembered Dave Winfield playing as a rookie, but he actually made his MLB debut 2 days later, on 6/19 vs. Houston.

This was a big day for Ron Hodges. He hit the first home run of his career in only his third major league game. The homer broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning and put the Mets ahead to stay. Over his 12-season career with the Mets, Hodges homered eighteen more times.

I saw this game on a Wednesday in San Diego. Tom Seaver pitched a 2 hit shutout. Seaver led off the third inning with a triple but embarrassed himself by getting thrown out at home by such a wide margin on a grounder to the shortstop that he didn't bother sliding.

My very first Mets game!!!!

I don't exactly remember the details of the game. But I was just in awe of the green grass the sights and sounds it was incredible! The other thing I remember is that we got these tickets through some Dairylea promotion does anybody remember this promotion? You had to send in coupons I believe they had to equal 20 points and that was good for one ticket, I member packing the envelope and sending these coupons in and the tickets arriving a few weeks later. The whole thing brings back great memories.

Its funny, this was my very first Mets game as well. We got there right after the game started and I remember Matlack pitching and he was already in trouble. The biggest thing I remember about the game is Nate Colbert hitting a 9th-inning home run into the parking lot.

I will never forget my first sight of the field when I walked up the ramp, and saw that big giant scoreboard for the first time. It was a magical night and one I will never forget. Only 7 years old at the time, but remember like it was yesterday.

My dad took me and my brother to this freezing cold Helmet Day in our brand new Gremlin! . It was the 2nd Met game I ever went to, with Cleon and Rusty hitting back to back homers in the big Helmet Day win. Still got the scorecard somewhere. Jeez, The Big Shea was only ten years old then, now it's gonna be gone soon. Man, I'm getting old!

My bad, it was Milner and Staub hitting those homers, man I'm getting old!

My uncle Joe took my brother Joe and I to the game. It was our first game ever as we were children of Italian immigrants. I remember the hot chocolate and hot dog. I also remember my little brother Joe jumping up and down when Rusty and Milner both hit home runs in the same inning. One last funny thing, I remember the rats in the subway, it was the first time we ever went on a train. I was 10, Joe was 7. Thank you Zio Pino.

I was at this game. For some reason, the Padres' relief pitchers ran from the bullpen to the field instead of taking the cart. I wonder if their manager had a rule against using the cart.

"The Yankees just helped the Mets!"

This is what my father said after we saw what happened in the sixth inning. Horace Clarke, who had been released by the Yanks because of his continuous shoddy fielding, let a two-out ground ball get through his legs. This error allowed the tying run to score and paved the way for a 4- run inning. The Mets would go on to win, 4-2, with all runs unearned.

The game of baseball can provide a lot of strange twists. This game is a good example. It was won with a little help from our "friends" in the Bronx. Thank you, Yankees, for releasing Horace Clarke, allowing the Padres to sign him. It came in very handy on this night.

Well described, Hank M, about Clarke's error of Rusty Staub's two-out grounder in the sixth. It brought home Jon Matlack from third base and three more runs followed on singles by Ed Kranepool and Jerry Grote. But here's another interesting thing that happened in the bottom half of that inning. Rod Gaspar, a Miracle Met from '69, led off as a pinch-hitter for the Padres and took a called third strike from Matlack. This was the last appearance for Gaspar in a major league game.

George Theodore hit his only home run of the season in the game, the first of three consecutive Mets home runs hit by Theodore, Rusty Staub, and Cleon Jones.

Ken, I'm following you around! As I noted in my comments under George Theodore, The Stork, Rusty, and Cleon went back-to-back-to-back off journeyman RHP Lowell Palmer in the top of the 5th. Jerry Koosman reached a milestone in the game, notching his 1,000th career strikeout in the 8th inning. The victim was future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.

On this Friday night at Shea, San Diego's Willie McCovey broke a 2-2 tie with an eighth-inning, pinch-hit grand slam off Bob Apodaca. It was the third career pinch slam for McCovey, and gave him a total of 16 lifetime slams, tying Henry Aaron for the NL lead.

This was my very first baseball game! I was 11 years old. My grandparents who live in Jersey decided to surprise my brother and I. We had seats in the mezzanine section and the game was delayed for 20 minutes or so because of a downpour. The Mets got off to a great start and the Padres pitcher Spillner didn't last the first inning. After that it was all downhill from there! Lousy game but my first trip to Shea! Randy Tate pitched like a Tidewater Tide player, not a Met.

I watched this on TV. I guess the only reason this game stands out for me other than Randy Tate actually WINNING a ballgame was that he also WALKED!!! (I swear it's true!!!) It's the only time I remember him as a baserunner. I would like to say it was Dave Freisleben who walked him, but I can't be sure.

In response to the entry from rht, Tate drew a walk leading off the top of the sixth with Padres reliever (and ex-Met) Rich Folkers on the mound. It was the only time that Randy, who was 0-for-41 in his only major league season, got on base without hitting into a force play or reaching on an error. His pitching was the real story of this game. He went the full nine innings (how many pitchers do that anymore?) to record the fifth and final win of his career.

I was down from upstate with a group from my high school, and this was my first Mets game. In fact it was my first trip to the big city, but this was my favorite part. It was a duel between Randy Jones, who after a great start was anointed the Cy Young winner by August, and Koosman, who finished second in the voting despite arguably superior stats after a great second half. This was the first of two times that Kooz beat Jones at Shea this season.

Kong hit two home runs, but my most vivid memory was Koosman fanning McCovey. Stretch took a huge swing on strike three with the game still on the line, and Shea was rocking.

I was 10 yrs old. My brother was 8. Our dad took us to this Friday night game and on the way to the game a huge thunderstorm hit around 6pm. We were dismayed and thought the game would be postponed. To our delight the skies cleared and it was a beautiful night made all the better watching my favorite players, Dave Kingman hit 2 home runs..

Just to clarify an earlier post: Dave Kingman had two homers in this game--a two-run shot in the first off Randy Jones, and a three-run shot in the eighth off Mike Dupree. Jerry Koosman drove in the other Met run.

Kooz did indeed strike out Willie McCovey in this game, but big Stretch was called out on strikes for the first out of the sixth inning with a runner on second and the Mets leading, 3-1. Dave Winfield got the RBI two batters later to make it 3-2. Winfield had three of the Padres' six hits that night.

I have two memories of this game. I'm not positive they are correct.

1. Brent Strom had a no hitter going for 5 or 6 innings before Joe Torre broke it up with a single up the middle.

2. Winfield's 1st AB: Fly out to Right. Not getting around on Seaver.

2nd AB: Fly out to warning track in Right. Hit well, but not pulling it on Seaver

3rd AB: HR over the Right Field wall off Seaver. So much for not being able to pull it.

My first game that I really remember going to at 7 years old. I had the audacity to shout "Seaver you stink!" after he gave up a run in the 5th.

I was down from upstate with a group from my high school, and this was my first Mets game. In fact it was my first trip to the big city, but this was my favorite part.

It was a duel between Randy Jones, who was on a long winning streak and had already been anointed the Cy Young winner, and Koosman, who finished second in the voting despite arguably superior stats. Jones' streak stopped here.

Kong hit two home runs, but my most vivid memory was Koosman fanning McCovey. Stretch took a huge swing on strike three with the game still on the line, and Shea was rocking.

Jim, a couple of corrections to your earlier post:

Willie McCovey did not have an at bat in this game. Also this was Randy Jones' third consecutive loss to drop his record to 18-7. He did have a seven game winning streak in May and June.

Kooz improved to 14-7. One of the reasons the Cy Young voting was discussed at length after that season was that after starting the year 18-4, Jones wound up 22-14. Kooz started the year 11-7 but his final record was 21-10.

In this game, after the teams traded early four- run innings, Jones and Koosman tamed the bats the rest of the way. The Mets scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on singles by Joe Torre, Roy Staiger, and John Milner.

Wasn't this the game where John Stearns batted out of order and hit a home run? The Padres didn't realize in time and the home run counted.

It was Roy Staiger who did that in the Sunday game.

This was Jon Matlack's 26th and last shutout with the Mets. With two outs in the ninth inning, Matlack struck out Gene Tenace to end it. The game-closing K was Jon's 1,000th strikeout of his major league career.

Isn't it interesting how things can work out so perfectly?

Half the fun of going to a ball game at Shea is watching what goes on in the seats/crowd. However, this Saturday was anything but. I was 11 yrs. old and my family and I were sitting in the boxes along third base. The downer was the vomiting fans next to us. I can still see the throw up slowly flowing down the tiers. They were drunk bothering their fellow Mets fans and the usher refused to do anything about it, even though these drunks were ****ing up a great ball game. A Mets loss, but good years were around the corner. Nice memory, huh?

As an eight year old, I attended this weekday matinee with my baseball camp, sitting upstairs in the cheap seats. The 1978 highlight film shown on SNY features this game. Joe Torre was wired for sound and it's cool to have a keepsake.

On the film, you can relive how with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, the Mets blew their 1-0 lead when San Diego's Derrel Thomas hits a 2 run homer. Typical for the late 70's Mets.

Mets had some promotion with I believe Dairylea and sponsored a high school journalist night - a special press conference was held with Pete Falcone as the token Met (I guess Nino Espinosa was unavailable). I believe the event was the 100,000 free Dairylea ticket given out. Anyway, the sandwiches were stale, the giveaway clipboard cheap, and my school paper editor didn't have time to finish another issue so my article never ran. Oh, by the way, the Padres and Gaylord Perry easily won - I can't remember any of the details otherwise and the box score didn't help.

I went to this game with a group of people on a bus trip. We watched from the upper deck on the first base line behind the Mets' dugout. It was Lee Mazzilli Poster Day and the famous San Diego Chicken made an appearance on this sunny Saturday afternoon.

The Chicken turned out to be the best part of the day. He was entertaining while the Mets were downright awful! In the first inning, the Padres' Jerry Turner came up with the bases loaded and missed a grand slam by inches. He hit a ball off the top part of the right field wall for a 3-run triple. This set the tone for the entire game, which San Diego won easily.

A little excitement came about at the end of the sixth inning. Steve Henderson was thrown out at home trying to score on a fly ball. Joel Youngblood came from the on-deck circle and got into the face of Padre catcher Gene Tenace. Everyone from both dugouts then came out to home plate, but no fight broke out.

There's one other thing I recall from this day. The Padres wore gold jerseys during pre-game warmups. They switched to their regular brown ones for the game. This was the first time I ever saw a team wear special jerseys just for batting practice, which were just beginning to come around.

Ray Burris took a hard-luck loss in this game in typical early-80's Mets fashion. The only run scored when the Padres' Willie Montanez got caught in a rundown off third base, but John Stearns's throw hit the baserunner, allowing him to score. Unfortunately, the Mets were mired in a hitting slump at the time, and that one run proved to be an insurmountable lead.

The Mets tie it up in the bottom of the ninth on a pinch-double by Joel Youngblood, then they don't score again over the next nine innings.

In this 18-inning game there are ten intentional walks, just one short of the major league record. Claudell Washington is intentionally walked three times, and Dave Winfield and Joel Youngblood are intentionally walked twice each.

This game was the first MLB game I ever attended. My mother and father took my brother and me to this game 23 years ago. Now, this past September, I had the opportunity to take my dad to a MLB game, along with my wife and my 3 month old son. Baseball is a wonderful family tradition.

What I remember happened the day after. On Sunday morning, the Daily News had a picture of Dave Kingman about to shake hands with John Stearns after his HR, and to my amazement, there's me in the background sitting behind the 3rd base dugout.

I remember this game because I got my picture in the Daily News. Kingman hit a homer and as he is about to shake hands with Stearns at home plate. CLICK! There is me in the stands. Also met Joe Pignatano that day also.

Special moments for both Tom Seaver and Darryl Strawberry came about in this game. For Seaver, he got his 20th win over the Padres as a Mets pitcher after defeating them nineteen times before his trade to Cincinnati six years earlier. The hit that put the Mets ahead to stay and got Tom the win was a three-run homer by Strawberry. This was Darryl's second career home run and first ever at Shea Stadium.

Meanwhile, another big moment in New York sports history took place about thirty miles east of Shea. The Islanders won their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup championship.

Just like he did seventeen days earlier in Chicago, Walt Terrell pitched and powered his way to a win in this game at San Diego. He hurled eight scoreless innings and collected three hits of his own, one of which was a three-run homer that capped off a six-run top of the eighth for the Mets. The Padres scored three times in the ninth against Terrell, but that didn't ruin anything for him at all.

My first Met game ever! I was 9 years old. I believe Tom Seaver and Eric Show started this game, and Seaver pitched 10 innings. (I am not certain of this, but I believe he pitched 10). Great game!!

Seaver started this game against Tim Lollar, and Seaver left the game with a 3-2 lead in the top of the 7th after giving up a single and an infield out. Jesse Orosco came in and, after another infield out, threw a wild pitch to score the tying run.

The Mets won it in the 15th on a sac fly by Brian Giles with the bases loaded and nobody out.

The Padres managed just 7 hits in 15 innings, and they had only 2 hits after the seventh inning.

Keith Hernandez had a 2-run homer for the Mets in the third inning, and Darryl Strawberry singled to drive in the first Mets run. Tom Gorman got the win, his first as a Met.

Caught my first foul ball at this game. First game of a doubleheader. Leadoff batter of the game Alan Wiggins popped it up. I was just getting into the Stadium. Had program, ticket stub and buck for the usher in hand when somebody yelled "LOOK UP!!" There was the ball coming straight down to me, and I just caught it. Amazing.

This was an incredible DH sweep by the Mets. I attended the game with my brother and dad. We sat behind the Mets dugout and watched Darryl Strawberry have a field day. I believe Gooden set the all-time record as the youngest pitcher to have 200+ strikeouts in one season.

I also remember Kevin McReynolds, the big burly, then center fielder for the Padres, misplay a line shot to center by Strawberry. McReynolds stood like a statue as the ball just kept carrying and carrying...all in all, a great day.

When the games ended, we were walking the Shea ramps out, chanting "Lets go Mets!" and "We want the Cubs!"

Too bad the Mets didn't play with much consistency after their incredible run in June and July. Definitely the beginning of what would eventually end in 1990.

This was the third time in the last 2 months that the Mets overcame a 5-1 deficit in the bottom of the 4th inning. They also did on July 6 and August 26. That is an odd coincidence!

I caught a foul ball at this game. Goose Gossage was pitching to Ray Knight and it was down the right field line. I always wondered if I got on TV because it was a hell of a catch. Maybe someday you will be able to purchase any game from the past that you want. Until then, I will just have to wonder.

I remember sending my younger brother, Tony to get us some dogs and soda and he misses a great and rare play.

Carmelo Martinez hits a drive to the Left CF gap and Mookie jumps and just misses it off his glove. Then the relay comes home and they just miss tagging out Martinez and he has an inside- the-park HR. The crowd kept oohing and ahhing during the play, so my brother comes back and wonders what he missed. Felt bad but the dogs were good!!

Needless to say he always worries about going for food at the game to this day. At least we got to see the Goose get cooked in extra innings.

I was at this game, and looking back, it's striking how dominant Gooden was, even in one of his four losses that season...

A funny thing happened in the 8th inning of this game. Danny Heep hit a high, fair ball that landed into the right field seats. First base umpire Fred Brocklander, however, called it foul. The ball being clearly fair, Heep argued about it intensely.

Brocklander then said that he had lost sight of the ball. He asked Ed Montague, the home plate umpire, if he saw it. Montague indicated that he did and correctly ruled it fair. Danny was then allowed to circle the bases.

An umpire freely admitted that he was unable to make an accurate ruling, so he asked for help. Brocklander did the right thing here, which had to take some courage on his part. Padres' manager Dick Williams then offered his own argument about the overruling, but to no avail.

In the top of the eighth, with the Mets ahead, 3- 1, the Padres loaded the bases with no outs. Nettles looped one into short left field, and Santana made a sensational Willie Mays-like catch over hit head in left, holding the runners. Terry Kennedy then hit a smash toward first and Hernandez handled a bad hop, threw to Santana at second, who leaped over the sliding Steve Garvey and threw in the dirt back to first. Jesse Orosco made an unbelievable scoop of the throw to complete the DP, and the big crowd exploded.

The next day on Channel 9, I heard McCarver say that he had never seen three outs in one inning recorded in such spectacular fashion.

This was a great and memorable game(s)...because it was the 20th win for Dwight Gooden, I believe he was the youngest to achieve that, and it capped a doubleheader sweep by the Mets over the Padres...a mistake on this listing. Strawberry had a huge series, homering and also hitting a shot to dead center field which froze Padre center fielder, Kevin McReynolds. Electricity, the wave, what a day!

This was Doc's 20th win in '85. That gave him the record for the youngest pitcher ever to win 20 games. He beat Bob Feller by a month.

Correction to an earlier post: this was a Sunday afternoon game at Shea, not a doubleheader. These teams had played a twi-nighter two nights earlier (Friday night) that the Padres swept.

Doc won his 20th but lasted only six innings, striking out just four Padres. Strawberry had a terrific day: he had an RBI double and later scored in the first, he walked in the third, homered in the fifth, walked intentionally and scored in the seventh, and had an RBI single in the eighth.

This was the first baseball game I ever attended. I was four years old. I still remember bits and pieces of it. Any time something seemed to happen, I asked my father whether it had been good for the Mets. I remember my father pointing out Howard Johnson and telling me they called him "HoJo".

I was at this game on a cloudy, rainy Sunday at Shea. The weather was no problem as the Mets whipped the Padres. Dwight Gooden pitched superbly and became the youngest 20-game winner ever. Darryl Strawberry hit a home run to center field and Roger McDowell finished up for a save. McDowell also doubled down the left field line to drive in a run.

Gooden’s feat was displayed on the message board right after the game. The fans called for Dwight and he came out of the dugout, already dressed in street clothes, to acknowledge them.

The Mets were red hot at this point in the season as Keith had his second 5-hit game of the year. He'd miss the next few games after this due to flying to Pittsburgh for the famous drug trials taking place for testifying.

This was the start of probably the best run that Gary Carter had in his career with the Mets. Five home-runs in two days and every one of them a bomb. I remember staying up late to watch the games on the west coast. Gary never looked more like a hall of famer than he did on this road trip.

Gary Carter hit three homers in a game right on the 20th anniversary of Jim Hickman becoming the first Met to do so. Carter had solo, two-run and three-run clouts to drive in six of the Mets’ eight runs. Darryl Strawberry also homered and the Padres, as a team, had three round-trippers of their own.

Gary Carter was red hot with another 2 homers, giving him 5 in 2 games. Still a Mets record to this day.

This was also one of the games that Keith Hernandez missed because he was in Pittsburgh with baseball's drug trials.

Bobby Ojeda continued his early season dominance, leading the league in ERA coming into this start. He would go 9 innings, and was helped by a game saving catch by Rafeal Santana with 2 outs and 2 on base in the 9th. Eventually, the Mets would get 2 in the 11th to help put the game away, including a rare RBI from Jesse Orosco, getting a sac fly. Jesse's next RBI after this game would come in Game 7 of the World Series.

The Mets pounded out a season high 21 hits, including Rafeal Santana's only homer of the season in an easy win in San Diego.

Kevin Mitchell, playing Left Field, robbed Jerry Royster of a homer, prompting Tim McCarver to proclaim "This has been a miracle year for this ballclub!".....A statement that ended up making its way onto the season highlight video at year's end.

How can any Met fan forget this game? Unfortunately, it required a late night, but the ending was something that would make the 1 a.m. bedtime well worth it. If memory serves me correctly, Mets are up 6-4, bottom of the 11th, Padres batting, 1 out, man on second. Line drive base hit to center field, Dykstra comes up throwing to John Gibbons, play at the plate, the runner barrels Gibbons over like I've never seen a catcher get barreled. Gibbons hangs onto the ball for Out #2, the team is yelling at him to throw to third as the batter raced around second trying for third and was tagged out sliding. As Tim McCarver had called it, "a routine double play to end the game". Dykstra comes running in all smiles from center high-fiving everyone and caps it off with a huge bear hug of Gibbons. An earmark game for the season.

Yes the Mets did pull this one out late...but the 8-2-5 double play called by McCarver to end the ball was "just your routine double play." the hit was by Tim Flannery to center field. Dykstra comes up throwing with the Mets up 6-5 to get the runner trying to score from second at the plate for out #2. Flannery going to third was tagged out by Howard Johnson on the throw from dishelved John Gibbons (wearing the regular Mets cap, not the helmet) to end the ballgame. Thank God I woke up in the top of the 11th to see this one. A typical Doug Sisk win....

I was there that night. Tony Gwynn had two, or possibly three assists from right field that night. And another time Strawberry at third on a hit to right field, held at third. Great ending. The guy thrown out at third, I can't remember his name, but very popular in San Diego. Played Second base, and last I knew, still lived in San Diego, and surfs. My memory must be fading, but I remember Gary Carter playing catcher, or maybe he just celebrated out of the dugout. Great Mets celebration at home plate after this game. Wish I had it on video.

Carl, you are right. Tony Gwynn had three assists in the game. In fact, two of them came on consecutive plays!

The Mets were about to blow the game open in the first inning, but with one out and runners on the corners, John Gibbons his a fly to right for out number two and Darryl Strawberry was thrown out trying to score to end the first.

Then, leading off the second, Rafael Santana singled to right and Gwynn threw him out as he tried to stretch it into a double.

In the bottom of the fifth, Keith Hernandez singled with one out and he also tried to stretch it into a double, but Gwynn nailed him too.

Tony led the majors in assists by a RF that season with 21.

The game did end on one of the most bizarre double plays you'll ever see. As others have mentioned in the game memory section, it is forever immortalized by Tim McCarver's call that was on the 1986 Mets highlights video "What a double play! Just your routine double play!"

Garry Templeton was thrown out at home by Len Dykstra and then John Gibbons recovered to throw to third and get Tim Flannery for the final out.

Gary Carter did not play in the game; if I'm not mistaken he was out much of August with a hand injury.

I was at the game as well, and in addition to that incredible double play (I've never seen so many dejected Padre fans leaving the park), the win capped an 8-1 West Coast trip. Those were the days!

Just watched the SNY replay of this game. Unbelievable play by Dykstra and Gibbons. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Those were the days indeed. Check the box score, the Goose went 3 innings!

OUT AT HOME! HE'S OUT AT HOME! THE THROW TO THIRD, OUT AT THIRD AND THE METS WIN IT 6-5! WHAT A DOUBLE PLAY! JUST YOUR ROUTINE DOUBLE PLAY! Great call Tim McCarver!

My first ever Mets game and what a game it was. Thinking of this game today as us Mets fans mourn the passing of the great Gary Carter (2/16/2012). A day I will never forget!

I think this was my third game at Shea. I was 8. I remember being stuck in terrible traffic on the way; my dad was driving from New Jersey. The game started while we were still on our way. We were listening to the game on the radio and when we got reception on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel, Murph said that Steve Garvey had just hit a home run.

We got to Shea as fast as we could and we got to our seats in the Mezzanine section. I'm sure we got there by the sixth to see Gary's first homer, but we were certainly in time enough to see Lance McCullers come in from the bullpen to pitch to Gary in the eighth. We all booed McCullers relentlessly and then Gary blasted his second home run and we all went wild. Of course Gary came out for a curtain call. It had to be one of the best Gary Carter moments at Shea, his two-homer game.

A memorable Gary Carter game. He had recently come off the DL earlier in the week from a broken thumb. He hit 2 homers in this one, including the game winner in the 8th inning.

This was an NBC game of the week, and the post-game interview with Gary was great. NBC got a fantastic shot of his eyes lighting up on the pitch for the go-ahead homer. They showed him the replay and his reaction was priceless.

The Mets couldn't be stopped. The only run San Diego could squeeze out was a Dan Iorg HR late in the game. The Doc was in.

Funny-looking box score for this game. How in the world did the Mets get 13 hits and 2 walks in less than 5 innings and only manage to score 3 runs?? That's hard to do.

Steve G, good question! Retrosheet tells us how:

First inning: Mets score two but also have a runner (Hernandez) thrown out trying to score from second on a single. Then they leave the bases loaded. Second inning: two more left on base. Third inning: one left on base. Fourth inning: two more left on. Fifth inning: another runner (Hearn) thrown out trying to score, plus two more left on base.

This was a wild game that the Mets held on to win, and after sweeping this doubleheader the Mets had a 21 game lead with 26 games remaining.

One more note: Dave Magadan made his major league debut in this game with a pinch-single in the bottom of the fifth inning.

I remember the top of the ninth in this game. The Padres have first and second, 2 outs. The batter hits a comebacker, off Roger McDowell's glove, and everyone's safe. In frustration, McDowell slams the ball into his glove -- but the ball completely misses his glove and goes flying!

Fortunately, Howard Johnson saves it at 3rd. Whew!

The Mets get the next out and win 5-4.

I have an odd and patchy memory of a Mets game played in San Diego in the summer of 1987, and I've narrowed down the most likely game to this one, but I'm not sure. It was either this game or the one the night before since I remember it being a late night game played in the summer (the Mets other 1987 series in San Diego was in September).

So in this game, I remember sometime in the middle of the game, Tim McCarver and Steve Zabriskie found someone (or a group of fans) doing something which they thought was HILARIOUS in the San Diego stands. I have no idea what these fans were doing because I was sitting on the floor sorting baseball cards, but I vividly remember hearing McCarver and Zabriskie cackling and my dad getting really mad at them for laughing so much.

I can still see my dad drinking his beer and shaking his head in disgust and saying, "What A'holes." Except he said the real word. However, when I looked at the TV, the shot cut back to the action on the field so I missed what the fans were doing.

Does anyone remember what the heck I'm talking about?

The usually reliable Mets offense wastes what was probably the best start of John Mitchell's career, as he went 7 innings, allowing just a run. Unfortunately the Mets could do nothing against San Diego this afternoon, suffering a 1-0 loss to a Padres team that had been playing some of the worst baseball seen in many years (at this point in the season, they were almost on pace to challange the 1962 Mets).

This was the first Mets game I ever attended. As an 8 year old, I wanted nothing more than to see Strawberry and Ho-Jo homer and the Mets win. I got both. Gooden also ended up on 3rd base on a strange play where he singled, and the miserable Padre OFs threw the ball behind him twice. McDowell threw 3 innings at the end for the SV.

Keith Hernandez hit a rocket in the 1st inning right back to the pitcher, resulting in a double play. Continuing from the previous night, that was the 3rd straight rocket that Keith had hit right into an out. After this one in the opening inning, he threw his helmet across the field and him and First Base coach Bill Robinson walked off the field in sheer laughter. Ralph Kiner commented on the broadcast that he had never seen anything like it. A funny moment during the pennant race.

An exciting pitchers duel with Cone coming out on top, during the first month of him entering the rotation for good. The only run of the game scored on a wild pitch by the normally reliable Mark Davis.

The Mets completed a 4-game sweep on a sunny afternoon in San Diego. Kevin McReynolds made a fantastic play in the early innings, robbing a homer in Left Field.

It was after this game that Keith Hernandez famously (at the time) called out the team and said they were playing like a "bunch of little leaguers". The Mets had just lost 4 in a row and the offense was in a huge slump.

After this game, the team would get red hot and finish the regular season with a flourish.

A horrible rainy day turned into a one-hitter by David Cone. I believe the Padres got a 3rd inning double by Tony Gwynn past a diving Keith Hernandez. Gregg Jeffries hits his first major league homer.

Brian, Tony Gwynn's double came with one out in the fourth inning for the only hit off Coney. He walked two batters and struck out eight while improving to 14-3.

In addition to his first HR, Jefferies also doubled and tripled in the game.

Len Dykstra was ejected in the second inning by home plate umpire Jim Quick after Dykstra was caught looking.

This was my first ever baseball game. I was six years old, and my father took me with my brothers. I've been a diehard Mets fan ever since. I remember being so excited at being there for Gregg Jefferies first career HR. Of course, he didn't turn into the superstar everyone thought he would be.

I was also at this game and, if I recall correctly, Mookie struck out to end the game and was booed because Gregg was on deck and everyone was hoping to see him hit for the cycle.

One of four one hitters I've been at (Matlack '74, Seaver '76 and Seo/Weathers/Benitiez '03).

This would be a GREAT game for SNY to pull out of the vault if they have it.

Cone threw a masterful one hitter... Jefferies hits his first homer (a HUGE deal at the time obviously) and the Mets begin to close out the last stretch of the season in fantastic fashion, leading to a great and fun September.

This was the third of three 1-0 shutouts pitched by Bobby O in 1988. The others came on April 14th and July 28th.

On this day, I went to the game with my girlfriend at the time, Dave Magadan hit a foul ball into the Loge section behind home plate, the ball bounced around in front of me until it landed right in my hands. I was pumped! My first ball, though I acquired it in a very unimpressive fashion, ball rolling under the seats into my hands.

A little boy asked if he could see the ball, as he was looking at it, I thought how can I take the ball away from him? So I told the young lad to keep the ball.

Well my whole section I was seating in went crazy, thought I was the greatest. They started chatting to my girlfriend to "sleep with (me) tonight."

It was funny, a whole section of the stadium chatting for my girlfriend to do the right thing. That's why I'm a Mets fan. Never would that happen at Yankee Stadium.

This was the first game I went to and it was glove day! I remember Mackey Sasser slammimg a home run, Lee Mazzilli chasing down a fly ball and flopping over the small Shea Stadium retaining wall in left field, and the Mets winning in extra innings.

Mackey Sasser hit his first homer of the season in this one and Magadan won it with a single in extras. I definitely remember Lee Mazzilli tumbling over the left field wall. It's also been shown in a number of Mets highlight packages over the years.

I believe this was the game when an unnamed Mets player, upon seeing that the lineup card had Jefferies batting 2nd again, crossed his name off and wrote "Are we really trying?"

Whoever it was, wasn't wrong at the time. Jefferies was playing absolutely horrible those first 2 months and it had gotten insane that Davey kept playing him at the top of the order so much and every day. But to his credit, Gregg did end up having a fantastic 2nd half of the season, rebounding from his deplorable first 2 months.

I was at this game watching from the field level seats just to the left of home plate. Howard Johnson homered into the Mets' bullpen for their only run until the ninth, when two guys named Kevin came through in the clutch.

With one out, Kevin McReynolds hit one into the Padres' bullpen in left to tie the game. Later in the inning, with Barry Lyons on first, Kevin Elster came up. He hit one into the left field corner. Lyons (who was not a "speed demon") came around third and headed home. Bip Roberts' relay throw came up short, bouncing off catcher Benito Santiago. Barry was safe and the Mets had a 3-2 win. What an ending!

I remember watching this one as a youngster. There was a rain delay during the game and WWOR put together a nice musical piece on the Mets to pass the time...it was fun. I also remember Strawberry hit an absolute BOMB to the very back of the right field fence, past the bullpen.

This had a very frustrating occurrence. In the 6th inning, the pitcher Ed Whitson doubles, and the Mets believe that he did not touch first base. So they appeal. However, Sid Fernandez balks in the process. Ed Whitson takes third, and the appeal is lost.

Mental errors like this were not uncommon with the Mets in this era.

Just watched this one on the old tape. To add to the above comment about Sid's balk.....right after it happened, Davey Johnson was screaming at his infield to try the appeal play again to see if Whitson missed 1st base, but they weren't moving from their positions and Davey didnt seem to understand why until he came out of the dugout and realized that the umpires told the Mets infield that due to the balk, an appeal of the previous play was no longer allowed. Not only that, but the next two batters both hit homers off Sid to give the Padres the lead. Truly a strange sequence in year full of them. 1989 truly was the weirdest season in Mets history (at least in my view)

My friend and I made a road trip to see the Flushing Nine that particular day. It was a mostly forgettable game. The Mets were out of it after the fifth inning. The reason I remember this is because the game was so frustrating for the Mets, that after the eighth inning, Darryl Strawberry caught the final out, and then he threw the ball over the right field stands, and into the parking lot, where it proceeded to hit the windsheild of a car!

The debut of Todd Hundley. One day he's catching AA, the next he's catching Frank Viola! Quite possibly the Mets' best catcher (all-around) and definitely one of the few bright spots during the dark years of the 1990's. Great defensive catcher with an outstanding arm and flashes of power hitting.

After getting swept by the Giants and losing the first game of their series vs. San Diego, the Mets were in desperate need of a win here. And they had the win well in hand until the final two innings when it almost all fell apart. After giving up a leadoff triple to Bip Roberts, Cone was perfect until an 8th-inning leadoff double by Fred Lynn. A 6-1 lead turned into a 6-4 lead by the time Cone exited, and Franco then tightroped his way to the save. It marked Cone's first win of the season, and he wouldn't get his next one until June 9.

Ralph Kiner called the game along with Mets GM Frank Cashen, which I thought was quite the oddity. I was surprised at Cashen's candor, totally forthcoming to give opinions -- both positive and negative -- in regards to his own players. I could see how his comments could have rubbed the players the wrong way. Speaking of Kiner, he had some golden "Kinerisms" during this game. In particular, he talked about Benito Santiago's name, saying, "Santiago in Spanish means San Francisco. No. Santiago in San Diego means Saint James in Spanish someone once told me, I don't know if that's right or wrong." Pure gold.

Sid Fernandez fanned Joe Carter in the first and third innings of this game. These were the 999th and 1,000th strikeouts for Fernandez in his major league career. At Shea Stadium six days later, Sid got Carter again for 1,000 Ks as a Met. What are the chances of a pitcher striking out the same batter to reach a specific mark twice in the same week?

Although Davey Johnson wouldn't be fired until a week after this game, Frank Cashen mentioned in interviews after the official firing that it was after this game against the Padres that he more or less decided it was time for Davey to go. The Mets continued to play amazingly inconsistent baseball on this day, as the offense looked lifeless and the defense was more than generous.

I got my first foul ball at this game. It was hit by Joe Carter.

Hey, Tony! Did Carter hit that foul ball to you in the fourth inning? If he did, then you got your souvenir while Sid Fernandez was recording his 1000th strikeout. El Sid fanned Carter in the top of the fourth for his 37th strikeout of the season, which brought him to the 1,000 mark for his career.

Mr. Roboto, you are a little off about Fernandez. The strikeout of Carter in the 4th inning was actually his 1,000th as a Mets pitcher only. Sid had nine K's with the Dodgers before coming to New York and reached the 1,000 career mark in San Diego six days earlier. Ironically, it was Carter that he struck out for that milestone, too.

Jughead, thanks for your clarification of my earlier entry. I did a little checking and found that you are correct about Fernandez. His 1,000th strikeouts with the Mets and as a major leaguer were both against Carter. I had forgotten that Sid began his career in Los Angeles. Good research.

There is another interesting fact about this game. It was the last win for Davey Johnson as Mets manager.

Davey Johnson's pitiful finale as manager. I'm present in the UD as Gooden popped a HR in the seventh to knot the game 2-2, then watch as the Padres dink and dunk their way to 6 in the top of the 8th, highlighted by a PH triple with the bases loaded by Terry Kennedy, who made Olerud look fast. To add insult to injury, Kevin Elster is drilled mid back by Padre reliever Greg Harris, touching off a mild brawl. Mets got two back in their 8th, but no closer. A sad end to the Johnson era indeed.

David Cone, approximately 43 minutes into the game, drew a walk at the plate after an amazing 15 pitches. During this at bat, Cone hit 9 foul balls. The announcers, Jerry Coleman and Rick Monday, remarked how they had never seen anything like it.

This game ended with the fog too much to continue. They waited until after midnight from what I remember but it just wasn't getting any better. I believe this is one of only two games in Mets history to be called due to fog. A nice, shortened Mets win.

Foggiest game I can remember there being at Shea. It was delayed for an hour and 36 minutes in the bottom of the sixth (why Gooden was taken out after just 75 pitches), then again in the bottom of the seventh when the game was finally called. You literally couldn't see second base from home plate.

The Mets were about the worst hitting team in baseball to begin the year, hitting just .223 in April, but showed signs of heating up with 12 hits over six innings here. Rick Cerone stayed hot by going 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles. He hit safely in each of his first 10 games of the season, which is tied for fourth longest in Mets history. David Wright holds the record at 14 set in 2007. I wasn't sure why the Mets signed Cerone in 1991 considering they already had Sasser and O'Brien with Hundley waiting in the wings, but he proved to be one of the team's most capable hitters during the year, and even threw out 45% of baserunners trying to steal!

For the Padres, their pitching was not very impressive. It was Lilliquist's first start of the year, and he'd only get one more before spending most of the rest of his career coming out of the bullpen. I also threw up a little in my mouth seeing Rich Rodriguez. He was only in his second big league season here and actually had some decent years relieving for San Diego, but he absolutely stunk by the time he got to the Mets in 2000. Mark me down as not a big fan.

You know something is horribly wrong when Vince Coleman and Tommy Herr are at the top of the lineup for the Mets.

Maybe the baseball Gods were angry, which is why they ordered the fog to stop this game.

Brooks hit the first of 4 grand slams the Mets would get in 1991 during this pretty easy win. He hit at least one grand slam every year from 1985-89, but had the streak snapped with the Dodgers in 1990. It was his only grand slam he'd hit as a Met, and the 7th of 8 during his career. HoJo also just missed hitting a home run 3 times in this game, flying out to deep left and center, and fouling one down the LF line that missed being fair by about 5 feet. And poor Tim Teufel, he goes 0-for-4 and ends the game hitting .080 for the season but he hits all four balls hard. Just a case of bad luck.

No luck either for Padres starter Eric Nolte. He had an 8.58 ERA over 122.2 innings for the Padres' AAA team in 1990 but for some reason they thought he'd be a good addition to their rotation in '91. Not so much. His ERA jumped to 11.05 with this loss and San Diego released him just 6 days later.

Whitehurst and Schourek combined to make quick work of the Padres offense. Schourek pitched the final 4 innings for the save, and I wanted to see if that was the longest save in team history. Actually, a ton of pitchers have earned 4-inning saves for the Mets, most recently Brian Stokes (remember him?) in 2008. The longest save belongs to Doug Sisk, who earned a 5-inning save vs. the Cardinals in 1983.

In the 7th inning, Padres 3B Scott Coolbaugh grounded a hit down the LF line. The ball stopped near the stands and some kid, probably around 14 or so, jumped over the railing, ran over to the ball, picked it up and jumped back over the railing, forcing a ground-rule double call. I couldn't believe the nerve of this kid, who made it worse as, when security approached him, he looked on with this expression of like, "What did I do wrong? Is that not allowed?" I kept waiting to see if he'd be escorted to the exits but, to my disbelief, it looked as if they let him stay. That really grinds my gears.

As luck would have it, I was able to watch this game directly after the Mets' 6-1 win the previous night. Much like that game, the Padres bats were quiet, nearly getting shutout by a dominant Doc Gooden. An error by Coleman in the 6th allowed San Diego to score their only run. Or, as Rusty Staub would say, an "errah." The Padres actually only made one out to the outfield the entire game, a flyout to center by pinch hitter Garry Templeton in the 8th. Other than that, every other out was either a groundout, strikeout or popout (and there was only one of those, too!)

Home runs by Magadan and McReynolds in the Mets' 5-run 7th inning sealed San Diego starter Ed Whitson's fate, who clearly should have been pinch-hit for when he batted in the previous inning. Though he singled in that at-bat, he was already at 97 pitches and clearly had nothing left when he went back out there for the 7th. It was a hard, fast fall for the right-hander. He ranked third in the NL with a 2.60 ERA in 1990, but after this start made just 5 more big-league appearances until his career was over.

After hitting a grand slam the previous game, Hubie Brooks took a seat on the bench for this game. Teufel also rode the pine after an 0-for-4 the previous night (though all four outs were hard hit). Wouldn't you know it, he spelled a hobbled Tom Herr late in this game and batted in the 8th, delivering an excuse-me, check-swing single to right. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.

This was the night the Padres chose to pitch to the wrong ex-teammate. With the winning run on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Garry Templeton (traded to the Mets by San Diego that season) was walked intentionally to set up a force play situation. Kevin McReynolds, another former Padre, came to bat and hit an RBI single for a Mets victory. I guess the Padres figured if an old friend was going to beat them, let it be one who left the team five years ago instead of a more recent one.

Instead of watching the debacle that was the Mets' 7-1 loss to the Padres in Game 1 of their Wildcard series last night, I tuned in to this uplifting affair against San Diego from 1991. Wise choice, indeed. I couldn't believe they chose to pitch to McReynolds (one of the hottest hitters in the game for the past 2 months) instead of the weak-hitting Templeton in the ninth, even if Larry Andersen had good career numbers against Kevin and the walk set up a force at every base. His walk-off handed the Mets their 9th straight win and caused the New York Times to print, "The Mets win everything these days." During his pregame commentary, even Rusty Staub, giddy over the recent winning streak, said the Mets "should have an exciting second half." Oh, how wrong they'd all be.

This was the first game after the All-Star break, and the Mets would go 31-50 in the second half. Hubie Brooks opened the scoring with an opposite field home run, his 15th dinger of the year; he'd actually only hit 1 more the rest of the season. As he was apt to do, Buddy left Gooden in way too long. Up around 120 pitches in the 8th, Gooden allowed a 2-out single to Tony Gwynn with McGriff due up. Instead of bringing in Franco (who wasn't even warming up and Buddy said it was too early to bring him in, give me a break), Gooden stayed in and walked McGriff, then gave up an RBI single to Jerald Clark before finally getting the hook. Alejandro Pena entered and coughed up a game-tying RBI double to Santiago (who tied a Padres record with 3 doubles in the game). Franco then came in a batter later and got out of the inning, making Buddy look even dumber for not bringing him in to face McGriff.

More bad Mets defense too. Elster threw one in the dirt and Carreon flat out dropped a flyball in centerfield that allowed a run to score. He made up for it with an RBI single in the 6th, though. Magadan also could have been charged with an error on a booted ground ball in the 5th but the official scorer must have wanted to be nice to him as Dan became a father for the first time earlier in the day.

This was also Tim Teufel's first time ever playing against the Mets, as he had just recently been traded to San Diego after 5+ seasons in NY. He struck out on 3 pitches against Doc in his first AB and later became his 1,500th career strikeout victim in the 7th.

My brother was "stuck" going to the game with his girlfriend and two of her girlfriends... begged me to go along with him because he couldn't handle them by himself. Needless to say, I met my wife that night, who was one of her girlfriends. Game? What game?

In one of the flukiest games ever, the Mets were one hit by Greg Harris. What made it fluky, however, was that my main man, Mackey Sasser, started in right field, got the Mets' only hit, and robbed TWO home runs. Pure insanity.

I love this site! I think back to all the Met games I possibly remember, and I can go back and peg exact dates just by little tidbits of info I casually remember from childhood.

I remember this game because, I swear, of all my years watching baseball, this was the only time I EVER witnessed Tony Gwynn striking out! Viola got him to end an inning.

Too bad the game result didn't go the Mets way.

1986 Red Sox World Series-almost-MVP Bruce Hurst is back at it again, as he shuts out the Mets, 3- 0. Chico Walker, who had just come to the Mets eleven days earlier, had the only Met hit of the game, a one-out infield single in the sixth inning.

Former Met Tim Teufel had two singles, an RBI, and a run scored off Dwight Gooden.

David Cone throws a shutout, one in which he allows 13 baserunners. Bobby Bonilla hit a bomb, starting off one of the few hot streaks he had for the 1992 season as the Mets had an easy 8-0 win.

I went to this game with a special friend -- a Mets' fan from Great Britain. For about a year, we had been writing letters to each other, mostly about our favorite team.

On her first visit to the United States, we finally met each other. We spent the day walking around Manhattan, seeing the sites, including the Empire State Building and the Museum of Television and Radio. Our day ended with a visit to Shea Stadium that night.

The game, which we watched from from the mezzanine behind home plate, was a very uneventful 2-0 loss to the Padres. It didn't matter, though. Spending the day together, buying souvenirs and watching the Mets at Shea provided great memories for both of us.

Watched this one on the old tape recently. Bruce Hurst threw his 3rd straight complete game shutout against the Mets in the 92 season. Though this one had quite the ending. With a runner on 2nd in the bottom of the 9th, Dave Magadan hit a shot to right center field, Padres CF Darrin Jackson made an unbelievable catch, completely lying out on the grass to save the game and steal one from the Mets. A pretty brutal loss for the Mets, who were still trying to stay in contention at this point.

I attended this game with my dad...frustrating loss. I still remember Darrin Jackson's catch on the sinking line drive Dave Magadan hit to end the game.

This was David Cone's last appearance as a Met (at least until last year). Cone allowed three runs and three hits in seven innings and took the loss. At this point he was 13-7 for a team that was 53-67.

Four days later Cone was traded to Toronto for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson.

This turned out to be the very last time during the 93 season that anyone could have had any hope. Frank Tanana pitched great, Bonilla had one of his best games as a Met with 2 homers and 5 RBI and the Mets climbed back over the .500 mark at 8-7.

Amazingly, this same team would proceed to go 13-45 over the next 2 months, playing unspeakably bad baseball in every single possible way.

Boy do I remember this game! I took a group of preteen aged kids from my church. We sat in the upper deck and the stands were empty for a late April Saturday afternoon game. The kids knew I was a die hard Met fan (I found out many of them were Yankee fans but just wanted to go to a game) so they started cheering "Let's go Padres" just to bust my chops. Needless to say many fans in our area gave me the finger, yelled words to me I am not allowed to print on this website. I acted like I never saw those kids before. It would have been great if the Mets pulled it out. Anyway, that was my last time bringing the kids to any game. I gave them a nice lecture on the bus ride home.

Anthony Young, desperate for a win to stop his consecutive wins streak, retired something like 20 straight batters until Kevin Higgins singled with 2 outs in the 8th, and then Archi Cianfrocco hit a 2-run homer for the only 2 runs of the game.

That summer it was extremely hot and that day the air conditioning wasn't working at the office so we were all sent home rather than stew in our own juices and smell the "aroma" of everyone else "stewing." So I watched this game that afternoon on TV. Like everyone, I was hoping that AY would break the streak, if not, at least not lose.

Well this game, he was Seaver, Clemens, Carlton, Greg Maddux and Nolan Ryan all rolled into one. However so was the pitcher for the Padres that game and the over-achieving AY was being betrayed by his under-achieving offense. The announcers were on the edge of their seats, the fans were on the edge of their seats, I was on the edge of my seat. Then that fateful 8th inning came upon.

When Cianfrocco hit that home run, it was one of the few times I saw Bobby Bonilla put an effort into something by practically scaling the wall to try to catch the ball but no luck and pounded his glove against the wall out of disgust and Dallas Green came out to the mound and was consoling AY like he was a little boy whose dog just died. You could hear a cumultive gasp from the announcers, crowd, and me as well. I give AY all the credit in the world; he acted like a true professional during "the streak."

They even tracked down the great great grand niece of the guy (she was about 8 at the time) and she asked AY to win a game so her great great grand uncle can keep his record. Weird.

Watched this one recently, and Anthony Young truly did pitch a gem. The Padres couldn't touch him all day until the homer in the 8th. Bonilla did all he could to try and climb the wall and you could see the pain he had in his face when he missed it. As embarrassing as the 1993 season was, this game was truly one of the few times where you honestly just felt terribly bad for the guys, especially Young, Bonilla, Dallas Green, etc. He pitched his heart out this afternoon and deserved better.

HoJo's last homer as a Met. It came in the 9th inning of a loss on the west coast. Probably only a small handful of fans stayed up to watch it. Howard would be injured two days after this and never played for the Mets again. A quiet ending to a fantastic career in NY.

Watched this one recently, a rare good day for the 1993 Mets. Gooden, despite 5 walks, was great for 7 innings on the Wednesday afternoon. And the Mets hit 3 homers, including Eddie Murray, who was red hot at the time.

Forgotten now, but after Jeff Kent's game tying homer in the 8th in this game, he had 8 homers in the season's first 12 games. One of the best starts to a year that any Met ever had.

An eighth inning double by Rico Brogna was the only Mets hit off Padres RHP Andy Benes.

Benes, who led the league in strikeouts in 1994, struck out thirteen in this game and had a three-run double in the fifth inning. He picked up his sixth win, which turned out to be his final win of the strike-shortened season.

Terrific outing for Bret Saberhagen, who started game two of this twi-night doubleheader. Saberhagen pitched ten innings and allowed just five hits, no runs, and no walks! Unfortunately the Mets couldn't score in those ten innings because Andy Benes may have had a better outing than Saberhagen: he pitched eight innings and allowed just two hits while striking out fourteen.

John Franco and Roger Mason kept the Padres off the board for three more innings, then Mike Maddux came in to pitch the fourteenth. After retiring Scott Livingstone, Maddux allowed back- to-back home runs by Tony Gwynn and Phil Plantier, giving the Padres a 2-0 lead. The Mets got an unearned run off Jeff Tabaka in the bottom of the inning but Tim Mauser came on to get the last two outs for the first save of his career.

I had hated the way the Mets came apart and jerryrigged themselves throughout the early 1990s -- this whole era is very blurry for me and an extremely dark period in team history.

So, I don't even know what I was doing at Shea this night, other than spending time with my Dad. Nice game for Jacome though you could tell the Mets weren't going anywhere and even if they did there was a strike on the horizon. It was palpable. Just an awful feeling. Sure enough the strike hit a few weeks later, and I wouldn't be back at Shea again for another three years.

I went to this game with my brother -- I believe it was a Saturday night; we sat in box seats in right field. The stadium was far from full as I recall moving around to a better section later in the game. The crowd was on their feet cheering for John Franco at the end of the game -- I recall that this was some sort of a milestone save for him. After the game we went down to where the players parked, hoping to get an autograph. We failed, but we did see a bunch of the Padres driving off.

This was a low point of the history of the New York Mets as they looked like a bunch of bush-leaguers on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at Shea. Before the game, they had probably the last Mets Old Timers Day ever featuring the '69 Mets. In the 60's and 70's this would be a hot ticket and would sell out but only 24,855 showed up and they even brought back Jane Jarvis for this occasion but you couldn't even hear her playing the organ for crying out loud.

The only thing I remember was that Tony Gwynn (he truly would have hit .400 if not for the strike) went 3-4 and this was my last visit to Shea until June 17, 2005 due to the strike. The final score was Padres 10 Mets 1 and yes, they could have used some of the players from '69 because the '94 Mets were nothing to write home about!

Just watched the Old Timer's game from this date on one of my old tapes. There are MAYBE 1,500 people there to watch the 69 Mets play. A sad sight.

No wonder the Mets got rid of Old Timer's Day. But to be honest, if they brought it back now (with the 80's and 90's guys available now) I think the popularity would come back.

I remember skipping school back in the 9th grade to go to this afternoon game. It seemed like another Mets loss as Franco was back to his old self blowing the save in the 9th and blowing the lead in the 11th, but Chris Jones hit a 3-run pinch hit homer off Trevor Hoffman in the bottom of the 11th to give us the win.

The first of 4 walk off homers for Chris Jones in his short Mets career (tied for the most in team history). This one came off future hall of famer Trevor Hoffman.

This one sure was ugly, and it felt much more like the Mets stole a win than earned it. The defense was horrendous, there were several key mental errors, and, like Tas mentioned, Franco was very much back to his 1992-94 form, allowing a run in both of the innings he worked (though the Mets won it in the 10th, not the 11th as was mentioned). Even when Jones hit his walk-off homer, it was more a sigh of relief than a jubilant cheer that came over the crowd and the broadcast booth.

Though the game officially only had 2 errors, I think 5 or 6 could have been ruled. Specifically, Jeff Kent probably could have been called for a pair - on a bobble in the 3rd that allowed a run to score, and on a mistake in the 6th trying to tag out a runner instead of throwing the ball to the base, which allowed another run to score. Also, Padres SS Andujar Cedeno probably could have been charged with two as well, as he kicked the ball around a couple times but the home-field scorer decided to give the Mets hits instead. Outside of the home runs, I'd say almost every other run that scored in this game was a result of bad defense.

That didn't result in bad starts from either Andy Benes or Bobby Jones, however, who were both locked in. Jones had allowed just 2 runs over 7 innings when his spot in the lineup came up in the bottom of the 7th with a runner on 2nd and 2 outs. For some reason, despite his team trailing 2-1, Dallas Green let Jones hit, and the pitcher grounded out to end the inning. I was shocked he didn't go to a pinch hitter, and the decision was made even worse as an obviously tiring Jones allowed another run to score in the top of the 8th. Meanwhile, Benes entered the game 7-3 with a 1.81 ERA in 12 starts vs. the Mets ... but was also winless in his last 14 starts, dating back to the previous July (which, coincidentally, was a 1-hit victory over the Mets). He looked on his way to snapping his skid until the 8th when he was relieved by Brian Williams with 2 on and 1 out. Williams allowed a bloop RBI single to Bonilla, then uncorked a wild pitch on a swinging strike 3 by Joe Orsulak (who was celebrating his 33rd birthday). That loaded the bases with 2 out for Jose Vizcaino, who hit a chopper up the middle that Cedeno tried to bare-hand but the ball bounced away, allowing 2 more runs to score and gave the Mets their first lead of the day.

But in typical Franco fashion, John gave up a bomb to the first batter he faced, Eddie Williams. Obviously pissed at himself, he threw his hat and glove into the dugout after the inning was over. The Mets put the leadoff man on in the bottom of the 9th and got him to 2nd with 1 out with Edgardo Alfonzo coming up. The rookie dunked one down the RF line that landed foul by mere inches, just missing a walk-off hit. He then lined out to short and Tim Bogar flew out to put the game into extras. In the 10th, Alfonzo committed a throwing error trying to get lead-off hitter Bip Roberts out, and Roberts eventually scored on a Ken Caminiti groundout, setting up the Mets comeback in the bottom of the frame.

The Padres brought in Trevor Hoffman, who I recall being absolutely deadly against the Mets over his career. But it was not meant to be on his day, as he would suffer his first career blown save vs. the Mets. Bonilla led off and hit a deep drive that Steve Finley caught running into the wall in left-center field. But then Kent and Orsulak hit back-to-back singles, and Jones came up as the pinch-hitter for Franco. His flyball to LF just cleared the wall, making it the first walk-off pinch-hit homer for the Mets since Tim Teufel in 1987. Jones would amazingly do it again just 2 months later, and he'd be the only player to hit a walk-off homer for the Mets in all of 1995.

Going back to Benes, he actually became the Padres all-time strikeout leader when he fanned Ryan Thompson (who was in just his second game back from the DL) in the 5th inning, surpassing Eric Show. Benes currently sits second in San Diego history, having since been overtaken by Jake Peavy. On the Mets side, Alberto Castillo had been thrust into starting catching duties with Todd Hundley and Kelly Stinnett banged up. I thought Castillo looked completely overmatched at this stage, and in fact wouldn't start another game for the Mets until July as Hundley was recovered at this point from a foot injury that cost him 7 games. I was also surprised to see Bonilla now playing in LF, where he hadn't started a game since 1987 when he was with Pittsburgh. He looked ok out there, but did misjudge one flyball that resulted in a double. The WWOR team also addressed rumors of Bonilla potentially getting traded to Baltimore, to which the Mets stated there was absolutely no truth to. And yet, just 2 months later, Bonilla would be an Oriole, so I guess the moral of the story is to always believe rumors over a team's front office.

San Diego pitcher Joey Hamilton beats the Mets 8- 4 and also doubles off Pete Harnisch for his first major league hit in 58 at bats.

The Mets hit 3 home runs, including a 5th-inning grand slam by Carl Everett, and ride another strong start by Jason Isringhausen to win big over the Padres. It's the first of 8 career grand slams for Everett, and the third of four the Mets would hit in 1995. Butch Huskey -- called up a week earlier when Edgardo Alfonzo went down with a herniated disc in his back -- also hit a 2-run homer in the 5th, and Rico Brogna had a solo shot to lead off the 2nd. Every Mets starter had at least a hit except for Damon Buford -- including Isringhausen, who had 2 singles.

On the mound, Izzy allowed 2 runs in the 1st, then held San Diego without a hit until 3 straight singles with 1 out in the 6th. But he buckled down to strike out Jody Reed and Brian Johnson to end the inning, two of only 3 strikeouts he tallied in the game. Blas Minor, making his first appearance in a month due to a broken rib, pitched the final 3 innings to earn his only save as a Met. He was dominant until tiring and giving up a pair of unearned runs in the 9th, as he struck out a season-high 6. That included getting Tony Gwynn looking, one of only 5 times Gwynn struck out looking during the season. After watching Minor a few times in 1995, he reminds me a lot of what Turk Wendell brought to the team during the latter half of the decade.

This was one of the rare games broadcast on NBC during a Friday night. I think 1995 was the last year this occurred. Perhaps scrambling to put together a broadcast crew, the telecast featured Mets radio announcer Bob Murphy and former Mets catcher Rick Cerone in the booth, which was actually quite the pleasant surprise. The video I watched on Youtube also featured a Nolan Ryan Advil commercial that included his son, Reid. Reid was a pitcher in the Rangers system in 1995, where he went 0-10 with a 9.38 ERA. He called it a career after that.

Just watched this one recently on an old tape. Harnisch was completely in control of this game from the beginning of this afternoon affair. The Mets broke a 4 game losing streak.

As a senior in high school, Fireworks Night at Shea was a game that about a dozen of my friends and I attended in hopes of seeing the budding young phenom named Jason Isringhausen throw his first no-hitter. Of course, as we've all come to see, Isringhausen turned out to be a real bust and there was no no- hitter coming that night. Instead, Isringhausen was shelled and the Mets' managed to put one measly run on the board courtesy of Butch Huskey's solo shot late in the game. I think the name Butch Husky stands for "one who hits solo home runs of no consequence" in Swahili because that came to be his claim to fame. Anyway, despite the 13 to 1 drubbing, my friends and I managed to enjoy ourselves...that is until the fireworks were set off accompanied by the garage-band wailings of some band called "The Fool". The name of the band says it all folks, because that night the Mets were indeed playin' the fool...

I remember this game well. I was 13 years old at it was a sunny afternoon at Shea Stadium. Gilkey went deep in the 1st inning, and pretty much it was a pitcher's duel the rest of the way. Quick game!

In this game played in Monterrey, Mexico, Padres CF Steve Finley homers off Robert Person in the bottom of the first, making him the first player in history to hit home runs in three different countries.

The Mets rallied late to make the score look respectable, but they were down 15-0 to Fernando Valenzuela and the Padres after six innings.

This was the start of Dallas Green's final road trip as Mets manager.

Building off of what Bob wrote, the Mets completely embarrass themselves in the first regular season game played outside of US or Canada. Only a 7-run 9th inning during garbage time made the score look somewhat respectable. The 15 runs allowed were the most the Mets gave up since a 19-2 loss to the Pirates in September of 1992.

The Padres hit 4 home runs in the game, one by Ken Caminiti that left the stadium, as well as a grand slam by Greg Vaughn. It was the 5th of 6 grand slams the Mets allowed in 1996, while they didn't hit any for the first time since 1979.

This was also one of 3 times the Mets lost a game despite scoring a least 10 runs in 1996, which still stands as a team record.

It was quite apropos for Fernando Valenzuela to start and win for San Diego, hailing from Mexico and all. He threw out the first pitch and was cheered loudly every time he came to bat. Looking back, the stadium in Monterrey was pretty bland and dated, but the backdrop of the city and mountains beyond the outfield wall was gorgeous. They talked about MLB perhaps expanding into Monterrey for the future, but here we are 25 years later and nothing has come of it.

Not to be outdone, Ralph Kiner embarrassed himself several times during the telecast as well. With the Padres coming to bat in the bottom of the 1st, Kiner kept jumping his cue to announce their lineup, saying over and over again "The Padres lineup is brought to you by..." Then finally when the graphic for the lineup appeared on the screen, a clearly flustered Kiner said, "The Padres lineup is brought to you by Tony Gwynn ... and also by Honda." He also pronounced ever name that had at least 3 syllables as if it he was asking a question, and didn't get any right the first time. At this point, what WWOR was thinking allowing him to call games is beyond me. He was clearly no longer able to keep up with the action, and was really only good for a funny anecdote or two during the entire broadcast.

An inauspicious debut for new Mets Manager Bobby Valentine. Mets took a 3-0 lead into the 8th, thanks to a 2 run HR by Mets immortal Roberto Petagine, and Mlicki was crusing, but got into trouble, and finally was done in when Steve Finley walloped a 3 run HR off him, which gave the Padres the 4-3 lead and the win. There would, obviously, be better days for Bobby V.

In the 7th inning, two foul balls were hit to the two tier/mezzanine behind home plate. I caught them both. Believe it was the bottom of the 7th and possibly the second batter.

Opening day on the West Coast, listened to this game on the radio. Pete Harnisch threw a couple of mistakes. All right, he ran out of gas in inning number six. The guys we signed to clean up this bullpen (Yorkis Perez, and Toby Borland) are going to fix this.

Sorry, this is the 1997 Met Bullpen we are talking about and two of the main culprits (both of these guys above are gone before July) of a bullpen that needed massive restructuring during the season made this game memorable for all the wrong reasons, helping turn a 4-3 lead after Pete Harnisch went to get a shower into a 12-4 nightmare. Wretched, this was a road trip that would have ruined April and possibly a season from the start. Impressed this team survived this start (see other games on this trip) to finish above .500 and within striking distance of a wild-card bid.

The Mets first win of the season,and the start of a career year for Bobby Jones. Also, the last time that the Mets would open the season on the west coast.

This was an amazing game. It was a back and fourth battle into extra innings and it is probably the best Mets game I've ever been to and I've been to some classics. I sat in the first row of the upper deck, right behind home plate and Greg Vaughn of the Padres hit a foul ball straight back and I caught it and still have it, so that makes this game extra-sweet for me as well as the Mets win, I got a souvenir.

There were some little kids sitting to my left and they were hilarious...they were yelling about Mel Rojas, say "stick a fork in him, he's done!" They had me cracking up.

This happened to be Irish night at Shea and everyone got green Met hats which I still have to this day. I was 13 and went with my father and some of his friends. I remember this being an enjoyable game and Todd Hundley hit an opposite field grand slam en route to a Mets victory. Looking back 1997 was one of the few years in my lifetime when the season ended and I was satisfied. (The Mets went 88-74 that year.) They did better than I expected and it just seems every season since then they either just were bad, collapsed down the stretch (e.g 1998, 2007, 2008) or had an excruciating playoff loss.

This game is the first game I actually remember going to. Pete Alonso’s early home run pace in 2019 got me thinking about the Mets’ single season home run record and how Todd Hundley became my first favorite player growing up. We were at this game because my parents are Irish and we pretty regularly went to the Irish nights at Shea. I was 6 years old and this was the game where I learned what a grand slam was. I don’t remember much from the night given how young I was and how long ago it was, but I remember the excitement the home run gave me and my dad telling me it was a grand slam and explaining what that meant. I, unlike Dan the Man, do not still have my hat from that night, unfortunately.

Mel Rojas won this game, huh? Well, let me tell you this. I was at this game and the only reason Mel Rojas won this game was because Luis Lopez hit a sac fly in the last of the 7th after Smell had BLOWN A 4-RUN LEAD!!!

I'm certainly no Mel Rojas advocate, but I don't think it's very fair he gets all the blame for blowing the lead in this game. Al Leiter put 2 runners on base with 1 out in the 7th before departing in favor of Greg McMichael, who gave up an RBI single to Greg Vaughn and a walk to Jim Leyritz without retiring a batter, making it 6-3. The bases now loaded, that's when the Mets went with Rojas to face a bunch of left-hand hitters, as Rojas, despite being a righty, had very strong numbers vs. lefties. But Mel walked Wally Joyner to force in a run, now 6-4. He did get Steve Finley to pop out next, but then Greg Myers laced a double into the RF corner to score 2 and tie the game before Rojas got out of it. All the runs were charged to Leiter and McMichael. Still, that didn't save Rojas from getting unmercifully booed as he walked back to the dugout.

Thankfully, the Mets offense was in a comeback mood on this night. After a Joyner 2-run homer made the score 3-2 in the 6th, the Mets came right back with 3 of their own in the bottom half of the inning, when the first 5 hitters each put the first pitch of their at-bat in play. And, like Mets2Moon mentioned, Lopez delivered an RBI sac fly in the bottom of the 7th after Carlos Baerga and Bernard Gilkey hit back-to-back 1-out singles to put the Mets right back in front. Bill Pulsipher (making his final appearance as a Met) and John Franco held San Diego at bay from there, with Franco getting a huge strikeout of Vaughn with a runner on 2nd base to get out of the 8th, and then inducing a game-ending double play in the 9th after the Padres put 2 on with a single and an error. That made an unlikely winner out of Rojas, which would be the second-to-last win of his career.

I watched the replay of this game from an old ESPN broadcast with Chris Berman in the booth, which meant there were plenty of name puns going on. Of note: Jim "Frito" Leyritz, Mike "Pepperoni" Piazza, Carlos "one if by land, two if by sea, three if" Baerga, and Bernard "Innocent until Proven" Gilkey. Leyritz made an ultra-rare start at 3B in this game, his only one in 1998 and first since being with the Yankees in 1996. And Gilkey's 7th-inning single was his last hit as a Met. He went hitless in 1 more game for the team before getting traded to Arizona.

Getting charged with 4 runs over 6.1 innings, this was the first time Leiter saw his season ERA rise to over 2.00 since April. His counterpart, Joey Hamilton, got lit up for 10 hits, tied for the most he'd allow in 1998. There were also a total of 10 doubles between the 2 teams, 3 by Tony Gwynn alone. Brian McRae led the Mets with 2 and also tallied 4 hits total, tied for the most he'd get in a Mets uniform. John Franco also got a rare at-bat in this game -- his first since 1996 -- and struck out swinging, looking like he had never held a bat in his life. Why John was even swinging at all is beyond me. Just stand there and watch next time, please.

This game was memorable for a couple reasons: We overcame a 6-1 deficit with a 7-run 7th inning highlighted by Piazza's 3-run bomb. Wendell and Cook summarily blew the lead and we lost the game, and ground in the wild card race. Real gut-punch. The other interesting thing was that this game was Jay Payton's long-awaited major league debut. He went 2-for-2 with 2 singles.

Definitely a heartbreaking loss. To rally for 7 runs in the 7th inning to take a 2-run lead over a Padres team that was bound for the World Series, only to have Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook -- the two most reliable bullpen pitchers all season -- blow the lead in the bottom of the inning really hurt.

Stan Spencer was only making his second career start at the Major League level and largely held the Mets in check. He didn't allow a hit until Lenny Harris singled with 1 out in the 5th (which Tim McCarver deserves credit for as he jinxed the no-hitter by mentioning it mere seconds before Harris got his single). But then Edgardo Alfonzo homered off him in the 6th, and Brian McRae led off the 7th with another homer. Harris followed with a double, and that brought in Dan Miceli from the pen.

Miceli got 2 quick outs but then the Mets went on a roll, as Matt Franco (who questionably came in for John Olerud during a double switch very early on) hit an RBI single, Jay Payton singled on the first pitch he saw as a big-leaguer, and Alfonzo walked, loading the bases for pinch-hitter Jorge Fabregas. Fabregas knocked in 2 with a single (his last hit as a Met it would turn out), and Piazza followed with a 3-run homer to RF. The comeback complete, turning a 6-1 deficit into an 8-6 lead.

But the usually ultra-reliable Wendell couldn't hold it, as he allowed a single to Greg Vaughn and a 2-run homer to Steve Finley. Wendell had just tied a Mets record by appearing in 17 games in August, and was obviously showing signs of overuse. After the homer, he put 2 more on base with one out before giving way to Cook. Dennis' first pitch hit Jim Leyritz to load the bases, and he then walked Quilvio Veras to force in the go-ahead run. The Padres didn't have another baserunner the rest of the game, but the damage was done. Donne Wall struck out the side in the 8th, and Trevor Hoffman got Alfonzo to ground into a double play to end the game for his 45th save of the season, which set a new single-season record for the Padres.

Hideo Nomo, who turned 30 the day before, was coming off his only complete game as a Met vs. the Giants his last time out. But he was hideous in this one, giving up 2 bombs to Vaughn and lasted only 4 innings. It would be his second-to-last start as a Met, as his inconsistency would banish him from the rotation for most of September. Along with Payton, Rigo Beltran made his Mets debut as well, tossing a scoreless inning in relief. Mel Rojas also pitched in this one and characteristically allowed a run in his one inning of work, although he was ironically lined up to get the win as he was still the pitcher of record when the Mets had their 7-run rally. This would be Rojas' second-to-last appearance with the team as well.

Wendell took the loss, which was his first as a member of the Mets -- a span of 64 appearances. He wouldn't lose again until July of the following season. Former Met Randy Myers, who recorded the final out of the 7th inning, got the win for San Diego. It would be the last of his career, as he'd suffer a shoulder injury and be forced to retire a few years later after numerous comeback attempts.

After losing a heartbreaker the previous night, the Mets come right back with a strong win to finish their West Coast road trip 5-4. It was their first successful west coast trip since 1994.

The Mets did all their scoring on home runs by Lenny Harris, Edgardo Alfonzo and Mike Piazza. The 3 HRs allowed were the most by All-Star Andy Ashby all year. Meanwhile, Armando Reynoso continued his fantastic 2nd half by going 8 strong, and only looked to be getting stronger the longer the game went. His only blemish was a 1st-inning home run by Tony Gwynn.

I went to this game but it's been a while so there's only one thing I can remember about it. It was a close game but the Padres had the lead (3-2, I believe) in the bottom of the ninth and things were looking bleak for the Mets but Mike Piazza stepped up against Trevor Hoffman and blasted one in to right and he jumped up and down and was mobbed at home plate by his teammates. It was incredible game!

The two-run homer by Piazza brought the Mets back to win after Armando Benitez had blown a 2-1 lead by giving up two runs in the top of the eighth.

This game marked the first loss for the Padres in a game they led after eight innings since July of 1996!! The Padres had won 181 straight games where they had taken the lead into the ninth inning.

It seemed like the Mets were sleepwalking through this one, stranding 12 runners and Benitez blowing a 2-1 lead. Then all of the sudden Piazza *POW* in the bottom of the 9th sends a blast over the right field fence and electrifies the stadium. I remember walking down the ramps at Shea listening to chants of "Let's Go Mets" from the departing crowd. An amazing finish and a testament to Piazza's ability to change momentum with one swing of the bat.

I remember watching this game on TV, and it was the first thing that came to mind when I heard about Trevor Hoffman's retirement last night.

Mets overcame a 5-1 deficit and shaky starting pitching by Bobby Jones to beat the Pods. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise. 'Bout all I remember from this one.

A great game in San Diego- Octavio Dotel was phenomenal. He had a no-hitter going into the seventh and a 2-0 lead but then he got ripped and lost the no-hitter and the lead when Phil Nevin blasted a 3-run homer into the seats at Qualcomm Stadium. However, the Mets tied in the eighth and, in the tenth, Edgardo Alfonzo stepped up and hit a dramatic shot that just cleared the wall in left and the Padres never recovered.

The Mets win their 8th consecutive road series by pounding the hapless Padres, in doing so taking a 1-game lead over the Braves for the NL East lead -- the last time in 1999 they'd hold 1st place all by themselves.

The Mets scored in each of the first 5 innings en route to victory. Rey Ordonez had a particularly strong game at the plate, tying his career high by reaching base 5 times (3 singles, 2 walks). John Olerud also walked 3 times, which allowed him to eclipse the Mets single-season record of 97, jointly held by Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry. As of 2024, Olerud is still the only player in team history to rack up more than 100 walks in a season.

On the mound, Masato Yoshii went the distance to notch the Mets' second complete game in the last 4 days (after not recording one the entire season up to that point). He retired 16 in a row at one point, but was facing a pretty decimated Padres lineup missing several starters due to injury. Former Met Dave Magadan spelled Wally Joyner at 1B late in the game and actually hit a triple, his first since 1997 and the last of 13 during his career.

Yoshii also had an interesting game at the plate. He laid down 2 perfectly executed sacrifice bunts during his first 2 at-bats, then grounded into 3 consecutive double plays. He came within one of tying the Mets record, set by Joe Torre in 1975.

This was the Mets' real Opening Day after starting the season with two games against the Cubs in Japan. Al Leiter pitched eight solid innings and Derek Bell hit a tie-breaking home run for the win over the Padres. The Mets had lost the first of their two games in Tokyo and wound up with seven victories and three defeats in season openers during the 2000s. If they didn't have to begin the year on the other side of the world, the win here would've given the team an 8-2 Opening Day record for the decade.

Who could forget this lopsided game? Derek Bell pitches and the crowd is laughing hysterically. It was comical because they came back and won the next game so who cares?

Derek Bell was sweet, he threw gas! There were about 100 people left in Qualcomm who actually witnessed Bell's mastery on the hill. This was before he went into "operation shutdown" with the Pirates.

The ironic thing about Bell pitching this night is that meanwhile in Colorado, former Met Brent Mayne, a catcher, ended up pitching and beating the Braves in extra-innings when the Rockies ran out of pitchers. As a result, the Mets did not lose any ground on the Braves. And Mayne starting his inning on the mound by getting future Met Tom Glavine to ground out - and Glavine was pinch-hitting because the Braves had run out of non-pitchers to pinch hit.

I said at the beginning of tonight's game that I wanted Bobby Jones to lose 1-0, and he did. how much would I like to see his 2.85 era back on the Mets?

Bobby J. Jones' return to Shea in a Padres uni and is outdueled by Rick Reed and loses on a RBI single by Ordonez of all people.

This team right now is putrid. its disgusting to think that people are going to the games and paying money to watch this. id rather see the AAA team play the padres, as long as they look like they have some life. now, I know they could be in first place in 2 months, but things are not looking good at all right now. the pitching is absolutely not there, and who knows if leiter will be effective when he comes back, and they get about 6 runners on base every game, and strand them all. on the bright side, I think they are 2 or 3 games ahead of where the 93 Mets were at this time. of course that team lost 103 games. ok I need a drink.

Steve Trachsel gave up four homers in the third inning. I don't know if that's a club record or not, but I sure hope it is. I'd hate to think anyone ever gave up five! In the ninth inning, Desi Relaford, who had been at shortstop the whole game, takes the mound and pitches a perfect inning. This season has gone from bad to horrible, and now has suddenly become absurd.

Attended this game with my mom and we met my uncle and his girlfriend's son. Mets were off to an awful start and then newcomer Steve Trachsel only added ten gallons of fuel to the fire with his four home run inning. We left after the fifth inning. We later turned on the radio to hear the game and the first thing we heard was Gary Cohen say "this is just getting ridiculous." Of course, he was referring to the score at that point. So ironic that Trachsel has become one of their best starting pitchers over the last four seasons.

This was one of the funnier games I ever listened to on the radio. Trachsel was unfathomably terrible.

Desi Relaford had the year of his life in 2001 as a Met. He had his only above average offensive season of his career and most importantly, in the midst of this dumpster fire of a game, threw a perfect inning and strikes out a batter.

The last game Tony Gwynn ever played vs the Mets. Ironically, he struck out as he rarely struck out.

Living in San Diego I only get to watch the Amazins when they're on the West Coast and this is by far the best NYM game I've ever seen in SD.

If I told you the Mets won 13-4 with the Padres committing 5 errors you'd think that would be enough. Not even close, the Mets turned a 5-4-3 triple play with Fonzie making a nice play at the bag and Alomar making an awesome falling catch and throw to first to nail Wiki Gonzalez trotting out of the box (Wiki was benched for this). Then in the 7th with the bases loaded big Mike crushed a ball to CF that still hasn't landed for a grand slam. Imagine a triple play and a Piazza GS in the same game!

Then to top it all off, the next day in the newspaper, the headline in bold letters "THE WORST GAME EVER PLAYED". Of course for us it was one of the best!

I was at this game as well, watching from my favorite seats at Qualcomm, in section 24, behind third base, in the visiting player comp area (always a few empty seats, no hassles from the ushers). In the 5th, with none out, men on first and second, Wiki (I called him "Tweaky") Gonzalez, is up, and I look at Fonzie, he's playing about three feet away from the bag. So I start yelling "Triple Play now, 5-4-3!" ON THE NEXT PITCH, Tweaky hits a sharp grounder down the line, Fonzie gloves it, looks at third, kicks it, throws to Alomar, who double clutches before throwing to Vaughn, and Tweaky just gets called out! All the Padre fans around me admitted that I called it. Of course the Piazza GS was the icing on the cake, but that TP was special.

A friend and I went to this Wednesday night game only because someone gave us free tickets. There was a pre-game Pakistani Night concert. The sparse crowd very rudely booed the musicians. Having to work the next day, I departed sometime in the sixth or seventh with the Padres leading the Mets 5-2. My friend, who remained to the end, called me the next day to say that he went down from the upper level to the loge unchallenged, and then caught a foul ball pitched by reliever Mike Holtz that went off the bat of Timo Perez. The ball had a large black scuff mark from the bat's impact. The following May, we came to Shea two hours before gametime to try to get Timo- or any Met- to autograph the ball. Unlike in past years, we were not allowed down to field level before the game as we did not have field level tickets. Seems like only the RICH can try for autographs. We still have the ball- maybe eBay might be interested?

While the Mets announcers kept commenting and kidding how old Jesse Orosco was, he came into the game and delivered what proved to be his last major league save.

Mike Piazza hit the game winning home run in the bottom of the tenth inning of this game off Jaret Wright to give the Mets a 4-2 win.

These two runs would turn out to be the only extra inning runs the Mets would score all season!!!

Bob, I was in the stands for that game. And the part you mentioned about those two runs being the only extra-inning runs the Amazin's would score in '03 is incredible.

Anyway, I nearly missed out on all the excitement. In the middle of the 10th inning, I had to take a whizz. I said to myself, "Y'know, I have a feeling that the Mets are going to win this because the bottom half of the inning is about to begin, I'm in the men's room, and someone's gonna do something and I'm going to miss it."

I make it back in time just as Bell makes contact and gets on base. And no sooner than I sit down I'm right back up on my feet as Piazza's bomb goes over the left field fence.

My timing could not have been more perfect.

Being a big Mo Vaughn fan (yes, I know...bite my tounge) I was looking forward to Mo Vaughn bobblehead doll day. Little did I know that Mo's injury earlier in the week could not only end his season but his career, and wreak even more havoc on the disasterous career Mo had here in Flushing. How unusual that the Mets were honoring a player with a bobblehead doll that may never play for the Mets again, not to mention the following month was John Franco bobblehead doll day, and we weren't sure when or if he was coming back from Tommy John surgery. Well, I got my bobblehead and when I was leaving someone left theirs behind and I figured I could make a few bucks on eBay with it. N0THING!!! I even tried listing it for $5. N0THING!!! Even Mo's bobblehead doll is just as worthless as he is/was.

As for the game, when Benitez came in to finish off the 8th, he got a bigger round of boos usually reserved for John Rocker or Larry Jones, Jr. (Chipper to everyone else) He made it through the 8th and barely blew it in the 9th. Then in the bottom of the lOth, look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane...IT'S SUPER MIKE PIAZZA and along with his trusty bat Mizuno, belts the game winning home run preserving truth, justice and the Mets way.

I was at this game with my son who was 11 at the time. We sat in the right field loge seats right above the auxiliary scoreboard. The RF for the Padres that day was future Met Xavier Nady and the CF was Shane Victorino (when no one knew him) What I remember about this game was Piazza's HR and going to Bloomingdale's after the game to buy my lovely wife a Mothers Day gift.

I was also at this game. Benitez didn't hurt the Mets this day; he helped them.

He entered the game in fact with a 2-0 count on Xavier Nady and struck him out swinging. He came in because Scott Strickland was injured: As it turned out Strickland never appeared again for the Mets. This game also marked what would be the only major league start for the Padres pitcher, a little lefty named Roger Deago, who did pretty well.

Did the team use pink bats in this game? There is nothing on my scorecard indicating that.

I was in SD on business and went to the game. I caught Ty Wiggingtons HR ball. I wish I could find a clip of that HR somewhere.

Went to this game with two of my friends who accompanied me to most of the games I went to this year. We got there in the bottom of the third. Mets went up 4-0 on Mike Piazza's RBI double. Piazza also hit his first home run in what seemed like forever in the fifth. Tom Glavine made my nerves act up a little in the fourth, but managed to pitch six solid innings. Juan Padilla got his first major league save.

My first game attended in 5 years and, oh, what a treat: Kazuhisa Ishii vs. Jake Peavy. Wonderful. No doubt about the outcome, right? Naturally. Kaz Ishii shocked Metdom by going 6 scoreless innings as the Mets busted out with 11 runs in the middle innings to get his 3rd win of the season. Not even the inclusion of Danny "Sky-High ERA" Graves in the last inning could spoil the shutout, though he tried his darndest, putting 2 men on.

Even though they lost this game, this was the one where David Wright had the one handed catch for the ages.

One of the scariest on-field moments in Mets history took place in the bottom of the seventh inning of this game.

David Ross of the Padres hit a Tom Glavine pitch to right center field. Centerfielder Carlos Beltran started running full-speed after the ball, as did right fielder Mike Cameron.

Both outfielders dove, gloves outstretched, and collided head-to-head while in mid-air. Both left the game, Cameron on a stretcher and Beltran, miraculously, under his own power.

Both suffered fractures of the facial bones, although Beltran's injuries were less severe and he returned to the lineup only a week later.

Cameron's injuries (facial fractures, swelling, etc.) were much more severe and he would miss the remainder of the season.

A fourteen inning loss in San Diego...not that much happened in this game.

But to put things in perspective, almost 20 years ago, everyone old enough to remember the 1986 season will surely recall the crazy fourteen inning victory over Cincinnati on July 22, 1986. That was the game that featured Ray Knight and Eric Davis fighting, Dave Parker dropping a potential game-ending routine fly ball, Gary Carter playing third base, and Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco playing the outfield.

Well, since that strange night in Cincinnati, this game tonight was the fourteenth game of at least fourteen innings that the Mets have played on the road. Their record in those games is 0-14.

Pedro was great as he struck out 11 Marines, er I mean Padres (It was military night and the Pods were wearing camoflague unis since S.D. is a military town) and Metal Mike Piazza greets his old mates with a HR. But this game will always be remembered for Keith Hernandez's comments on Padres massage therapist Kelly Calabrese being in the dugout. My sister is a massage therapist and works very hard at her craft, so I added E-3 in my mental scorecard.

Mike Piazza's triumphant return to Shea. Everyone brought out their Piazza t-shirts and jerseys that were at the bottom of the closet since October. At his first at-bat he was given the obligatory standing ovation where he tipped his helmet and wanted to get on with the at-bat, but people were still cheering and chanting MlKE PI-A-ZZA! MlKE PI-A-ZZA! So Paul Lo Duca was stalling so Mike can tip his cap again. (SIGHS!!!) So emotional.

Then Mike proceeded to strike out swinging and I jumped up and started chanting STEV-EN TRACH-SEL!!! STEV-EN TRACH-SEL!!!

Nice to see mike Piazza hit 2 home runs in this game as the Mets won 4-3. Piazza almost put the Padres ahead in the 8th inning with a blast to deep left centerfield off of Heilman. Mets are now 24 games over .500 for the first time this season. Pedro pitched very well giving up only 3 hits, though 2 of them were Piazza's home runs.

After the Mets jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, Piazza was applauded in his second at-bat, and he proceeded to punch a ball into right for a homer. Everyone cheered and the embarrassed Piazza came out for a curtain call. On his next at-bat he launched one into the left field seats, a shot we were used to seeing, bringing the Padres within two runs. There was scattered applause, a few cheers, and confusion. Then, in his final at-bat, he was booed. Having cheered for Piazza for eight years, it was difficult to turn my back but I booed as well, and when he hit it 400 feet to center I thought the Padres would take the lead, and it was fitting that Beltran, Piazza's successor as team leader, made the catch.

My mother, stepfather, one of my best friends and I went to this game for my 20th Birthday. Piazza showed he could still hit the ball a country mile that night. I thought the one he hit to center was going out. It sounded like the hardest one he hit. The Mets should have blown the Padres away that night, the Pads offense was inept and the team looked sluggish as a whole. Hard to believe they won the NL West. Wagner even gave us a Doug Sisk moment when he gave up a solo shot to Barfield in the 9th but hung on. Milledge showed he had lighting quick speed this game, hopefully the same will come of his bat.

A humid August night. My friend tells me they got tickets to Shea, would I join her? Thrilled. My friend has a great job in NYC, so I am thinking the seats will be great. When I arrive we are sitting Upper Deck, Row T. You can reach up and grab the landing gear on the planes as they land at La Guardia. But it doesn't matter I am just happy to be at the game. The Mets fall behind early. What I remember most is that Carlos Delgado went 0 for 5 and killed several rallies. My fellow fans in the upper deck were merciless.

In the 9th the Mets made it interesting but Trevor Hoffman shut us down.

This game has me on a 5-game losing streak!

Great game. Marlon's three run pinch hit homer capped a 6-run 6th inning, too bad the pen could not hold it down. I went 0-5 in the 5 games I attended in 2007. Oh well, next year I will go 10-0!

Last walk-off homer at Shea.

This game started a new era in Mets history as it is the 1st game at Citi Field. Also this game was the 1st time my fiance Pamela ever saw a Mets game with me in New York. We live in South Florida and we flew up for this game and to see our family for Passover.

We took the 7 train to the game. As the train was making its way into the Willets Point station it felt a little strange to see that Shea Stadium was not there anymore. Well this means its time to start a new era of memories in a great new ballpark. After we got there we took a walk around the whole ballpark outside and inside just checking everything out. We saw every area in the park that the public could see except the Sterling Club and the restricted areas like the team clubhouses and press box. We made sure we got the first-game collectibles such as the program, cap and others. After batting practice we made our way to our seats.

I made sure I had my camera ready for the first pitch and took a great shot. Shortly after that Jody Gerut goes deep to break in the park with a first-ever batter-lead-off home run in a new ball park. We said all game that it would be fitting that David Wright should be the one to hit the Mets first HR in Citi Field. When #5 came to bat in the 5th inning the whole crowd was standing and sensing something big was about to happen. Bang!! It did!! David Wright goes deep for the Mets historical first HR in Citi Field.

Although they lost this game, the memories of the first game in a new park will be there forever. We would have loved to see Shea open in 1964 also, but we were not born.

I was at this game and sat right behind home plate in the Upper Deck. As for the game itself Santana started and gave an unusually non-solid performance. Scrappy David Eckstein lead the Padres to a 4-2 victory that day.

This game will be remembered most though for all the antics of Lady Gaga who was in attendance that day. Funny thing is though being in the Upper Deck I wasn't aware of all the antics she apparently created until I read a report on line the next day. No one else around me seemed to talk about it either. I don't know; can the media just make these things more than they are?

This second half of a day-night doubleheader was one of the finest pitched games in Mets history. Jon Niese faced twenty-eight batters (just one over the minimum) in a one-hit shutout. Only Chris Denorfia's leadoff double in the third inning stood between Niese and perfection. Jon also recorded six strikeouts and scored the second of the Mets' three runs in the game.

The Padres had their own standout moment as well. They turned a triple play right after the Mets took a 1-0 lead on Jeff Francoeur's single that drove home Chris Carter in the bottom of the second.

I was at this game and even though I was rooting for the Padres, I saw Jason Isringhausen get his 300th and final save.

My good friend Pete gave me 2 tix for this one (Section 312) although I now wish the tickets were for June 1, 2012 for many reasons!!! But anyhow it was a nice way to start the Memorial Day Weekend as Dillon Gee pitched pretty good and Lucas Duda hits a screaming dinger off the Subway sandwich sign against a team that will NOT be confused with the 1989 Oakland A's. Plus I heard some great music before and after the game. The Mets did a cool thing by having the FDNY band which is also celebrating their 50th anniversary and I love listening to bagpipes; after the game as I was heading towards the PATH train, I stopped to listen to a great tribute band called THE MEETLES (which plays the music of the Fab Four but they also played songs from other groups as well). It's NOT the 1st time that I have heard them and my advice to Mets management for a post-game concert is to book the MEETLES instead of those 80's retreads REO Speedwagon or that Christian Boy Band MercyMe. All in all, a great night!

Mike Baxter set a team record by walking five times in a nine-inning game!

A highly productive start to the season for the Mets. They collected thirteen hits and won on Opening Day for the 34th time in team history. Jonathon Niese pitched solidly into the seventh inning and Collin Cowgill hit a grand slam in his first game as a Met.

Cowgill's home run is worth noting in that it was the first of four grand slams the Mets would have in 2013. John Buck, Jordany Valdespin and Marlon Byrd also homered with the bases loaded during the year. None of these four players would be with the Mets at season's end.

First of all, it was very COLD!!! 44 degrees at gametime which is better suited for Joe Namath and the late "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd than for Matt Harvey and Yonder Alonzo (BTW, that's a great name). Pol Pot Bloomberg's soda law was in full effect because the Big Gulp type cups were NOT to be around (although the law was struck down by a judge). It's a good thing that I live in New Jersey where my governor Chris Christie (a Mets fan) would take Bloomy's legs and make what happen to that Louisville hoops player look like the sniffles!!!! Matt Harvey (his birth certificate says the Nutmeg State and NOT the Bahamas, so he knows about pitching in the cold) was great 7 innings and 10 K's. Buck, Duda, and Davis all hit home runs. It was so cold (More cold than the 2007 home opener at Shea) that I took refuge into the Promenade Restaurant and chatted it up with Mets fans and a few Padres rooters, a couple of SD transplants living in the Apple. I gave them a fact that the Padres were close to moving to Washington, DC in 1974 before Ray Kroc (the founder of McDonalds) bought the team and kept it in San Diego! Plus I gave a few dudes wearing the garbage Yankees hat some choice words (NO profanity) but with the Miz's WWE catch phrase "REALLY?". I should've thrown in a couple of "GO RED SOX" as well and I will be back to Citi when the supposed global warming kicks in and the fans aren't dressed up like they're watching the bobsled trials at Lake Placid!

Matt Harvey pitches seven shutout innings. He strikes out ten, gives up only one hit and faces only one batter over the minimum. WHY DID HE NOT FINISH THE GAME???!!! Relievers in the last two innings allowed four runs. Great game, but a pitching gem ruined by too much bullpen dependence.

What a game for eeGrom and the Mets! The Padres only had 28 batters. Two singles and one double play. The Padres only had 1 LOB. Amazing. DeGrom was perfect through 15 batters.

Also, Cashner for the Padres had 12Ks through 4 2/3 but gave up 11 hits and 6 runs and was taken out. Strange game.

This was the infamous game during which it was reported that Wilmer Flores was being traded to the Brewers but he was not pulled from the game for several innings and he was shown on television (coast-to-coast) crying at shortstop. But after the game, it was announced that the trade had fallen through, and two days later Wilmer hits a walk-off homer and becomes an instant Mets hero.

Was really bummed on the 7 train home after this game for two reasons. First, the Mets were in the thick of a pennant race and this was a brutal loss to a struggling team. Second, I was upset about "trade" that was rumored during the game (Wheeler and Flores for Carlos Gomez). Carlos Gomez was not the impact bat the Mets needed and the price was too high for him. Lucas Duda did hit 3 home runs though.

Boy was I ecstatic when I got home, turned on SNY and learned that the trade did not go down. Looking back, it was as if this "no trade" gave the Mets second life for the rest of the season.

Bartolo Colon connects for his first major league home run at age forty-two! When he got back to the dugout, the other Mets players hid in the tunnel before charging out to greet him. Colon wouldn't have had to wait this long to hit one out if he hadn’t pitched so many years in the American League. The designated hitter just doesn’t allow moments like this.

This is my first game with my new wife. It was a fun experience since this was her first and they won a treat with her and my birthday the same day

The Mets win again this time a shutout by the best pitcher I have watched and it was my birthday and with the wife.

I know the NY tabloids would salivate over this scoop, but I'm going to give it to my long-time peeps at ultimateMets.com:

I did NOT wear my lucky "Luis Guillorme" Mets hat during this game. Repeat: I did NOT wear it. 

When the score was 4-0, the thought flashed in my mind that it was "hat time" and I should get up off the couch and run to the closet and grab the hat, just like the first day of spring training.

But in that moment, I thought to myself, "No, Hot Foot, don't get up. They can do it without your help. After all, those smart BASTARDS traded Colin Holderman!!!!! They deserve to lose!"

Then I crawled into bed, fell asleep, and when I woke up, Howie Rose was giving the recap of the loss.

Sorry kids, maybe next year.

This was the second most despicable game in Mets history. Only the season finale against the Marlins in 2007 was more agonizing than this defeat to the Padres. In the decider of a best-of-three post season series, the Mets got only one hit and were beaten solidly. Even worse is that the series itself never should've even been played. Adding an extra Wild Card team to create it cheapened the Major League playoff system more than it had been already. With their 101-win regular season and a tie for first place in the N. L. East Division, there was no legitimate reason why the Mets should have had to go through this inexcusable early round.