Reed's "Imperfect" game. In the wake of another perfect game thrown by a certain pitcher on a certain team occupying the same city, the Mets were completely squeezed out of the press. For 6 2/3 innings, however, Mets fans were given a teaser by Reed. I was at this game, and from the 4th inning forward, fans were up with every pitch he threw. McGriff smacked a shot up the middle leading off the 5th...right into Reed's glove. A PH (I forget who) slices a liner to right, and the crowd gasps as Butch Huskey lumbers toward it...dives...And the man caught it! And everyone there thought we were destined to witness history. Finally, it caught up with Reed on a 3-2 pitch to Boggs in the 7th. Doubled to center, out of McRae's reach. Undaunted, Reed did complete the game, K'd a then- career-high 10, and had his first CGSHO. As an added bonus, Piazza chimed in with his 1st Mets HR at Shea in the 4th. A wonderful game thrown by Reed. The man was absolutely unhittable that night.

THIS would be a great game to show on SNY classics instead of the same games they always air. Reed's best game as a Met (besides his October 2, 1999 game) AND Piazza's first Shea homer. I remember this one well.

I remember the excitement that night at Shea. Invariably we knew somehow it wasn't to be, but nice while it lasted. I did not realize until the prior comment that this was Piazza's first Shea home run.

This was Hideo Nomo's frst game with the Mets (and, I think, Rich Becker's last). Lots of excitement at Shea. I sat field level near the RF corner and caught a foul ball thrown into the stands by the Devil Ray right fielder. When I leaned forward to reach for it, I aggravated an achilles tendon tear which would eventually require surgery. Nomo didn't pitch very well, and the Mets lost in the 10th as a result of John Hudek's sorry relief and an error by Luis Lopez.

At least I got a ball.

Recently watched this one on the old tape. A sunny day at Shea for the Rays first ever trip to Shea. This game was also a 3 man booth with McCarver, Kiner and Keith Hernandez. The booth worked wonderfully, as all 3 were swapping funny stories while still giving excellent analysis of the game. Honestly, this may have been the only time that the 3 of them worked together. Keith was rarely doing games in the late 90's and McCarver was gone from the Mets after the 1998 season. A shame, as that booth could have been golden if things worked out differently.

Mel Rojas secured a rare save on this day, as he was still in the good graces of the bullpen (though not for long).

To continue Michael's thought, Rojas was definitely off to a great start in 1998, holding a 1.95 ERA at this point in the season. This was his second save of the year, prompted due to John Franco having pitched 2 innings the night before in the Mets' extra-inning loss to Tampa. However, it would also be his last of 126 career saves, as from here on out he'd arguably be the worst reliever in baseball. Over his remaining 25 appearances of the season, he would hold a 9.79 ERA. His collapse truly came fast and hard.

Al Leiter was also off to a great start, as his outing here lowered his season ERA to 1.70 and gave him his fourth win in as many starts.

This turned out to be another typical game for the Mets during the first half of 1998: stellar pitching and defense, and just enough offense to squeak out a win. They took an early lead in the bottom of the first despite not getting a hit, as future Met Rick White walked 5 batters to force home 2 runs. After Leiter gave a run back in the 4th, Butch Huskey drilled an opposite field homer in the 6th, which proved to be a huge insurance run as Rojas allowed a run in the 9th before getting another future Met, Miguel Cairo, to fly out to end the game.

This was White's final start of his career, outside of an emergency start he'd make in 1999. He walked 6 in the game, a career high, but only allowed 2 hits, helping to keep the Rays within striking distance. Meanwhile, Mets pitching tallied 14 strikeouts (including Bobby Smith 4 times), which was the most they'd rack up during a non-extra-inning game in 1998.

This game also thankfully marked the last we'd ever see of Rich Becker. I thought it made sense to acquire him from Minnesota for Alex Ochoa at the start of the season, as it gave a right-hand heavy OF a lefty bat, and Ochoa seemed to have lost all his momentum during a dismal 1997. But Becker completely forgot how to hit in 2+ months with NY, and was waived after the game to make room for Wayne Kirby, who was hitting .282 for the Cardinals' AAA team at the time.

In the May 20, 2011 edition of USA Today, they had an article on interleague play and according to Major League Baseball it says the matchup of the Mets at Tampa Bay hasn't happened. LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE; MLB!!!!! Maybe USA Today should've looked up ultimateMets.com. Things that make you go HMMMM... Also on this day, there was the news that a plane carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife and sister-in-law was reported missing. (The plane was found and they were all dead.)

Fred McGriff homers in the sixth off Glendon Rusch to give the Devil Rays a 3-2 lead. It is McGriff's 400th career homer..he is the 31st player in history to hit 400.

But Todd Zeile smacks a three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth off Rick White (who the Mets will trade for eight weeks later) to give the Mets the lead back, and they win it, 5-3. Pat Mahomes, John Franco, and Armando Benitez each pitch a scoreless inning of relief.

Also on this day the Mets trade Bill Pulsipher to Arizona for Lenny Harris.

Tampa Bay pitcher Esteban Yan hit a home run in the top of the second inning and then allowed a home run to Jay Payton in the bottom of the same inning...a rare daily double!

Go figure, the Devil Rays are 2-4 at Shea Stadium and guess which 2 games I went to? Yes I went to Hideo Nomo's Mets debut in which he stunk and the lousy bullpen blew a valiant comeback in extra innings in '98 and there was this game. I went because the Mets were giving out those stylish and very practical mini-duffle bags. Plus the Mets had whupped the Rays in the 2 previous games, so I figured the Mets would sweep. Instead the Mets made dubious history as the opposing pitcher ESTEBAN YAN hit a home run in his first major league at bat on his first pitch. His name sounded funny, in fact on ESPN when they showed the highlights of ESTEBAN YAN hitting that homer and they showed Bobby Jones with a look of disgust on his face for giving up a home run to an American League pitcher, and the announcer said that Jones feels like an ESTEBAN YAN. And since that day, not only have I felt like an ESTEBAN YAN, but that we all have an ESTEBAN YAN in all of us.

Not only did Tampa Bay pitcher Esteban Yan hit a home run in this game, he hit it on the first pitch of his first major league at bat! He became the first AL pitcher to homer in his first at bat since Don Rose of the California Angels did it in 1972.

The Devil Rays batter before Yan, SS Felix Martinez, had just hit HIS first major league home run one pitch earlier.

Went to this one expecting to see a rout, but not like this. I still don't know who Esteban Yan is.

A beautiful warm sunny day at Shea and the Mets get beat by the D-Rays big time!!! Sat in the field box (3rd base side) and stayed through the whole game. I always stay until the last out (or walk-off hit) but as things got ugly on the Shea field, at least I decided to check out the wonderful eye candy in the stands. Esteban Yan's home run was a classic (probably his only highlight of his career) and many Simpsons fans will recall that Millhouse pretended to be him in an episode of that classic show.

I had looked forward to this game since the schedule was released. Afterall how many times does your favorite team come from 2000 miles away to play on your birthday at the stadium near you. Well it happened to me. The Mets were in tampa, I lived only 2 hours away. I had my tickets and a hope for a win. Down 7-0 in the 9th I was disheartened until the Mets rolled out 5 runs with the help of mark johnson's first homer of the year. It ended with a Piazza fly out, oh well I was coming back 2 days later for the appier-lopez pitching duel

This Game was just horrible. The Devil Rays, the worst team in the league, were playing as if they were the Yankees or something. The Mets just couldn't put Pitching, Hitting, and Fielding all together at once. The Defense was horrible and no one could come through to hit in those big time chances they had to score. The good thing out of it all was Piazza's shot down the line to left and Ventura's Powerful "KILLING" of the ball to left. Nothing seemed to go right for the Mets and they ended up losing a series to a team like the Devil Rays, but at least they didn't get swept, and they taught 'em a lesson the next day with Kevin Appier great performance.

This game was much different than the one I had attended 2 days previously. I had much better seats and by the time the 7th inning stretch came around almost 98% of those great devil ray fans had left the stadium. The rest of us diehard Mets fans that were left had joined in chorus "Let's Go Mets" as the two idiot fans dressed as fred flinstone ran around holding up john rocker jersey's tried to escape getting their asses kicked. I had a great time...

First rain delay in the history of Citi Field.

This was my first Citi Field game. After two rain delays Citi was just about empty. Mets lost 3-1 in one of the worst Met games I have ever seen. I got so angry after the rain delay and Mets offense didn't produce that I yelled "I waited an hour for this?!?!" The section I was sitting in had a laugh about it. That's about as much as us Met fans had to smile about that rainy day at Citi.

Dickey was more dominant than any Mets pitcher so far including Johan. He allowed a slow grounder which I think if Wright used the glove and threw quickly, Upton would have been out. In my book, he got 29 outs in a row. Amazing.

One of the most dominant pitching performances by a Mets pitcher that I can remember.

I might be wrong, but I believe that Matt Harvey against the White Sox (May 7, 2013, game score 97) was the most dominant performance since David Cone struck out 19 on October 6 1991 (game score 99). By comparison, Seaver's game score on July 9, 1969 was 96. In either of his two Cy Young-winning seasons, Jacob deGrom never achieved a game score of over 90 (he did however accrue a game score of 98 on April 23, 2021, which I missed because I had to work).

Anyway, back to R.A. dominating the Rays on June 13, 2012. Aside from one slow roller in the first inning that David Wright misplayed, R.A. was untouchable that day. His 9 IP, 12 K, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB earned him a game score of 95. 

Amazingly, R.A.'s next start against Baltimore, he topped this start with a game score of 96, and I don't even remember that game. But I remember how dominant he was in this one, and I listened to it on the radio. This game (Tampa broadcast) is available on YouTube by the way. 

If only Wright had handled that BJ Upton grounder with his glove instead of trying to barehand it, the Mets might have had two no-hitters in a span of two weeks after not having one for 50 years.

I sat in section 129, loved seeing great catches by Conforto and Pillar. Matt Harvey got a big applause. So did Patrick Mazeika pinch hitting.

A three-run homer by Pete Alonso in the bottom of the tenth inning won this game for the Mets. It gave Pete walk-off home runs in each of four consecutive seasons. Only Kevin McReynolds from 1988 to 1991 had done this previously.

An instant classic. Since the Mets have only won the World Series once in my lifetime, to me, everything about that season is enhanced. To me, it's difficult to remember great individual games in seasons other than 1986. This is because if the Mets don't win the World Series, then those great individual games (from let's say 2005, 2006, 2014, or even 2022) tend to fade into the past and be forgotten more quickly. The reason I remember more games from 1986 than 2006 because most of my 2006 memories got flushed down the toilet that October in Game Seven of the NLCS, whereas the 1986 season will always stand out as a "Tiffany" season (in the spirit of the glossy version of Topps baseball cards) and the 2006 season (and every other season that did not result in a World Series win) is just a regular old common Topps set.

As of this writing, I do not know if the Mets will win the World Series this year, but if they do, this game will go down as one of the greatest games in Mets history, an all-time "Tiffany" game. However, if they falter in October, collapse in September, or lay down in August, this will just be another great game that becomes a minor positive note in an otherwise lost season.

Starting with Kodai Senga, he had Jacob deGrom-like stuff, striking out 12 in six innings, the most strikeouts by a Mets rookie since Noah Syndergaard in 2015. On this night, Senga looked like a number one starter, a mini-deGrominator (he's three inches shorter) and he left the game losing 1-0.

In the top of the 7th, Mets radio announcer Keith Raad invoked the announcer jinx when said something along the lines of the Mets are guaranteed a scoreless inning when Jeff Brigham pitches, and on the next pitch the Tampa Bay batter hit a home run against Brigham to make it 2-0.

Then the big moments. Vientos, in his first game of the year, hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 2-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, with the score 5-2 for the bad, Vogelbach and Marte got on with no out, bringing up Vientos, Baty, and Alvarez. I was sure the kids were going to do it. I wondered, can Vientos do it again?, but he flew out to center. Then Baty struck out, bringing up the man, the legend, the natural, Frankie Alvz. With two outs, Alvarez hit a three run homer, stepping up big time in the clutch to tie the game 5-5.

After Robertson uncharacteristically gave up two runs in the top of the 10th to make it 7-5, McNeil singled leading off the bottom of the tenth, putting two men on base, since the inning had started with a runner on second. After Lindor struck out, Pete Alonso came to the plate. The fans were chanting PETE ALONSO! PETE ALONSO! and on an 0-1 pitch Pete hit a three run homer that turned this game from a possible bitter loss into possibly one of the all-time great Mets wins (in the regular season).

In the Associated Press recap of the game, the writer stated:

A tying two-run homer in the seventh by Mark Vientos, brought up from the minors for his season debut, was only the third-most memorable long ball of the night.

They couldn't have been more accurate. The article also included this quote by Vientos:

“Go! Go! Go! Go!” Vientos remembered telling the ball. “Maybe it listened to me. Maybe it didn't. But who knows?”

This quote made me think, a rookie who talks to baseballs? This guy sounds like an all-star.

This thrilling game is currently in contention for one of the greatest Mets games of all time, contingent on making the postseason and winning the World Series. If they do win it all this year, then Mets fans can look back on this game and know that it all started here.

About my earlier comment on this game, I just want to clarify that Pete Alonso was the second METS player after Kevin McReynolds to hit a walk-off home run in four straight years. I wasn't referring to all major leaguers. Pete's game-winner in the tenth inning also made him the sixth player to share the team record of four career walk-off homers. In addition to Alonso and McReynolds, the others to accomplish this feat with the Mets were Cleon Jones, Chris Jones, Mike Piazza, and Wilmer Flores.