centerfield maz

The powerful 2006 Mets had ended the first month of the season 16-8 in first place, with a six-game lead over the second place Phillies & Braves. Willie Randolph's team had two walk off wins in April. They began May collecting three more walk off wins in the first five days of the month. They would have nine wins in their final at bat in the month. Monday May 1st, 2006: On this night the Mets (16-8) hosted Frank Robinson's Washington Nationals (8-17) in front of 28,310 fans at Shea Stadium. Mets hurler, Victor Zambrano pitched one of his better games in a New York uniform, allowing just one run, an RBI single to catcher, Brian Schneider. In six innings of work, he scattered five hits, walked two & struck out four.  In the bottom of the 6th, Carlos Delgado led off the inning with a solo HR, the only run Ramon Ortiz would give up in his seven innings of work for Washington. After Zambrano was done, the Mets bullpen then held the Nat's hitless for the next three inn...

  Thursday May 2nd, 2019: On a weekday-matinee at Citi Field, Mickey Callaway's Mets (16-15) were struggling to stay above .500.  The 2019 Mets had a good start to the year, then would struggle to fall ten games under .500 at the break. In the second half, they would win 15 of 16 games from late July to early August to get them back in the wild card race. In September although they went 17-9, they fell short of a playoff berth. They finished the year at 86-76. On this day their early season hitting struggles continued, but their pitching was exceptional, as Noah Syndergaard did it all by himself. The Mets hosted David Bell's Cincinnati Reds (13-18), the Reds would finish fourth that season.  21,445 fans came to Citi Field as Noah Syndergaard went up against Tyler Mahle. In the top of the 1st inning, Syndergaard began the game, fanning the first two Reds Jesse Winker & Eugenio Suarez.  Winkler had recently become a villain at Citi Field as he went back & fort...

Saturday May 2nd, 1964: On this Saturday just 2,946 fans came out to Crosley Field to see Fred Hutchinson's Reds host Casey Stengel's Mets.  The Reds who were NL Pennant winners just three years earlier, would win 92 games & finish just one game behind the World Champion Cardinals this season. The Reds featured the previous year's Rookie of the Year Pete Rose, Hall of famer Frank Robinson, slugger Deron Johnson who would lead the NL in RBIs (130) the following year & Leo Cardenas who led all major leaguers playing in 163 games. In their third year of play, the 1964 Mets would finish last in the NL going 53-109 just two wins better than the previous year. Today's starting pitcher, Al Jackson for the Mets was 1-3 having pitched a shutout back on April 19th against the Pirates.  Jackson was a good pitcher on a bad team & his record would reflect that. Jackson went up against the Reds Jim Maloney, a 15-game winner that season sandwiched between two twenty-win s...

 Luis Alfonso Torrens Saez was born May 2, 1996, in Valencia Venezuela. In 2012 Luis was signed by the AL New York club as an international free agent. After spending three years in their minor leagues, he tore his labrum, needed surgery & missed the 2015 season.  In 2016 he was selected as in the Rule V draft by the Cincinnati Reds then was quickly traded to the San Diego Padres. MLB Career: In 2017 he made the Padres roster as a backup catcher, despite never playing above the A ball level. He would make 31 starts at catcher appearing in 56 games batting just .163. He spent 2018 & parts of 2019 back in the minors. In August of 2020 Torrens was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he spent parts of three seasons.  In 2021 he began the season batting just .178 thru mid-May & was optioned to AAA. On June 15th, Torrens returned & in his first seven games collected nine hits with four multi-hit games. He stayed on sharing catchers' duties with Tom Murphy ...

Tuesday April 30th, 2002: On this evening the Mets who were in an early season first place tie with the Montreal Expos, were in the Arizona desert going up against the reigning World Champion Diamondbacks at Bank One Ball Park.  A good crowd of 36,743 came to see Bob Brenly's D-backs host Bobby Valentines, New York Mets.  Mike Piazza returned to the lineup tonight after being sidelines for a week with a strained hamstring. Arizona's Rick Helling (3-2) went up against Al Leiter (2-1) who was holding a 1.13 ERA over his first five games.   Going into this game, Leiter had victories against all other 29 MLB teams in his career. With a win tonight he would become the first pitcher to have beaten all 30 MLB teams. In the top of the  1st inning the  Mets pounced on Rick Helling, Roberto Alomar & Mo Vaughn both singled. Then Mike Piazza blasted a three run HR making it 3-0. It was Piazza's sixth HR of the season. In the bottom of the 2nd, Roberto Alomar triple...