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Remembering Mets History (1999) Mets Beat Reds In One Game Tie Breaker & Advance to the NLDS

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Monday October 4, 1999:   On September 19th, Bobby Valentines Mets had a four-game lead in the wild card race.  But a seven-game losing streak, that included dropping five of six to the first place Braves had them in jeopardy of missing the playoffs.  But New York won five of their last six games finishing the year at  96-66, the  team's  best finish since they had won 100 games in 1988.  Although  they finished second to the Atlanta Braves, they finished tied with the Cincinnati Reds for the lone NL Wild Card spot. The Mets lost home field advantage in a league coin toss & traveled to Cincinnati to play Jack McKeon's Reds (96-67) in the one game tie breaker to decide the NL Wild Card winner.  On the mound for the Mets was their ace Al Leiter going for his 13th win of the season facing  the Reds Steve Parris (11-3). For Al Leiter he stepped into the spotlight  & threw a complete game two hit shutout winning his 13th game...

Remembering Mets History (1991) HoJo Is First Met to Lead NL in Both HRs & RBIs as David Cone Ties NL Record with 19 K's the Same Day He's Accused of Possible Rape Charges

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Sunday October 6th, 1991: Today was the last day of the 1991 season. Although the Mets had competed in the first half of the season (44-34) ten games over .500 & 2.5 games out of first place by the All-Star break, they went 31-50 in the second half finishing a  disappointing (77-84) 21.5 games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates.    During the last week of the season, the team fired manager Bud Harrelson & replaced him with interim manager, Met coach Mike Cubbage.  It was the teams worst finish in nine years, dating back to 1983 when they last finished under .500 at 68-94. This year aw the team trade Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda & Tim Teufel.  Although it was just five years since the Championship of 1986 & just five players from that team were still around by the end of this season, Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez, Kevin Elster, Dave Magadan & Howard Johnson. Howard Johnson was now the teams hitting star & became the third Mets player in...

Remembering Mets History (2024) Pete Alonso's 9th Inning HR Clinches an Amazing NLWC Series Comeback Win

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Thursday October 3rd, 2024:   After a devastating Game #2 loss, Carlos Mendoza's Mets went up against Pat Murphy's Brewers in the winner take all Game #3 of the NLWC series in Milwaukee.  41,594 filled up American Family Field as Brewers Hall of Famer Robin Yount threw out the ceremonial first pitch things were soon underway. The Mets Jose Quintina (10-10/ 3.74 ERA / 135 Ks) took on the Brewers Tobias Myers (9-6 / 3.00ERA / 127 Ks). Myers made three trips to AAA & back during the season, joining the Brewers staff for good in June. For Quintina, after falling to 6-9 with a 4.57 ERA, since August 31st, he was 4-1 with a 0.90 ERA with opponents hitting just .200 against him. Milwaukee's Tobias Myers, baffled the Mets thru five innings, allowing just two hits to Francisco Lindor. He struck out five, walked nobody & had the Mets looking like they didn't even show up. Jose Quintina, put in an outstanding post season performance of his own. He went six innings, shuttin...

Remembering Mets History (1986) Doc Gooden Reaches 200 K's for Third Straight Season & Gary Carter Has Second Straight 100 RBI Season

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  Thursday October 2nd, 1986: Davey Johnson's The Mets (104-54) were winding down the regular season, fine tuning themselves up for the playoffs. Tonight's game had a few personal achievements at stake, as Dwight Gooden was trying to become the first pitcher in history to reach 200 strike outs in his first three seasons & Gary Carter was trying to become the first Met t drive in 100 runs in two straight seasons.  The Mets were in Montreal playing the rubber game of a three game series against Buck Rogers fourth place Expos (77-80) at Stade Olympique in front of 10,726 fans. Expo legend Gary Carter still a popular figure in Quebec was greeted by the fans. The starting pitcher for Montreal was Floyd Youmans. Youmans Trivia:  Youmans was a high school teammate of Dwight Gooden in Tampa. Floyd was a 1982 second round draft pick of the Mets, having been traded to Montreal along with Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald & Herm Winningham in exchange for Gary Carter prior to th...