Remembering Mets History (1967): Jerry Buchek Has Back to Back Walk Off Hits & A Six RBI Night

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Friday September 22nd, 1967: Salty Parkers tenth place Mets (58-95) hosted Grady Hatton's ninth place Houston Astros (64-90) for a double header, in front of 13,342 at Shea Stadium. 

On this night a forgotten Mets short stop, in a time before Bud Harrelson took over the spot, Jerry Buchek, had the biggest night of his career & followed up with a walk off hit.


Starting Lineups




 Tug McGraw was the Mets starter on this night up, against Houston's Wade Blasingame.

In the home 1st, Amos Otis walked & Eddie Kranepool singled. Bob Johnson followed with an RBI single, making it 1-0. Buchek ended the inning grounding out into a double play.

In the 8th inning, with the Mets down 4-2, Bob Johnson & Tommy Davis both singled. Jerry Buchek followed with a three run HR putting the Mets ahead 5-4. It was Buchek's 12th HR of the year.
In the top of the 9th Mets pitcher Jack Fisher gave up the lead when the Astros' Don Adlesh singled home Rusty Staub with the tying run.

 The game went to extra innings. In the home 10th Bob Johnson doubled & Cleon Jones walked. Jerry Buchek stepped in against the Astro's Tom Dukes. Amazingly Buchek, hit his second three run HR of the night. A walk off game winner HR# thirteen on the year.

 Buchek's six RBIs were the most in a game for a Met player that season & one of the highest totals in their short history. It was an exciting night for the young Mets.




Saturday, September 23rd 1967: Tonight the exciting Mets Rookie, Tom Seaver (15-12) was on the mound for Salty Parkers New York Mets (59-95) taking on Graddy Hatton's Houston Astros & pitcher Dave Guisti.

A small crowd of 11,021 fans were on hand at Shea Stadium.




The Mets 1967 Rookie of the Year, Tom Seaver went out & pitched a three hit shut out masterpiece. Seaver struck out nine batters along the way & walked three.  The Houston pitchers; Dave Guisti & reliever; Dave Eilers matched Seaver with zero's, shutting out the Mets as well for eight innings.

In the bottom of the 9th, Larry Sherry came in to pitch for Houston. The Mets Bob Johnson led off with a double & Ed Kranepool was walked. Ron Swoboda then reached on an infield single to load the bases. That set the stage for Jerry Buchek. Buchek delivered with a game winning single, his second walk off hit in two nights.

 Jerry Buchek played two seasons for the Mets, he was the clubs main short stop in 1967. That year he played in 124 games, coming in second on the club in HRs with 14, while driving in 41 runs batting .236 & striking out 101 times.

Comments

lanzarishi said…
Wow, I remember this game!! Jerry Buchek was very good at times and streaky as I remember. This was right before the Mets took off to capture the world. Seaver also had hard luck his first two years as the Mets weren't exactly scoring many runs in those days. His record clearly should have been 20 game seasons both '67 and '68 had they scored more for him. Exactly what Jake deGromm is going thru now.
September 23, 2014 at 4:31 AM
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