Remembering Mets History (2007) John Maine's Combined One Hitter & A Brawl with the Marlins Keeps Mets Playoff Hopes Alive
On September 12th, New York had a commanding seven game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies. But these Mets fell apart, losing 11 of the next 15 games with two separate five game losing streaks.
As the Phillies stayed hot, winning 13 of their last 17 games passing the Mets in the standings, tying them on September 27th & going ahead the next day with two games left to play.
The Padres held on to the top wild card spot & the red-hot Colorado Rockies had won 13 of their last 14 games. The Mets needed to win their final two games to at least tie for a wild card spot.
On this Saturday Willie Randolph's Mets (88-73) hosted Fredi Gonzales fifth place Marlins (70-91). John Maine took the mound against Chris Seddon.
In the top of the 1st, although he walked Dan Uggla, he quickly got struck out Jeremy Hermida & Ranon Castro threw out Uggla trying to steal second for the double play.
In the bottom of the 1st, the Mets offense started out right away with a one out double from Luis Castillo & base hit from David Wright. Moises Alou & Carlos Delgado followed with RBI singles to make it 2-0.
In the top of the 2nd inning, John Maine struck out Mike Jacobs & Todd Linden retiring the side in order.
In the home 2nd, Lasting Milledge singled & was sacrificed to second by John Maine. Luis Castillo drove a base hit to center scoring Milledge for a 3-0 lead. David Wright then walked, & Carlos Beltran followed with an RBI single making it 4-0, getting Chris Seddon out of the game. Reliever Ross Wolf was greeted by a Moises Alou RBI single scoring David Wright to make it 5-0 Mets.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Lastings Milledge hit the first of his two HRs on the day, as usual the youngster admired his blasts as he rounded the bases. His showboating did not go over well with either team. By the end of the 3rd inning the Mets were leading 8-0.
In the top of the 4th, Maine started the inning striking out Hanley Ramirez & Dan Uggla. He then retired Jeremy Hermida. In the top of the 5th, Maine added two more strike outs to reach ten Ks on the day.
By the middle innings it was noticed Maine had a no hitter going & the Shea fans were on the edge of their seats, leaning on every pitch with every out being more exciting.
In the bottom of the 5th Lastings Milledge hit his second HR, as he watched it go & slowly circled the bases, the Marlins got annoyed. The fact that they were being no hit didn't help.
Castillo walked toward the mound with his arms out shouting at the pitcher.
This sparked both benches to clear & the bullpens emptied as well pouring to the infield area. Mets pitching coach Tom Peterson was having words with Marlin catcher Miquel Olivo but was pulled away by David Wright.
Jose Reyes was on third base & antagonized the Marlin catcher Olivo, bantering him.
After Castillo drew the walk, Olivo charged down the line at Jose Reyes. Oddly the two players were friends & Reyes thought he was originally kidding. Next a fight broke out, Mets third base coach Sandy Alomar served as a buffer between the two as did Marlin third baseman Miquel Cabrera.
Quotes: Jose Reyes: He's kind of crazy sometimes, I said, 'Let's go. Let's fight.' I can't say no. I'm not scared. We're both men."
Quotes- Miquel Olivo: "He told me, 'Let's you and me fight. Let's go.' I don't know why. I'm on the mound waiting for the pitcher and he's talking (smack) over there.... We are good friends. Today, I don't know what happened with him. We played winter ball in the Dominican all the time. I don't know. Today he might have gotten too excited."
The Shea Faithful who had been all over Reyes for his .215 batting average in September & his lax play as of late now cheered him on with the classic "Jose Jo-se Jo-se" chant.
As the game resumed, David Wright added an RBI hit, for his 107th RBI of the year.In the home 6th, Ramon Castro hit his 11th HR of the season making it 11-0 Mets. In the bottom of the 7th, David Wright collected his third hit of the game, his 16th multi-three hit game of the year. Wright advanced on a Marlin error then scored on Carlos Delgado's 87th RBI of the year, an infield single.
John Maine held the Marlins hitless until the 8th inning. With two outs, Paul Hoover who had come in to replace Miguel Olivo after he had been ejected, singled softly on weak grounder to third base. David Wright had no play & the no hitter was gone.
The Met fans gave Maine a standing ovation as Willie Randolph took him out of the game & brought in Willie Collazo to get the third out of the 8th inning.
In the bottom of the 8th, pinch hitter Maarlon Anderson walked & Ruben Gotay singled, then short time Met David Newhan drove in Anderson with a base hit to left for the 13th Mets run of the game.
In the top of the 9th, Carlos Munoz in his second career game retired the side in order combining
with Maine for the one hit shutout.
with Maine for the one hit shutout.
Mets One Hitter Trivia: This was the 32nd one hitter thrown by Mets pitchers in franchise history. It was the second one of the 2007 season, as Tom Glavine had thrown an official game 5 1/2 rain shortened one hit shutout in late June.
The Mets were tied for first place at the end of the day but lost the final game the next day eliminating them from the post season.