Remembering Mets History (1985): Dwight Gooden Beats the Cards Bringing the Mets Within Two Games of First & Seals Winning the Pitching Triple Crown

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Wednesday, October 2nd, 1985: Davey Johnson's New York Mets (97-61) were in St. Louis for a huge series against their NL East nemesis' - Whitey Herzog's first place Cardinals (98-60). 

 The Mets entered this big series three games behind the Cardinals with six games left to play. 

Tonight, the Mets young 19-year-old phenom Dwight Gooden (23-4) would take the mound & set more records, closing out his historic Cy Young season. Tonight, Gooden will become the seventh pitcher in history to lead the league in wins, ERA & strike outs

Gooden would go up against the Cardinals twenty game winner, Joaquin Andujar (21-10).




Gooden didn't have the greatest outing of his incredible year but gave his team the chance to win & still dominated his opponents. He threw a complete game victory, allowing two runs on nine hits, walking four & striking out ten. 

The win would seal Gooden winning the pitching triple crown, as he led the majors in wins (24) strike outs (268) & ERA (1.53). It was the 11th time in the season he struck out ten or more batters.

Trivia: He joined some elite company in MLB history with pitchers, Walter Johnson (1913) Grover Cleveland Alexander (1915 & 1917) Dazzy Vance (1924) Lefty Grove (1930 & 1931) Hal Newhouser (1945) & Sandy Koufax (1963-1965 & 1966) all having accomplished this milestone in the past.

In the top of the 1st inning, with one out Wally Backman singled & stole second. Keith Hernandez singled & Backman got to third base. He then scored on Gary Carter's base hit making it 1-0 Mets. 

In the 2nd, George Foster singled & went to third on Howard Johnson's base hit. Dwight Gooden helped his own cause with an RBI base hit to make it 2-0.

Trivia: It was Gooden's 9th RBI of the seasons. Gooden would drive in at least one run in his first eleven seasons with the Mets. 

He would drive in nine runs in five different seasons in his Mets career (1985/ 1988/ 1990 / 1992 & 1993).

In the 5th, Rafael Santana left off with a double. Dwight Gooden then reached on an error by pitcher Joaquin Andujar. Santana scored when Mookie Wilson hit into a double play. 


In the 7th inning, George Foster hit his 21st HR of the year. Rafael Santana singled again & was driven in by Mookie Wilson for the Mets fifth run. The hit knocked Andujar out of the game & Pat Perry came on in relief. 

The Mets would take two of three games in St. Louis to get to two games behind the Cards.  They went back to New York but lost two of three at home to the Montreal Expos, ending their season in second place (98-64) three games behind the Cardinals. The Cards would beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS & lose to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.


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