Remembering Mets History (1999) NLCS Game #5- Robin Ventura's Walk Off Grand Slam Single
That they did in dramatic & classic fashion. It is a game that goes down forever as a Mets classic.
The game began at 4:09 PM in the late afternoon & would last five hours, forty-six minutes into
the night just at about 10;00 PM in the rain.
Bobby Valentine would use 23 total players in the game, fourteen position players & nine pitchers for the Mets. Bobby Cox would use 22 players, sixteen position players & six pitchers for the Braves.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, the Mets struck first; Rickey Henderson led off the game with a base hit. After Edgardo Alfonzo lined out to center, John Olerud really got the crowd going, hitting a two run HR putting the Mets up 2-0.
Greg Maddox gave up a base hit to Mike Piazza but settled down after that, retiring Robin Ventura & Melvin Mora.
Bobby Valentine removed Masato Yoshi & brought in the veteran; Orel Hershiser (13-12 / 4.58 ERA/ 89 Ks). Hershiser the 1988 World Series MVP for the Dodgers, had earned himself the moniker "the Bull dog". Orel gave the Mets an outstanding middle relief performance.
In the top of the 5th inning, after striking out Greg Maddox Gerald Williams doubles. After
retiring Bret Boone, he walked Chipper Jones intentionally. With two men on he struck out Brian Jordan to end the inning with his third strike out.
Greg Maddox would scatter a few more Mets hits, in the 6th inning two Braves errors by Ryan Klesko at first base & a base hit by Mike Piazza loaded the bases. But Maddox got Rey Ordonez to ground out, ending the inning.
In the top of the 7th, Orel Hershiser got Gerald Williams to pop up for the first out. He then hit Bret Boone with a pitch which had Mets manager Bobby Valentine remove him in favor of Turk Wendell making his fourth series appearance. Wendell fanned Chipper Jones then walked Brian Jordan intentionally.
Bobby Valentine relieved Wendell bringing in Pat Mahomes. Mahomes walked Brian Hunter to
load the bases but got Andru Jones to fly out to left field ending the inning.
In the bottom of the 8th, after Jon Olerud led off with a single, his second hit of the game & second straight multi-hit game, the Mets were blanked by Terry Mullholland who retired the next six batters getting to the 10th inning.
The Braves Mike Remlinger held New York scoreless in the next two innings.
In the 15th inning, Dotel gave up what looked like the final fatal run. Walt Weiss singled & stole second base. With two outs, Keith Lockhart tripled to center field scoring Walt Weiss & silencing the Shea crowd.
By now the rain was falling on a damp cool autumn evening in New York. This epic game was more than five hours old & all its excitement came down to the Mets being down 3-2 in the 15th inning on the brink of elimination.
The Mets Shawon Dunston fouled off several pitches having a great at bat, finally collecting a base hit & boldly, stole second base, bringing life to the Shea Stadium crowd once again. Pinch hitter Matt Franco then drew a walk. Edgardo Alfonzo then sacrificed the runners over.
Roger Cedeno quickly scored from third base officially crossing the plate as the games winning run. The Mets bench emptied onto the field toward first base. In between first & second base Todd Pratt & the Mets players mobbed Ventura with Pratt scooping him up in his arms.
Quotes- Robin Ventura: "Maybe tonight when you guys go home, I'll run the bases" "It's no big deal, as long as I touched first base we won, so that's fine with me. We just play for another day. It seems like we've been saying that for a month now".
Darryl Hamilton said it best for the players on the bench describing this one: "It was getting crazy; it was getting to the point where your stomach was coming out of your guts".
The game began with pitchers' Masato Yoshi (12-8 / 4.40 ERA / 105 Ks) on the mound against Greg Maddox (19-9 / 3.57 ERA / 136 Ks) in front of 55,723 fans at Shea.
Johnny O Trivia: It was Olerud's third HR of this post season, as he now homered in back-to-back games. It was his sixth career post season HR as well. In the 1999 NLCS he would lead all Mets hitters with eight hits, two HRs & six RBIs. In the 1999 post season he now driven in eleven runs.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Greg Maddox gave up a leadoff double to Darryl Hamilton but stranded him at third base.
Masato Yoshi held the Braves scoreless until the top of 4th inning. Bret Boone doubled & scored on Chipper Jones' double to left field.
Chipper Trivia: It was Jones' first RBI of the series, up to that point the Mets had held him to just one hit in the first four games. Chipper would have a multi-three hit game today with this being the only run driven in for him in the entire series.
Brian Jordan tied the game with a base hit scoring (Larry) Jones from second base.
Jordan would lead the Braves along with Eddie Perez, with five RBIs in the series. Jordan would also drive in a run in each of the last three games.
Bobby Valentine removed Masato Yoshi & brought in the veteran; Orel Hershiser (13-12 / 4.58 ERA/ 89 Ks). Hershiser the 1988 World Series MVP for the Dodgers, had earned himself the moniker "the Bull dog". Orel gave the Mets an outstanding middle relief performance.Hershiser had entered the game with two runners on & no one out, he struck out Andru Jones & Eddie Perez, then got Walt Weiss to ground out to first base, Orel covered first for the out to end the inning.
retiring Bret Boone, he walked Chipper Jones intentionally. With two men on he struck out Brian Jordan to end the inning with his third strike out.
In the top of the 6th, John Olerud made a rare error at first base on a Ryan Klesko hit. Andru Jones sacrificed Klesko to second then Hershiser intentionally walked the hot hitting, Eddie Perez then lost Walt Weiss on another base on balls to load the bases. Hershiser then struck out Greg Maddox, Ryan Klesko was running on the pitch & got caught in a run downplay, Piazza threw to third then Robin Ventura threw home to Orel Hershiser who applied the tag for the third out.
Although he walked three batters, Hershiser held the Braves scoreless over 3.1 innings allowing just one hit. Bull dog struck out five along the way, as he got the Mets to the 7th inning.
The four-time Cy Young Award-winning Greg Maddox pitched through the 7th inning, allowing two runs on seven hits, with a pair of walks & five strike outs exiting with in a 2-2 tie.
In the top of the 7th, Orel Hershiser got Gerald Williams to pop up for the first out. He then hit Bret Boone with a pitch which had Mets manager Bobby Valentine remove him in favor of Turk Wendell making his fourth series appearance. Wendell fanned Chipper Jones then walked Brian Jordan intentionally.
load the bases but got Andru Jones to fly out to left field ending the inning.
In the top of the 8th inning, Mahomes got Eddie Perez to ground out then gave up a double to Walt Weiss. After a mound visit from pitching coach Dave Wallace, Mahomes struck out pinch hitter Jose Hernandez then intentionally walked Gerald Williams.
Bobby Valentine made another pitching change, bringing in left hander John Franco. Franco retired Keith Lockhart on a ground ball Olerud unassisted at first base.
In the top of the 9th John Franco held the Braves scoreless then in the top of the 10th after Eddie Perez collected his second hit, Armando Benitez retired the next three batters to end the inning.
The Braves Mike Remlinger held New York scoreless in the next two innings. In the top of the 11th, the Mets veteran Kenny Rogers came on pitching two scoreless innings. In the 12th he walked Greg Myers then got Walt Weiss to ground into a double play Robin Ventura to Edgardo Alfonzo to Jon Olerud, as the Mets fine defense continued.
In the top of the 13th, Octavio Dotel came on to pitch for New York. That year the rookie had gone 8-3 mostly as a starter but had a high ERA at 5.38. With two outs, Keith Lockhart singled to center then Chipper Jones drove a double to right field. Melvin Mora now playing right, grabbed the ball threw to Edgardo Alfonzo who threw home to Mike Piazza who held his ground tagging Lockhart at the plate trying to score to end the inning.
In the top of the 13th, Octavio Dotel came on to pitch for New York. That year the rookie had gone 8-3 mostly as a starter but had a high ERA at 5.38. With two outs, Keith Lockhart singled to center then Chipper Jones drove a double to right field. Melvin Mora now playing right, grabbed the ball threw to Edgardo Alfonzo who threw home to Mike Piazza who held his ground tagging Lockhart at the plate trying to score to end the inning.
The drama continued in this epic nail bitter.
By now the rain was falling on a damp cool autumn evening in New York. This epic game was more than five hours old & all its excitement came down to the Mets being down 3-2 in the 15th inning on the brink of elimination.
Braves manager Bobby Cox had used five pitchers already & went with Kevin McGlinchy. McGlinchy had gone 7-3 with a 2.82 ERA & seven HRs allowed in 64 regular season games, usually in a non-pressure situation.
John Olerud was intentionally walked to get to Todd Pratt. Pratt came into the game replacing Mike Piazza behind the plate. Mcglinchy walked Pratt bringing in the tying run at 2-2. Shea Stadium came back to life & went wild.
The next hitter was Robin Ventura. Ventura was playing on a bad knee & had been struggling in the series. Thru the first four games he had gone hitless & before his 11th inning single he had gone 0-16 in the NLCS.
The next hitter was Robin Ventura. Ventura was playing on a bad knee & had been struggling in the series. Thru the first four games he had gone hitless & before his 11th inning single he had gone 0-16 in the NLCS.
Ventura took the first pitch ball then fouled off the second pitch. The next pitch was ball three that almost got away from catcher Eddie Perez.
With the count at 2-1 Ventura lined a fast ball over the classic 371-foot marker in right center field. It was a HR, a grand slam walk-off game winning HR, in the post season. It was an awesome moment.
Luckily the winning run had scored because although the umpires had left the scene Ventura was unable to round the bases so the hit could not get scored a HR but instead go down in the history books as a single. It will forever be remembered as "the Grand Slam single".
Quotes- Robin Ventura: "Maybe tonight when you guys go home, I'll run the bases" "It's no big deal, as long as I touched first base we won, so that's fine with me. We just play for another day. It seems like we've been saying that for a month now".
Darryl Hamilton said it best for the players on the bench describing this one: "It was getting crazy; it was getting to the point where your stomach was coming out of your guts".
