Wednesday May 5th 2004: A Shea Stadium crowd of 19,974 came out on this night to see history as Mike Piazza was just one HR shy of the all time catchers mark. Tonight, Art Howe's fourth place Mets (12-15) hosted Felipe Alou's fifth place San Francisco Giants (12-16).
The starting pitchers were Jae Weong Seo for the Mets & Jerome Williams for the Giants.
Starting Lineups
| 1 | Brian Dallimore | 2B |
| 2 | J.T. Snow | 1B |
| 3 | Marquis Grissom | CF |
| 4 | Jeffrey Hammonds | LF |
| 5 | Edgardo Alfonzo | 3B |
| 6 | Michael Tucker | RF |
| 7 | Yorvit Torrealba | C |
| 8 | Neifi Perez | SS |
| 9 | Jerome Williams | P |
| 1 | Kazuo Matsui | SS |
| 2 | Todd Zeile | 3B |
| 3 | Mike Piazza | C |
| 4 | Karim Garcia | RF |
| 5 | Shane Spencer | LF |
| 6 | Jason Phillips | 1B |
| 7 | Mike Cameron | CF |
| 8 | Daniel Garcia | 2B |
| 9 | Jae Weong Seo |
It didn't take Piazza long to make history. With two outs in the 1st inning, he hit a HR to right center field. The HR was Piazza's 352nd as a catcher (363rd overall) and put him first all time, as the leading HR hitter among catchers, passing the great Carlton Fisk. The crowd gave him a standing ovation & he came out of the dugout to tip his cap in a thank you. On this night, his team would support him in a win as well.
In the Giants 2nd, former Met; Edgardo Alfonzo (now a Giant) doubled to tie the score. Pitcher Jae Seo helped his own cause with an RBI single in the home second.
The Giants tied it up & the score remained 2-2 until the 8th. In the bottom half of the 8th, Shane Spencer hit a three run HR & Mike Cameron a two run shot. Kazo Matsui then added an RBI base hit to top off the Mets 8-2 win.
But this was Mike Piazza's night, as he went into the record books once again. He would be honored at Shea Stadium later in the year, for Mike Piazza Night with some of the all time greatest living catchers coming out as special guests in his honor; Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, Lance Parrish & Pudge Rodriguez were all be on hand (as was centerfieldmaz).Piazza finished his career with 396 HRs while in the catchers spot & a total 427 HRs overall.
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