Remembering Mets History (2007) Carlos Delgado Collects Three Walk Off RBIs In a Two Week Span
Tonight, the Mets opened up a four-game series with Lou Pinella's Chicago Cubs (17-19). The Cubs would eventually finish first this season but were swept by Arizona in the NLDS.
In the series opener the Mets Tom Glavine went up against Long Island native, Jason Marquis in what was to be a fine pitching matchup in front of 34, 033 fans at Shea Stadium.
single by Aramis Ramirez.
In the top of the 2nd, they put up three more with an RBI double from Cezar Izturis & a two run single from the pitcher Jason Marquis, giving the Cubs a 4-0 lead.
Jason Marquis Trivia: In his career Marquis was a good hitting pitcher, batting .196 with 5 HRs & 57 RBIs in 422 games.
In the bottom of the 4th, Carlos Delgado walked, then David Wright hit his fourth HR of the season, a two-run shot off Marquis bringing the Mets closer at 4-2.
Mets catcher Paul LoDuca hitting an RBI double to centerfield scoring Delgado. Next, Damion Easley hit a sac fly to center field scoring David Wright to tie the game at four.
The Mets bullpen of Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano & Aaron Heilman got the Mets to the 9th inning holding the tie.
In the bottom of the 9th, Cubs pitcher Michael Wuertz got Damion Easley to ground out to him for the first out. He then struck out the oldest player in the game, veteran Julio Franco for the second out. Jose Reyes then singled up the middle & stole second base, his second steal of the game, his 23rd of the season.
In the bottom of the 9th, Cubs pitcher Michael Wuertz got Damion Easley to ground out to him for the first out. He then struck out the oldest player in the game, veteran Julio Franco for the second out. Jose Reyes then singled up the middle & stole second base, his second steal of the game, his 23rd of the season.
Reyes Trivia: Jose would lead the NL in steals with a career best 78, that season, the third year in
a row he topped the league in that department.
a row he topped the league in that department.
Michael Wuertz was in trouble, he then walked Carlo Delgado forcing in Jose Reyes with the games winning walk off run. The RBI gave Carlos Delgado his first Mets game winning run.
Thursday May 17th, 2007: The previous nights game had been delayed by three hours due to weather conditions. The Mets had beaten the Cubs to move back into first place ahead of the Braves. Both teams were tired with this afternoon's game coming less than twelve hours after last nights activities had wrapped up. Many of the Mets regulars were rested by Manager Willie Randolph. A big crowd of 42,667 fans came to Shea as the first place Mets (26-14) took on Lou Pinella's Chicago Cubs in the series finale.
The Mets sent Jason Vargas to the mound making his Mets debut to face Angel Guzman, primarily a reliever who was making his second start.
In the bottom of the 5th, Endy Chavez singled & Ruben Gotay doubled scoring Endy to tie the game at one.
In the top of the 6th, Angel Pagan & Aramis Ramirez both hit two run HRs off Jason Vargas making it a 5-1 Chicago lead. Ramirez would drive in 100 plus runs for the Cubs four times & hit 30 plus HRs three times.
In the bottom of the 9th inning with the score still 5-1, Ryan Dempster came on for the save. Short time Met, David Newhan led off with a single. After Ramon Castro lined out, Cubs outfielder Matt Murton failed to double up Newhan who was almost on second base when he made the grab.
Ryan Dempster walked Endy Chavez bringing in the Mets second run. Ruben Gotay who initially though he'd be pinch hit for, then delivered an RBI single into left field just beyond the short stop Ramirez's reach. It was his second hit of the day.
Ruben Gotay Trivia: Gotay who spent just one year with the Mets was batting .217 but ended the year with a .295 average in a limited role (98 games).
Cubs Manager Lou Pinella removed Ryan Dempster bringing in Scott Eyre. David Wright came to bat as a pinch hitter for Sean Green. It was Wright's first ever pinch hitting role. David greeted Eyre with an RBI base hit scoring Carlos Beltran bringing the Mets within a run 5-4. With runners on second & third & one out, Carlos Delgado delivered with a base hit to right field scoring both Endy Chavez & Ruben Gotay with the walk off winning runs. It was Delgado's second walk off RBI in the past week & his first actual walk off hit with the Mets.
Trivia: The four run comeback was the largest comeback in the 9th inning for them since May 23, 1999 vs Curt Schilling & the Phillies.
The Mets took three of four in the Cubs series putting them 1.5 games up on the Braves.
Tuesday May 29th, 2007: Ten games after the last walk off win, Willie Randolph's first place Mets (32-17) were in the midst of a four-game win streak. They had jumped to a five-game lead over Atlanta & were looking to be one of the best teams in the NL that year.
Tonight, the Mets hosted Bruce Bochy's San Francisco Giants (24-26) in front of a big crowd of 47,940 at Shea Stadium.
On the mound the starters were Oliver Perez for the Mets & rookie Tim Lincecum for the Giants. The next season the young Lincecum would win the NL Cy Young Award going 18-5 with a 2.62 ERA & league best 265 K's.
In the bottom of the 4th, Carlos Beltran reached on a two-out walk. Carlos Delgado delivered hitting a two run HR tying up the game. It was Delgado's seventh HR of the season.
In the bottom of the 6th, after Jose Reyes singled, Carlos Beltran added an RBI double putting New York ahead 3-2. Beltran was leading the team with 34 RBIs.
In the top of the 7th, Ollie Perez gave up the game tying HR to Daniel Ortmeier.
The bullpens kept the game ties into extra innings. With Pedro Feliciano, Billy Wagner, Scott Schoeneweis, Aaron Heilman & Joe Smith got New York to the 12th inning.
In the top of the 12th, Mets reliever Joe Smith walked Omar Vizquel, then threw a wild pitch. With one out, he then hit Mark Sweeney with a pitch putting two on. Randy Winn's grounder to first base was enough to score Vizquel giving the Giants the 4-3 lead.
Benitez walked Jose Reyes to start the inning. He then balked getting Reyes to second base. Endy Chavez sacrificed moving Reyes over to third.
Armando Benitez was getting rattled, he was called for his second balk of the inning, allowing Reyes to score to tie the game. The Shea Faithful certainly let Armando hear it.
The hot hitting Carlos Delgado who had been carrying the team in recent days, came to bat. Delgado delivered again, hitting his second HR of the night, giving the Mets the exciting walk off win.
It was just games earlier that Delgado had a multi-HR game driving in five runs in a 7-2 win over the Marlins. In his last three games, Carlos Delgado had four HRs with eight RBIs. Since May 9th, Delgado had six HRs & 19 RBIs batting .299 in the 17 games while leading a struggling Mets offense.
Delgado was also responsible for the last three Mets Walk off wins. He would have four walk off wins on the season.
Although he missed some action that season Delgado hit 24 HRs with 87 RBIs batting .258 with a .781 OPS in 139 games.
2007 Trivia: On September 12th, the first place Mets had a seven-game lead over the Phillies. But in one of the worst collapses in team & NL history, they went 6-12 finished second &missed out on a wild card berth on the final day of the season.