Remembering Mets History (2007) Carlos Delgado Collects Three Walk Off Wins Over Two Weeks

Monday May 14th, 2007: Willie Randolph's first place Mets (24-13) were up by a half game over the Atlanta Braves at this early point in the season.

Tonight, the Mets opened up a four-game series with Lou Pinella's Chicago Cubs (17-19). The Cubs would finish first this season getting swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS. 

In the series opener Tom Glavine went up against Long Island Born, Jason Marquis in what was to be a fine pitching matchup in front of 34, 033 fans at Shea Stadium.

In the top of the 1st, Glavine gave up a double to Alfonso Soriano & an RBI single to Aramis Ramirez. 

In the top of the 2nd, the Cubs put up three more runs with an RBI double from Cezar Izturis & a two run single from the pitcher Jason Marquis, giving the Cubs a 4-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 4th, Carlos Delgado walked, then David Wright hit his fourth HR of the season, a two-run shot making it 4-2. 

In the bottom of the 6th, The Mets knocked out Marquis as Delgado & Wright led off with base hits.

Cubs' pitcher Rocky Cherry came on with Paul LoDuca hitting an RBI double. Then Damion Easley hit a sac fly scoring Wright to tie the game.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, after the first two batters were recorded, Cubs pitcher Michael Wuertz got into trouble. Jose Reyes singled, stole second & Endy Chavez drew a walk. Carlos Beltran was walked intentionally to load the bases. Wuertz then walked issued the bases loaded walk to Carlo Delgado bringing in Reyes with the games winning walk off run.

Thursday May 17th, 2007: This afternoon matinee at Shea took in 42,667 fans at the gate, 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 to face Angel Guman.

In the top of the 4th, Aramis Ramirez, who drove in 100 plus runs for three straight years, singled in the Cubs first run.

In the bottom of the 5th, Endy Chavez singled & Ruben Gotay doubled to bring him in & tie the game.

In the top of the 6th, the Cubs Angel Pagan & Aramis Ramirez both hit two run HRs off Jason Vargas making it a 5-1 Chicago lead.

The game went that way to the 9th inning as Ryan Dempster came on for the save.

Short time Mets David Newhan led off with a single. After Ramon Castro lined out, Carlos Gomez singled to center. & Carlos Beltran reached with a walk.

Ryan Dempster then walked Endy Chavez bringing in the Mets second run. Ruben Gotay then delivered an RBI single into left field.

Manager Lou Pinella removed Dempster in favor of Scott Eyre. Eyre was greeted by David Wright's base hit scoring Beltran bringing the Mets within a run. 

Next with runners on second & third & one out, Carlos Delgado delivered with a base hit to right field scoring Chavez & Gotay with the games winning runs as the Mets took three of four in the series. It was Delgado's first walk off hit for the Mets & second walk off RBI in four days.

Tuesday May 29th, 2007: Ten games after the 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 (24-26) San Francisco Giants in front of a big crowd of 47,940 at Shea Stadium. The Giants would finish fifth that season.

On the mound the starters were Oliver Perez for the Mets & rookie Tim Lincecum for the Giants. The next season Lincecum would win the NL Cy Young Award.

In the top of the 1st, Randy Winn led off with a HR & two batters later, Bengie Molina also homered making it 2-0.

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, Jose Reyes singled & 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, Perez gave up a game tying HR to Daniel Ortmeier.

The game remained tied into the 12th inning. 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 brought in Vizquel giving San Fran the 4-3 lead. 

In the bottom of the 12th, a familiar face took the mound for San Francisco, former Mets reliever Armando Benitez. Benitez didn't have too many friends in Shea Stadium & received a round of boo's. 

Benitez walked Jose Reyes to start the inning. He then baled getting Reyes to second. Endy Chavez sacrificed moving Jose to third. Armando Benitez then managed to balk for a second time in the inning, allowing Reyes to score to tie the game. 

Then 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 an exciting walk off win.

Two games prior, Delgado had just had a multi-HR game driving in five runs in a 7-2 win over the Marlins. 

Including tonight, Delgado had 4 HRs & 8 RBIs in his last three games. In the month of May Carlos had six HRs & 20 RBIs leading a struggling Mets offense.

Delgado was responsible for the last three Mets Walk off wins & would have four on the season. Delgado missed some action that season but in 139 games hit 24 HRs with 87 RBIs batting .258 with a .781 OPS.

On September 12th, the Mets had a seven-game lead over the Phillies but a collapse where they went 6-12 had them finish second &missing out on a wild card berth.