Remembering Mets History (2004) Richard Hidalgo Sets Club Mark Homering In Five Straight Games

In 2002 Hidalgo had suffered a gunshot wound in his left arm during a carjacking in his native Venezuela. He recovered the next year, set some Astros records & won a Player of the month award. He & Astro manager Jimy Williams had their differences; he even benched Hidalgo when he struggled at the plate.

On June 18th, 2004, Richard Hidalgo came over to the Mets from the Houston Astros in exchange for pitchers Jeremy Griffiths & David Weathers.

In his third game with the Mets he hit a HR in a win at Detroit. Nine days after he arrived in New York, he hit two HRs in the second game of the 2007 subway series double header in the Bronx.

Although his stay in New York was brief, he made himself a spot in franchise history.

July 1st, 2004: In the rubber game of a series at Cincinnati, Art Howe's Mets (38-39) were facing Dave Miley's Reds (42-36). In the top of the 5th in a scoreless game, Eric Valent homered for the Mets to start the scoring. 

In the bottom of the 6th, Mike Piazza doubled, Richard Hidalgo walked & Shane Spencer hit a three run HR. In the top of the 7th, Jose Reyes lifted his second HR of the season giving Al Leiter a 5-0 lead. Leiter pitched seven shutout innings giving up just two hits with two walks & four strike outs. 

In the top of the 8th, Richard Hidalgo hit a solo HR, the fourth Mets HR of the game.

In the bottom of the 8th, Ricky Bottalico gave up five quick runs as Adam Dunn & Jason LaRue collected RBI doubles along with Wily Mo Pena's RBI hit. Bottalico was removed for Braden Looper who gave up RBI hits to Ken Griffey Jr. & Javier Valentin making it a one run 6-5 game. 

In the top of the 9th, Jose Reyes reached on a bunt base hit back to the mound. Kaz Matsui attempted a bunt but was Reyes was forced at second base. Jason Phillips then doubled bringing in Matsui as New York took a 7-5 lead.

In the bottom of the 9th, Adam Dunn hit his 24th HR, coming off Braden Looper getting the Reds to within a run. But Looper got Wily Mo Pena to ground out to end the game.

Shea Subway Series- Friday July 2nd, 2004: In the bottom of the 1st, Mike Piazza reached on a base hit, Cliff Floyd hit a shot to deep left centerfield, that Hideki Matsui couldn't handle allowing Piazza to score. Richard Hidalgo then doubled, scoring Floyd with the Mets second run.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Kazo Matsui hit a three run HR off Mike Mussina giving the Mets a 5-0 lead. Matsui homered again in the 6th inning, a two-run shot giving him a season best multi-HR. multi-Five RBI game.

As the inning continued Mussina walked Piazza & then Cliff Floyd singled. Hidalgo then hit a liner to left that dropped for a base hit but Cliff Floyd was thrown out at second base ending the inning.

In the top of the 5th, with Piazza aboard for the third straight time, Richard Hidalgo hit a HR for the second straight game giving the Mets a 7-0 lead. For Hidalgo it was his fifth Mets HR in 13 games.

In the 7th, the Mets added two more runs with RBI double from Ty Wigginton & an RBI triple from Eric Valent. Valent who would hit for the cycle at the end of the month, had a HR, triple & single in this game with three RBIs. 

The Mets went on to an 11-2 victory with Steve Trachsel getting the win.

Saturday July 3rd, 2004: In this four-hour matinee, the New York teams scored 19 runs with 23 hits & played 34 different players combined as the Mets took the game 10-9.

In the top of the 1st, the AL New Yorkers put up two runs. In the bottom of the 1st, Kaz Matsui continued his hot hitting with a double to left, then Mike Piazza brought him in with the Mets first run.

In the top of the 3rd, Tony Clark hit the first of his two HRs in the game, as he collected three RBIs.

Trivia: Tony Calrk was a 16-year MLB veteran, playing with six teams. In 2003 he hit 16 HRs with the Mets & in 2004 hit 16 HRs in the Bronx before moving on. After his playing days, Clark became the sixth executive director of the MLB Players Association.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Cliff Floyd hit a three run HR putting the Mets ahead 4-3. In the top of the 4th, the AL team came back with two more runs. In the bottom of the 4th, Ty Wigginton hit his 8th HR of the year.

Trivia: With the arrival of young David Wright, Wiggy would get traded to Pittsburgh later in the season, as the David Wright era began at third base.

In the bottom of the 6th, Hidalgo hit his third consecutive game HR, coming off Jose Contreras. 

It was Hidalgo's sixth Mets HR & his 11th Mets RBI in 14 games.

In the bottom of the 7th, former L New York player Shane Spencer hit a two run HR off Tom Gordon putting the Mets ahead 8-7. In the bottom of the 8th, Ruben Sierra tied the game with a HR off Ricky Bottalico. 

The game went to extras where Tanyon Sturtze issued two 10th inning walks to Kaz Matsui & Cliff Floyd. Hidalgo was then hit by a pitch, as he reached base for the third time. 

Then in a wacky play, Shane Spencer hit a comebacker to Sturtze who couldn't get the out as Matsui scored the walk off winning run.

Sunday- Independence Day, July 4th. On this holiday afternoon, another big crowd filled Shea Stadium as the Mets went for their subway series sweep.

In the 1st inning, Mike Piazza's sac fly brought in the first run. In the 2nd inning, Ty Wiggington hit a two run HR, his first of the game. 

For the AL New York team, Bernie Williams had a multi-four hit game, with a HR & three RBIs.

In the bottom of the 7th, Richard Hidalgo homered to left field breaking a 4-4 tie, coming off pitcher Felix Heredia. Hidalgo's fourth straight game with a HR tied a franchise record.

After the AL New York team tied it back up, Ty Wigginton hit his second HR of the game. It came
in the bottom of the 8th off Tom Gordon & was the games winning run in the 6-5 win. 

Subway Series Trivia: This was the first Mets subway series sweep in one of the two series held in each New York ballpark. The Mets would sweep eight series (three game set or two game set) since the teams began regular season inter league play in 1997.

The Mets used five pitchers in the game with Orber Moreno getting the win & the AL New York team used four pitchers with Tom Gordon taking the loss. 

Monday July 5th: After the successful weekend, the Mets went to Philadelphia to face the first place Phillies. 

In the top of the 1st inning, Richard Hidalgo wasted no time, as he blasted a 414' HR off Paul Abbot that almost reached the first level concourse in left field. It was Hidalgo's the fifth straight game, Hidalgo had homered in, setting a new franchise record. 

Trivia: In 2015, Daniel Murphy broke the record hitting HRs in six straight games, although these games were in the NLDS & NLCS setting a post season record.

In his first 16 games with the Mets, he was batting .344 with eight HRs & 13 RBIs.

Despite the Mets three run 1st inning, they dropped the game 6-5. The next night Hidalgo collected two more hits & two more RBIs, helping Al Leiter to a 4-1 win, getting the Mets within two games of first place. Since coming to the Mets, Hidalgo was hitting .348 (23-for-66) with 8 HRs & 15 RBIs in 17 games.

Richard Hidalgo would end the season with 25 HRs (21 of them as a Mets player) & 82 RBIs but only hit for a .239 average. After a hot June/July streak, he cooled off considerably and the Mets did not resign him for 2005.