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

In 2002 Richard Hidalgo had suffered a gunshot wound in his left arm during a carjacking in his native Venezuela. He recovered & returned to baseball.  

The next year he established a few Astros hitting records & won a Player of the Month Award. But Hidalgo & Astro manager Jimmy Williams had their differences. The manager annoyed with Hidalgo's behavior even benched the player when he struggled at the plate.

Mets Career: 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 New York, Hidalgo hit a HR off the Tigers Jeremy Bonderman in a 6-1 win. The following week, nine days after arriving in New York, he hit two HRs in the second game of a subway series double header in the Bronx.

Although his stay in New York was brief, he was making a name for himself 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 off Mike Mathews, 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, Kaz Matsui hit a three run HR off Mike Mussina giving the Mets a 5-0 lead. In the 6th inning, Matsui would homer again, a two-run shot giving him a season best multi-HR, multi-Five RBI game.

As the 2nd inning continued, Mike Mussina walked Mike Piazza & then Cliff Floyd singled. Richard 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 bottom of 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 collecting 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 combed 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 Clark was a 16-year MLB veteran, playing with six teams. In 2003 he hit 16 HRs with the Mets, the next year he hit 16 HRs in the Bronx before moving on. 

After his playing days, Clark became the sixth executive director of the MLB Players Association. 2026 he resigned after having a sexual relationship with his sister-in-law who worked for the Union.

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 the Pittsburgh Pirates later in the season as the David Wright era began at third base.

In the bottom of the 6th, Hidalgo hit a solo HR off Jose Contreras bring the Mets to within a run. Hidalgo had now homered in three straight games. It was his  sixth Mets HR & his eleventh Mets RBI while playing in just 14 games.

In the bottom of the 7th, former AL New York player now a Met, Shane Spencer hit a two run HR off Tom Gordon putting the Mets ahead 8-7. 

In the top of the 8th, Ruben Sierra tied the game with a HR off Mets reliever 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 of 5,437 filled Shea Stadium as the Mets went for their subway series sweep.

In the bottom of the 1st inning, Mike Piazza's sac fly brought in the first run. 

In his first at bat of the game, Hidalgo was hit by a pitch around the waist area, no benches cleared. 

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Ty Wigginton hit a two run HR off Javier Vazquez, his tenth of the year & the first of his multi- HR game.

In the top of the 3rd, Bernie Williams hit a solo HR, he would have a multi-four hit game while driving in three runs.

Tying the Franchise HR Mark: In the bottom of the 7th with one out, Richard Hidalgo stepped in & hit a HR to left field off Felix Heredia breaking the 4-4 tie. It was Hidalgo's fourth straight game with a HR tying a Mets franchise record.

The feat had been done nine times in franchise history with Edgardo Alfonzo being the last to do it (2001), Mike Piazza dd it twice (1999).Other Mets to hit HRs in four straight games were Bobby Bonilla (1992) Dave Kingman (1981) ee Mazzilli (1980) Ron Swoboda (1968) & Larry Elliot (1964).

 In the top of the 8th New York tied it up with an RBI single from Joge Posada.

In the bottom of the 8th, Ty Wigginton led off with his second HR of the game. It came off reliever Tom Gordon & ended up being the games winning run in the 6-5 Mets win.

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. 

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 regular season subway series since the teams began regular season inter league play in 1997.

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 fifth straight game with a HR setting a new franchise record. 

Trivia: In 2015, Daniel Murphy broke the franchise record hitting HRs in six straight games, although these HRs took place in the post season. Murph's HRs came in the NLDS over the Dodgers & NLCS over the Cubs, setting a post season record.

In his first 16 games with the Mets, Richard Hidalgo 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.