Remembering Mets History (1985) Mets Beat Braves & Keith Hernandez Hits For the Cycle In a Six Hour Ten Minute- 19 Inning Classic In Atlanta

Thursday July 4th 1985 : At this point in time, Davey Johnson's New York Mets were tied for third place with the Chicago Cubs with a 41-35 record. They were 4.5 games behind the first St. Louis Cardinals & three games behind the second place Montreal Expos. 

The Mets were in Atlanta on this Independence Day, facing Eddie Haas' fifth place Braves (34-42). The Braves were eleven games behind the first place (reigning N.L. Champion) San Diego Padres.

The game began at 7:30 PM in front of 44,947 fans with Dwight Gooden going to the mound against the Braves; Rick Mahler. Neither starter would be around for too long. Along the way, there would also be two rain delays, which added to the time of the long evening's events that were about to unfold.

In the 1st inning, the Mets Wally Backman singled but was picked off first. Keith Hernandez then doubled & scored on a Gary Carter RBI single. 

In the bottom frame, the Braves answered as Claudell Washington tripled & scored on Rafael Ramirez's ground out to short. 

In the 3rd inning, twenty year old Dwight Gooden was removed after a rain delay, getting relieved by Roger McDowell. Roger surrendered a base hit then a two run double to Ken Oberkfell. 

In the top of the 4th, the Mets answered back as Rafael Santana & Len Dykstra both singled knocking out Rick Mahler.  The Mets then got three straight RBI hits from Wally Backman (single) Keith Hernandez (triple) & Gary Carter (single) making it a 5-3 New York lead.

In the bottom of the 5th, Rick Cerone drove in a run with an RBI single off Terry Leach getting Atlanta to within a run. 

In the top of the 6th, Wally Backman & Gary Carter both collected their second hits of the game, then  Darryl Strawberry singled bringing in Backman with the Mets sixth run.

In the top of the 8th inning, Keith Hernandez added a solo HR off Steve Shields, to make it a 7-4 Mets lead. It was Keith's fifth HR of the season & his 34th RBI, among the NL leaders.

In the bottom of the 8th, Jesse Orosco who was hurting with a sore shoulder, came on to pitch for New York. Ken Oberkfell led off with a single. Orosco certainly affected by the aching shoulder, threw a wild pitch, walked the bases loaded then brought in a run with his third walk of the inning.

Doug Sisk came on & immediately gave up a bases clearing double to Braves All Star slugger, Dale Murphy putting the Braves ahead 8-7. 

But the the mid-1980's Mets wouldn't go down quietly in those days. In the top of the 9th, with Bruce Sutter on the mound,  pinch hitter Howard Johnson & Danny Heep both reached with base hits. Lenny Dykstra then tied the game back up with an RBI single scoring Johnson.

Hitting for the Cycle: In the top of the 12th, Keith Hernandez singled giving him his fourth hit of the game & having him hit for the cycle. At the time he was just the fourth player in franchise history to have hit for the cycle.  The last Met to do it was Mike Phillips (1976) almost a decade earlier.

The game remained at 8-8 until the 13th inning as Doug Sisk gave the Mets four scoreless inning. Terry Foster came on keeping the Mets scoreless from the 10th thru the 12th innings.

In the top of the 13th, Darryl Strawberry struck out & pinch hitter Kelvin Chapman popped up. But then Ray Knight reached with a base hit & Howard Johnson hit a two run HR off pitcher Terry Foster breaking the tie giving New York a 10-8 lead in the wild game.

In the bottom of the 13th inning, the sixth Mets pitcher of the night Tom Gorman came on with Rafael Ramirez leading off with a base hit. After striking out Dale Murphy & Gerald Perry, Gorman surrendered a two run HR to Terry Harper . The zany game was now tied up again at 10-10.

The game remained tied for five more innings. In the top of the 14th, the Mets got two walks from veteran Gene Garber but Darryl Strawberry struck out to end the inning. 

In the top of the 16th, with two outs, Ken Oberkfell collected his third hit of the game then Bruce Benedict walked putting the winning run on second base. But Tom Gorman got pinch hitter Paul Runge to fly out to left to end the inning.

Gene Garber gave the Braves three scoreless innings, giving way to Rick Camp.

In the top of the 17th inning, Gary Carter led off with a base hit, his fourth hit of the game.

Next Darryl Strawberry was called out on strikes, then was ejected from the game, by home plate umpire Terry Tata for arguing the pitch call. With Davey Johnson running out of players, Tom Gorman the pitcher came to bat & struck out. Ray Knight grounded out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 17th, Tom Gorman gave up a single but pitched his fifth scoreless inning.

In the top of the 18th inning, Howard Johnson collected his third hit with a base hit. Next Danny Heep reached on an error by Dale Murphy in center which allowed Hojo to advanced to third. 

Len Dykstra followed with a sac fly scoring Hojo giving New York a 11-10 lead. 

In the bottom of the 18th inning,Tom Gorman got the first two outs then Braves pitcher Rick Camp shocked everyone with a HR to tie it up once again. It was an incredible moment, as this was the first HR of Camp's career in one of the wildest games ever.  

Mets third baseman Ray Knight threw his arms in the air in disbelief & second baseman Wally Backman screamed in shock as Camp rounded the bases. 

Chief Noc-a-homa: Even the Braves mascot "Chief Noc-a-homa" came onto the field of play to congratulate Camp when he reached home. The game is still remembered as "the Rick Camp" game.

Tom Gorman

Quotes- Rick Camp: " That's pure luck, if we have to rely on me to hit a HR to win a game, we're in bad shape".

Quotes- Tom Gorman: "There's not one thing you can say about the moment. It's not like pitchers don't hit HRs, they do, but in that situation with two strikes & no balls, you give the guy a pitch he can hit out, it's embarrassing".

Tom Gorman would pitch six innings in the long game, getting the Mets thru the 18th inning, allowing three runs on five hits striking out two & walking two. 

In the 19th inning with the hitting hero, Rick Camp still on the mound, the Mets struck again. Gary Carter led off with a base hit, the Kid's fifth hit of the night. John Christensen bunted him over to second. Next veteran pinch hitter, Rusty Staub was walked intentionally, putting two slow runners on base. 

Ray Knight doubled with his third hit of the game bringing in Gary Carter with the tie breaking run. Rusty Staub was able to get to third base. Next Hojo received an intentional walk, putting two on for Danny Heep. Heep delivered with his second hit of the game, a two run single, scoring Staub & Knight giving the Mets a 15-11 lead. Wally Backman added a base hit, scoring Heep making it 16-11 Mets. 

In the inning the Mets put up five runs, with four hits & two intentional walks sending nine men to the plate.

In the bottom of the 19th, with no one else to turn to, Mets manager Davey Johnson brought in  Ron Darling to pitch. 

In a game that seemed like it would never end, Claudell Washington reached on an error by Ray Knight at third base. Then  Darling issued a pair of two out walks to load the bases. 

Terry Harper singled, driving in two more runs making it 16-13, with the tying run coming to bat. 

Ron Darling reared back & struck out non other than Rick Camp to end the game.

The Mets won it 16-13, with game going six hours & ten minutes along with two rain delays. The winning pitcher was Tom Gorman who went to 4-3 on the year & the loser was Rick Camp (2-4). 

Trivia: In the marathon game the Mets used seven pitchers, Dwight Gooden, Roger McDowell, Terry Leach, Jesse Orosco, Doug Sisk, Tom Gorman & Ron Darling. They went thru fourteen position players, banging out a season high & Mets record 28 hits.

 

"The Kid" Behind the Plate: Gary Carter caught all 19 innings of the game & back up catcher Ron Reynolds was the Mets only position player not to get into the game.

Quotes- Keith Hernandez: "I saw things I had never seen before".

The fireworks display went on at 400 AM for the few that were left to watch the lit up morning skies. Atlanta residents who didn't know about the baseball game going on so long, awoke in fear that the South was under attack.