Remembering Mets History (1999) Mike Piazza Drives in Runs in Ten Straight Games with HRs in Seven of Eight Games

Friday August 13th, 1999: Bobby Valentines first place, New York Mets (70-47) had just swept a series with the San Diego Padres at Shea Stadium. In the series, Mike Piazza had three hits & drove in three runs. This started a streak where he would drive in at least one run in ten straight games. 

The Mets were hot, winning ten of their last fourteen, as they came to San Francisco to open their West Coast Road trip.

 Friday August 12th, 1999: A crowd of 25,533 came out to see Dusty Baker's Giants (59-56) host the Mets at 3com Park. 

The Giants won the opener 3-2, as Russ Ortiz beat Masato Yoshi. 

In the top of the 4th inning, Mike Piazza hit his 24th HR of the season. It began another hot hitting a stretch where Piazza would homer in four consecutive games. In this game, he collected three hits, for his second straight multi-three hit game as his average went up at .314.

Saturday August 14th, 1999: This Saturday matinee brought a huge crowd of 57,583 out to see the Mets, Giants matchup. On the mound for New York was veteran Orel Hershiser (11-9) as he took on the Giants, Kirk Rueter (10-6). The forty-year-old veteran Hershiser had a fine year for the 1999 Mets going 13-12 & pitching 5.1 scoreless innings in the post season.

Four Hit Game: Mike Piazza would have a multi-four-hit game, giving him ten hits in his last three games. In the top of the 4th inning, he hit his 25th HR of the season, a two-run shot with John Olerud on base. 

The Mets put up five runs in the inning. As Robin Ventura & Benny Agbayani both doubled. Rey Ordonez & Rickey Henderson followed with RBI singles giving the Mets a 5-1 lead. In the 5th, Benny Agbayani would hit his second RBI double as the Mets went on to a 6-1 win.

Sunday August 15th, 1999: Another big crowd of 41,853 came out for this Sunday afternoon matinee. Two veterans took the hill today as the Mets Kenny Rogers took on the Giants Livan Hernandez.

Kenny Rogers came over from Oakland at the trade deadline & went 5-1 for the 1999 Mets.  But in the post season, he was 0-3 taking two losses to the Braves in the NLCS. In Game #6 he walked in the games winning run to end the series.

On this afternoon the Mets would bash Livan Hernandez for seven runs on nine hits. Then they beat up the Giants bullpen of Alan Embree & Jerry Spradlin for another five runs. In total the Mets scored 12 runs & knocked out 16 hits in the 12-5 win of the rubber game in the series.

Mike Piazza collected two more hits. In the top of the 7th inning facing Alan Embree, Piazza blasted his 26th HR of the year, which was his third HR in as many games. 

Piazza had now raised his Batting average to .322. He collected 86 RBIs on the year & had driven in runs in four straight games. 

In the 5th inning, Robin Ventura hit a grand slam HR, for his 26th HR of the year & his 97th RBIs. Mike Piazza had missed some time with an injury earlier in the season & would play twenty less games than Ventura.

Monday August 16th, 1999: The Mets journeyed south down the Pacific Coast to San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. They opened up a series with Bruce Bochy's third place Padres (54-65) who were the reigning NL champions.

Mets manager Bobby Valentine sent rookie Octavio Dotel (4-1) to the mound to face Sterling Hitchcock (11-9).

In the top of the 2nd, Piazza continued his HR streak, hitting a HR in his fourth consecutive game.  It was his 27th HR of the season, a solo shot tying Robin Ventura for the team lead. 

In the top of the 7th, Rickey Henderson made it 2-0 with a solo HR of his own. 

Octavio Dotel held the Padres hitless thru six innings. Flirting with a no-hitter, in the bottom of the 7th he walked the first two Padre batters, then gave up a three run HR to Phil Nevin.

In the 7th, Edgardo Alfonzo & John Olerud both singled. Mike Piazza came up, but grounded into a double play, but Alfonzo scored on the play, tying up the game. 

The game went to extra innings. In the top of the 10th, Edgardo Alfonzo was the games hero, hitting his 18th HR of the year, a solo shot coming off Will Cunnane. 

Turk Wendell threw a scoreless 8th. Dennis Cook earned the win with a scoreless 9th & Armando Benitez got his 14th save to close it out.

Mike Piazza had a great four game stretch that week, collecting ten hits, four HRs, seven RBIs & scored five runs. He was now batting .321 with 27 HRs & 88 RBIs.

Tuesday August 17th, 1999: The Mets took a 3-2 loss & Piazza did not homer, but he did drive in a run with a sac fly, making it five games with at least one RBI.

Wednesday August 18th, 1999: The Mets would take a 9-1 victory, leaving San Diego taking two of three. The team's HR leaders Mike Piazza & Robin Ventura both hit HRs in the game as they both reached 28 on the season. Both players had multi-three RBI games, with Ventura reaching the 100 mark. 

Piazza started a new HR streak where he would hit one in three straight games, his RBI streak was intact at six. Masato Yoshi pitched a complete game victory to get to 8-8.

Saturday August 21st, 1999: Tony LaRussa's third place St. Louis Cardinals (62-60) came to Shea, with Slugger Mark McGwire who was the face of MLB as he had hit 70 HRs last season, setting the single season HR mark. In 1999, McGwire would hit 56 HRs & lead the NL with 147 RBIs.

In the bottom of the 1st, the Mets slugger, Mike Piazza hit a three-run off Kent Merker, extending his RBI streak to seven games. 

Piazza Trivia: The three run HR was his 29th on the season & gave him 94 RBIs. He also homered in back-to-back games for the 11th time & hit HRs in six out of the last seven games.

Shawon Dunston drove in two runs, Rickey Henderson & Benny Agbayani an RBI each in the 7-4 Mets win. The winning pitcher was Pat Mahomes, who pitched 3.1 scoreless innings in relief to get to 7-0 on the year.

Sunday August 22nd, 1999: To make up for Friday's rain out, a double header was scheduled on Sunday. 

In the game Mark McGwire would hit two HRs for his 50th & 51st HRs of the season. 

The Cards took a 6-1 lead into the 8th inning. In the bottom of the 8th, Rey Ordonez doubled, Rickey Henderson & Edgardo Alfonzo both walked. Jon Olerud then hit a grand slam HR off Rich Croushore making it a 6-5 game. Mike Pizza followed going back-to-back with a solo shot, his 30th HR of the season tying up the game at six. He reached 95 RBIs as well.

Personally, for Piazza he had now homered in three straight games, with HRS in seven out of his last eight games. 

In the bottom of the 9th, the Mets were down 7-6 as Armando Benitez blew another save. Rey Ordonez drew a one out walk, then scored on Rickey Henderson's RBI double to tie the game. Edgardo Alfonso then singled to left field off Ricky Bottalico to bring in Henderson with the walk off win.

In the Mets 7-5 loss in the night cap, Piazza was 1-2. In the top of the 9th, with two men on Piazza collected a two-run single off Manny Abar. 

Mets Consecutive Game RBI Record: The RBIs set a new franchise record of ten straight games with at least one RBI. Piazza would break his own record the next season, in 2000 as he would drive in runs in 15 straight games. In 2022 Francisco Lindor would tie the ten games streak.

Piazza Trivia: From August 11th to August 22nd, Piazza hit .528 with a 1.700 OPS. He collected 19 hits with seven HRs & 20 RBIs.