Remembering Mets History (2000) Mets Clinch Wild Card Berth & Second Straight Post Season
Tonight, the Mets hosted their biggest rival of that era, Bobby Cox's first place Atlanta Braves (94-64).
Bobby Cox sent Kevin Millwood (10-12) to the hill to face the Mets Rick Reed (10-5) in front of 48,858 wild & crazy Mets fans.
give up a hit in each of the next three innings but kept the Braves from scoring. From the 5th inning thru the 8th inning he did not allow a hit, the only base runner reached on a Mets error.
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Timo Perez led off with a single. Timo had been a September call-up & was batting .275 seeing steady action in the Mets outfield.
Then Kevin Millwood got wild, helping out the Mets by walking three batters. His walk to Todd Zeile brought in the Mets first run tying up the game.
In the bottom of the 5th, after Kevin Millwood retired the first two batters, Timo Perez tripled to right field. One of Bobby Valentines favorite weapons, Darryl Hamilton pinch hit for Derek Bell & singled to right bringing in Perez with the go ahead run.
Fonzie Trivia: From September 9th thru September 27th, Alfonzo hit 7 HRs with 12 RBIs collecting 21 hits & scoring 17 runs during the important 14 game stretch.
In the bottom of the 6th, Robin Ventura led off with a base hit & advanced to second on Rick Reed's force play. Jay Payton then singled to center field scoring Ventura for a 5-1 lead.
Braves manager removed Millwood, as Scott Kamieniecki came into pitch.In the home 7th, Darryl Hamilton led off with a walk. Edgardo Alfonzo singled, but Mike Piazza grounded into a double play. Then with two outs, Robin Ventura doubled bringing in his 82nd run of the year giving the Mets a 6-1 lead.
On the night, Rick Reed pitched eight innings, allowing one run on four hits, with a walk, while striking out seven Braves. Reed was one of the steadiest Mets pitchers of that era winning his 11th game (11-5) with a 4.10 ERA.
In the top of the 9th, Armando Benitez came on to close out the game, as usual he never did it easily. Benitez gave up a leadoff HR to Andres Galarraga. He then struck out Bobby Bonilla, who heard a chorus of boo's from the Shea Faithful.
Benitez then gave up a single to Wally Joyner but then managed to strike out the next two batters ending the game as Keith Lockhart went down swinging.
The Mets had guaranteed them at least a tie for the wild card spot, just like the previous year when they tied with the Reds & won a tie breaker in Cincinnati. The team celebrated & the fans cheered on their club.
But in Los Angeles the Giants shut out the Dodgers 4-0 eliminating them from the post season as they fell five games behind the Mets with four left to play.
back seasons. It was also the ninth time in franchise history that the team had won ninety or more games.
Quotes- Mike Piazza: "It's just good to get it over with".
Quotes- Al Leiter: "In some respects it's a bit frustrating because coming out of Spring Training we anticipated this."
2000: The Mets would win their last five games finishing the year at 94-68. In the post season, they beat the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS & the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS winning their fourth NL pennant. They went on to play in the first subway World Series since 1956.
