Remembering Mets History (2011) Carlos Beltran Hits Three HRs in a Win at Colorado

Thursday May 12th, 2011: Terry Collins Mets (16-20) were at Coors Field in Colorado taking on Jim Tracy's Rockies (19-15). This game was scheduled for the previous night but was rained out.

Terry Collins was in his first year as manager replacing Jerry Manuel. The Mets were in their third straight losing season in another bad stretch of franchise history. It was still another three years before they had a winning season & that year they would win an NL Pennant.

In the top of the 1st inning, Willie Harris drew a one out walk. Carlos Beltran followed with a HR to centerfield, putting New York up 2-0. It was the start of a big day for Carlos.

In the bottom of the 1st, the Rockies came back as Jonathan Herrera hit a solo HR off Jon Niese.

In the top of the 4th, Jason Bay singled & stole second for New York. After Daniel Murphy was walked, Bay stole third base as well. Bay would steal eleven bases that season. Pitcher Ubaldo Jiminez then walked Justin Turner to load the bases. Josh Tole then hit an RBI sac fly. Ubaldo Jiminez then walked the pitcher Jon Neise to load the bases again. Jose Reyes delivered a two-run single scoring Murph & Turner giving the Mets a 5-1 lead.

In the bottom of the 4th, Todd Helton led off with a solo HR making it 5-2. Niese would allow two HRs in four of his 27 starts & just 14 on the season in 157.1 innings.

In the bottom of the 7th inning, with Willie Harris on & two outs, Carlos Beltran hit his second HR of the day, another two run shot this one off Franklin Morales making it 7-2 Mets.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Rockies collected three straight one out singles, knocking Jon Niese out of the game. Mike O'Connor came in for New York & immediately gave up a two-run double to Seth Smith narrowing the lead to 7-5.

For Jon Niese he was charged with all five runs on seven hits, striking out three & walking two. O'Connor would retire the next batter then issue a walk to Carlos Gonzalez. With Troy Tulowitzki up & the tying runs on base, manager Terry Collins went to Taylor Buchholtz. That season "Tulo" hit 30 HRs & drove in 105 runs, here he hit a deep fly to left field but was retired.

On the top of the 9th inning, with Matt Lindstrom on the mound for Colorado, Willie Harris reached base for the third time with a two out single. Carlos Beltran then became the seventh Met in franchise history to hit three HRs in a game, with his third two run shot of the afternoon. It was his eighth HR of the season.

Mets Trivia: Before Beltran's HR Jose Reyes was the last Mets to HR three times in a game (2006). Jim Hickman (1965) Dave Kingman (1976) Claudell Washington (1980) Darryl Strawberry (1985) Gary Carter (1985) & Edgardo Alfonso (1999) were the others. 

Since then, six more players have done it: Ike Davis (2012) Kirk Nieuwenhuis (2015) Lucas Duda (215) Yoenis Cespedes (2015 & 2017) Robinson Can (2019) & Francisco Lindor (2021) have all done it as well.

Carlos Beltran Trivia: It was his 17th multi-HR game as a Mets player, the first time he hit three in a game. It was also his second multi-HR of the season. Beltran was in his final year with the Mets; he hit 15 HRs with 66 RBIs batting .289 with a .904 OPS in 98 games. On July 28th he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Zack Wheeler.