Remembering Mets History (1975) Mets Win First Game Under Roy McMillan After Yogi Berra's Firing

August 6th, 1975: This was the first game the Mets played without Yogi Berra who had been fired the previous night. After that evening's double header sweep, where Montreal shut out the Mets in both games, coach Roy McMillan was called to M. Donald Grant's office & was named the team's interim manager.

Tonight a small crowd of 9,001 came to Shea Stadium as the Mets hosted the Expos in the fourth game of a five game series. The Mets were on a five game losing streak, falling 9.5 games behind the first place Pirates.

The Mets George Stone (3-2) took the mound against Steve Renko. Stone was coming back from rotator cuff surgery, one of the first pitcher's to come back after having the surgery. 

Unfortunately his come back was short lived seeing action in 13 games that year before ending his career. Steve Renko had come up in the Mets organization & in 1969 was traded to Montreal along with Kevin Collins in exchange for Donn Clendenon.

In the top of the 2nd inning, with two outs Pete Mackanin homered to left field putting Montreal on top 1-0. 

In the top of the 3rd, Pepe Mangual added a solo HR to make it 2-0. After a one out walk to rookie Gary Carter, Jose Morales doubled bringing home Carter for a 3-0 Expo lead.

George Stone would exit after the 3rd inning, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits with the two HRs, a walk & a strike out. Hank Webb would come on pitching three scoreless getting the Mets to the 7th inning. 

In the bottom of the 4th, Rusty Staub singled to center field. Wayne Garrett followed with a two run HR to right field bringing the Mets to within a run. It was Garrett's fourth 
HR of the season.

In the bottom of the 6th, with one out Wayne Garrett reached on Pete Mackanin's error at second. Jerry Grote then hit into a force play for the second out. Expo pitcher Steve Renko then walked Mike Phillips & John Milner to load the bases.

Del Unser then hit a bases clearing double to left field putting the Mets ahead 5-4. Felix

 Millan went back-to-back with another double to left scoring Unser with the sixth run. 

Renko's game was done as Fred Scherman came on to pitch. Ed Kranepool followed with the Mets third straight RBI double to left field, scoring Millan making it 7-4 Mets.

Scherman then intentionally walked Dave Kingman & hit Rusty Staub with a pitch loading the bases once again. Scherman then walked Wayne Garrett & Jerry Grote bringing in two more runs giving the Mets a 9-4 lead.

In the inning the Mets sent 13 men to the plate scoring seven runs on just three hits with a little help from Montreal with five walks, a hit by pitch & an error.

Eddie Trivia: Kranepool collected three hits on the night & was batting .361 at the time. Over his last 18 games Kranepool was hitting .441 with 30 hits in 68 at bats & ten multi-hit games.

Bob Apodaca came on for the Mets, after pitching two scoreless innings he ran into some trouble in the 9th. The Expos started the inning with base hits from Larry Parrish & Pete Mackanin. Next a Mike Phillips error led to an Expo run, Apodaca then walked Pepe Mangual before finishing off the game with a 9-6 win in Roy McMillan.

The next afternoon after Yogi Berra returned to say goodbye to his players the Mets won their second straight game under McMillan, as Tom Seaver shut out the Expos 7-0 on a three hitter for his 15th win of the season. That year Seaver won his third Cy Young Award as well.

The Mets continued to be streaky as they were swept by the Dodgers then took two of three from the Padres & three of four from the Giants to close out the home stand. Under McMillan the rest of the way, the Mets went 26-27 finishing third.