Remembering Mets History (1986) Mets Win Another Five Straight

Monday August 25th: After dropping the last game of the three game series in San Francisco, it ended the Mets six game win streak. New York were forty games over .500 with a nineteen game game lead in the NL East. They moved on to San Diego to take on Steve Boros' last place Padres (59-67). Ron Darling (12-4) went up against Eric Show (9-5.)

 A crowd of 18,605, many of them cheering for New York as "Lets Go Mets" chants would be heard throughout the series.

In the bottom of the 1st, Tim Flannery singled & Tony Gwynn reached on an error, then Kevin McReynolds' RBI single made it 1-0. 

In the top of the 3rd, Eric Show had to leave the game with Dave LaPoint coming on to pitch for the Padres. In the top of the 5th, Ed Hearn walked with Ron Daring moving him over on a sac bunt. Kevin Mitchell, the home town boy, then delivered an RBI double to tie the game at one.

In the top of the 6th, Keith Hernandez led off with a walk. Two consecutive ground outs advanced Keith to third, then Howard Johnson's base hit brought home Keith for a 2-1 Mets lead.

Ron Darling held the lead until the bottom of the 7th, when Craig Nettles walked & Marvelle Wynne's RBI double tied the game. Jesse Orosco came on in relief.

In the top of the 8th, with Craig Lefferts pitching, Howard Johnson collected his second hit with a double down the left field line. With two outs Rafael Santana was intentionally walked to get to the pitchers spot. Pinch hitter, Ray Knight dropped a single to left field bringing home HoJo & Santana as New York went ahead for good 4-2. 

In the 9th Mookie Wilson added an RBI triple topping off the 5-2 win.

Tuesday August 26th: A crowd of 15,992 came to Jack Murphy Stadium as Sid Fernandez (14-4) went up against Dave Dravecky (9-10). 

In the top o the 1st, Tim Teufel hit his fourth HR of the year a solo shot for a 1-0 Mets lead. In the top of the 2nd, Ed Hearn led off with a single to center field. Next the light hitting short stop Rafael Santana hit his first HR of the season, a two run shot giving New York a 3-0 lead.

In the top of the 4th, Gene Walter was now pitching for the Friars, Mets pitcher Sid Fernandez led off with his third double of the year. Mookie Wilson followed with a single. Tim Teufel collected his second RBI on a fielders choice. 

Keith Hernandez then walked, loading the bases & two batters later Darryl Strawberry was hit by a pitch bringing in the Mets fifth run. Ray Knight then hit a two run single to left giving the Mets a 7-0 lead.

In the top of the 6th, Keith Hernandez & Kevin Mitchell started the inning with base hits off
Craig Lefferts. 

Ray Knight added an RBI single, his third hit of the game, then Ed Hearn added an RBI sac fly making it 9-1. In the 7th Mookie walked & Tim Teufel singled for his third hit of the night, Keith Hernandez collected his  second hit with an RBI double for a 10-1 Mets lead.

Multi Four-Hit Game: In the top of the 8th, Ray Knight singled having himself a multi-four hit game. In the 9th, Tim Teufel's RBI single gave him a multi- three RBI game & a multi-four hit game as well.

The Mets went on to an 11-6 win while collecting a season high 21 hits, two shy of the franchise record for a nine inning game set in 1964, twenty-two years earlier.

Sid Fernandez would allow six runs & 12 hits in the game including a three run HR from Bruce Bochy & a two run shot from Jerry Royster, but still went on to his team leading 15th victory of the season.

Wednesday August 27th: In the series finale, 19,747 fans attended as Dwight Gooden (13-4) went out to face Ed Whitson (6-8) Whitson had been traded to San Diego in July following a terrible stint in New York with the AL team where he was booed mercilessly, threatened by fans & had an altercation with troubled manager Billy Martin. Whitson's troubles continued in San Diego as he lost six of his first seven decisions.

The Mets jumped on him in the 1st inning as walked two of the first three batters & gave up a base hit. Darryl Strawberry followed with a two run single then stole second. Ed Whitson then booted a Ray Knight grounder allowing Keith Hernandez to score the Mets third run.

In the top of the 3rd, after Keith reached on an error by short stop Gary Templeton, his former teammate in St. Louis, Straw hit his 19th HR of the year, a two run shot off Whitson giving New York a 5-0 lead. Over his last eight games Darryl was batting .364 with 12 hits three HRs & 11 RBIs.

Gooden kept the Padres scoreless thru the first five innings. In the 6th, Steve Garvey collected an RBI double. Doc left the game after seven innings up 5-1 with seven strike outs.

In the bottom of the 8th, Roger McDowell ran into trouble as Tony Gwynn & John Kruk led off with base hits. McDowell then walked Kevin McReynolds to load the bases. Steve Garvey then hit a grounder to second, where Wally Backman's error led to two Padres run scoring on the play. Mets manager Davey Johnson went to Jesse Orosco who gave up RBI singes to Carmelo Martinez & Gary Templeton tying up the game at five.

The game went to extra innings, with the Mets Doug Sisk & the Padres Rich Gossage now the pitchers of record. In the top of the 11th with one out, Lenny Dykstra & Wally Backman both singled. Keith Hernandez sac fly scored Dykstra putting New York ahead 6-5.

In the bottom half of the 11th, Gary Templeton led off with a double. Craig Lefferts a pitcher, came on to pinch hit for Gossage & struck out. 

Tim Flannery then singled into center field, Len Dykstra fielded the ball & threw home to John Gibbons who collided with Gary Templeton trying to score, but Gibbons held on showed the umpire the ball then threw to third base where Howard Johnson tagged out Flannery to end the game with a most unusual game ending double play.

The Mets swept the Padres & would sweep them again on the following homestand going 10-2
against them for the season. New York went 8-1 on the West Coast road trip, their best ever. On the road so far that season they were 46-22.

Quotes- Ray Knight: "We're having too much fun to do anything differently."

Friday August 29th: It was back to Shea for weekend series hosting Tommy Lasorda's fourth place Dodgers. The Dodgers had lost ten of their last 16 games, dropping the last two in a series with the Phillies. They had just been swept in L.A. by the Mets a week earlier as well. 

A big crowd of 45,667 paid attended Shea Stadium as Bobby Ojeda (14-4) went up against Rick Honeycutt (9-8).

86 Mets Trivia: It was on this evening the Mets introduced the music video "Lets Go Mets Go" on the Diamond-Vision screen for the first time.

Bobby Ojeda continued his fine pitching, winning his third straight start, the ninth win of his last eleven decisions dating back to June 5th. 

Tonight Bobby O allowed just one run, after shutting out the Dodgers thru eight innings a base hit, an error & a ground out led to the only Dodger run in the 9th Bobby pitched his sixth complete game of the year, as he gave up a run on five hits while striking out seven.

In the 1st inning, Mookie Wilson led off with a double & Keith Hernandez drove him in with an RBI single, Keith's 66th RBI of the year. 

In the 7th, Mookie Wilson then drove in Rafael Santana with the Mets only other run in the 2-1 victory, the team's fourth straight.

Quotes- Ed Hearn: "We just wear people down with our talent. If it's not one thing it's another. If we don't pitch you to death we hit you. The talent's just there from all angels".

Saturday August 30th: A crowd of 44,040 came out to Shea for this afternoon game where Davey Johnson's Mets (86-42) sent Rick Aguilera (6-6) winless in his last three starts, to the mound against the Dodgers (60-68) Orel Hershiser (12-9).

The Dodgers scored first as Greg Brock delivered two RBI hits for a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd, with two outs Lenny Dykstra doubled. Wally Backman followed going back-to-back with a double to score Dykstra. Keith Hernandez followed with an RBI single tying up the game at two.

Keith Trivia: Since August 5th, over his last 25 games Hernandez was batting .398 with 38 hits, eleven doubles, three HRs 23 RBIs & 22 runs scored. Three of last four games were multi-hit games as well.

In the bottom of the 4th, the Mets sent nine men to the plate as Mookie Wilson led off with a double, then Hershiser walked HoJo & Ed Hearn reached safely on a bunt to the right side of Hershiser. 

With two outs, Rick Aguilera helped out his own cause with a two run single to left field. Aguilera would drive in six runs on the year & hit two HRs. Len Dykstra added a sac fly bringing in the Mets fifth run.

The Dodgers added a run on Greg Brock's RBI single. The Mets went on to a 5-3 win & their ninth straight win over the Dodgers.

Mets Trivia: The Mets had now won five straight, eleven of their last twelve & had 87 victories in 129 games played forty five games above .500. 

The magic number to clinching the division was down to 14 games. Davey Johnson began to think about the post season pitching rotation & reserve players. As the deadline for post season roster eligibility approached, Kevin Elster was brought up as a backup at short to Rafael Santana.