Within the last quarter century of New York Mets baseball, the 2006 season stands out for a number of reasons.
Sure, this team ultimately fell short of the high expectations, but from start to finish, manager Willie Randolph‘s squad was incredibly fun to watch. They were never out of any game and were confident they could win pretty much every night.
They spent all of one day not in first place or tied for first place in the National League East, were never under .500 at any point in the year, and their longest losing streak was just four games (done twice). Plus, there were super likable guys on the roster at the time, like David Wright, Jose Reyes, Pedro Martinez, Cliff Floyd, and Carlos Delgado, to name a few.
The Hot Start and Cooling Off
By the end of April, just about everyone in baseball knew the Mets were ready to compete. They finished the month with a 16-8 record and were owners of an impressive six-game lead in the division. Of course, this hot start couldn’t have been possible without posting a 10-2 record within the first 12 games, hopping out to a five-game lead.
It’s impossible for any team to stay ridiculously hot for an entire season, and the Mets cooled off from there. Following those first 12 games, they posted a 24-18 record through the end of May. Randolph’s squad still hadn’t relinquished first place for a second and owned a 4.5-game lead heading into June but were letting the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies hang around. There was a six-day stretch in the middle of May where the Mets were clinging on to a divisional lead of no more than two games.
Once the calendar flipped to June, though, New York finally made a statement before coasting to their first NL East title since 1988.
The Road Trip That Changed Everything
After losing two of three to the San Francisco Giants at Shea, New York boarded a plane for a season-defining 10-game road trip: three games in Los Angeles, four in Arizona, and three in Philadelphia.
While this trip ended up featuring just one opponent who eventually reached the playoffs (the Dodgers), all three were in contention when the Mets began this 10-game trek. The Phillies were chasing New York in the NL East, while the Diamondbacks and Dodgers were first and second in the NL West, respectively.
The first stop was in Hollywood, as New York won the series opener and finale to take two of three before heading to Arizona. That ended up being a dominant four-game sweep, as the Mets outscored the DBacks by a total of 37-9. Upon arriving in the City of Brotherly Love, it was more of the same against the Phillies. The scores weren’t nearly as lopsided, but New York still won all three games at Citizens Bank Park en route to a dominant 9-1 road trip.
This accounted for the longest winning streak of the year for the Amazins, and it came at the perfect time — exactly when they needed to create a little distance in the standings. They went into the road trip with a 4.5-game lead in the NL East and returned home to Shea with a commanding 9.5-game lead.
From there, it was smooth sailing for Randolph and the Mets. New York’s NL East lead “shrunk” to 8.5 games a few days after the road trip. However, it surpassed the 10-game mark following a 6-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on June 22nd and never fell below that for the remainder of the regular season.
Standout Performers During the Streak
As one can imagine, the Mets’ offense went off during this season-long winning streak. Here’s a quick look at the top four hitters when using wRC+ as the metric. Not surprisingly, it’s all the usual suspects: Reyes, Wright, Delgado, and Carlos Beltran:
Beltran sticks out for the obvious reason that he’s either tied or all alone at the top of this list in each category listed. He sticks out even more because the wRC+ and fWAR he produced over this 10-day span actually led the league. I recently talked about how good Beltran was between 2006 and 2008, and it’s crazy to think that in his best overall season as a Met, he produced nearly 17.0% of his season-long fWAR in just 10 days of work.
On the pitcher’s mound, there were plenty of Mets hurlers who performed well out of the bullpen. In a small sample size, guys like Billy Wagner, Pedro Feliciano, Chad Bradford, and Heath Bell all did their thing. It was more interesting to look at the starting pitchers, though.
Five different hurlers started at least two games, and only a couple actually performed well. Steve Trachsel, Tom Glavine, and Martinez all failed to produce an ERA below 5.50, while Orlando Hernandez put together a 2.25 mark in 12 innings. However, the guy who led them all was Alay Soler, who went 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a team-leading 0.3 fWAR through 16 innings of work.
The Cuban pitched just one year in the Mets organization at various levels. His only big-league experience spanned 45 innings, leading to a 2-3 record and 6.00 ERA. After limiting the Dodgers to one run over seven strong innings on June 5th, he came right back on June 10th to throw a two-hit complete-game shutout against the DBacks. Baseball.
New York’s 2006 campaign was a lot of fun to watch, from Opening Day all the way until Beltran got caught looking to end the NLCS. When looking at the year overall, though, it was this long road trip that truly changed the trajectory of the organization’s season.
