It’s generally a bad idea to give good teams any extra chances to win. The Mets, who came into the middle of August as arguably the hottest team in baseball, took full advantage of their opponents’ occasional generosity while repressing their own self-inflicted mistakes. The end result was five wins in eight games that week, giving them 21 victories over their previous 27 games. A...
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The surging Mets took a brief respite from their breakneck pace — falling to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0, on July 31. It was a hiccup during what was the team’s best stretch of baseball. After the Reds loss, New York went on to take 10 of their next 12 and narrow the gap between them and the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves to only 1.5 games. The key in this run of success was their...
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The end of July usually brings with it trade deliberations – contender or not. For the Mets, six games back of Atlanta in the National League East and tied with the San Francisco Giants for the lead in the Wild Card race, GM Steve Phillips sought to fill their weaknesses as the team began a nine-game homestand against the Montreal Expos. Phillips looked specifically to address their...
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A Mets-Yankees game carries with it certain importance, especially within the New York City area. But Saturday, July 8 brought added historical significance. June 11’s rainout created a unique day-night doubleheader: an afternoon game at Shea Stadium followed by an event game in the Bronx – the first time in 97 years the same teams played on the same day in two different ballparks....
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With the start of summer came more meltdowns. Entering their series with the Phillies and a homestand of almost two weeks, the Mets had found themselves leading in each of their last 15 straight contests — yet found a way to lose six of them. That streak would continue long into this temporary Shea residency, but the initial two games versus Philadelphia exposed New York’s latest...
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