The New York Mets’ 2016 season was full of highlights despite ending short of its goal in the wild card round. Let’s take a look at a few of the memorable moments from the playoff season.
Bartolo Colon provided the biggest highlight of the season on May 7 when he slugged his first career home run. He did so in Petco Park against the San Diego Padres with James Shields on the mound and Kevin Plawecki on second base. Shields by the way, entered that game with a 3.23 ERA, but would pitch to a 6.56 ERA while allowing 36 home runs in 142 innings the rest of the season.
Here is the video of the home run which is a gem in itself with a great call from Gary Cohen and possibly an even better call from Spanish radio.
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Bart decided he was going to enjoy the home run too, according to Tater Trot Tracker, it took Colon 30.58 seconds to round the bases, the 12th-slowest home run trot since 2010.
At 42 years old, Colon surpassed Randy Johnson as the oldest player in Major League Baseball history to hit his first career home run. He also became the second oldest Met to ever homer, behind Julio Franco who did so at age 48.
Padres manager Andy Green summed up how most felt about the homer perfectly, “I really don’t know what to say, some things leave you speechless.”
One of the highlights that comes when talking about the 2016 season is the walk-off home run Asdrubal Cabrera delivered on September 22 against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets began the bottom of the 11th inning trailing 8-6 before Michael Conforto and Jose Reyes got on base in front of Cabrera who launched one to right field off Edubray Ramos.
The home run itself wasn’t what everyone was talking about for weeks to come though, it was the legendary bat flip by Cabrera that will be remembered is still talked about today.
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Of course, Cabrera wouldn’t have had the opportunity to play hero if not for Reyes hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the 9th inning that forced the game into extra innings.
T.J. Rivera would hit his first big league home run in the 10th inning off Mark Melancon in what turned out to be game-winner over the Washington Nationals on September 13. It was the only home run that Melancon gave up in a Nats uniform (29.2 innings) and just the second he ever allowed in his career (447 innings) when the score was tied.
Switching to defense where Michael Conforto made one of the best catches of the year for the Mets and it came on the first batter of the game in his first career start in center field.
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I’d say that was a good start for Conforto, who actually graded out positively, albeit in a very small sample size defensively in center.
We can’t talked about defensive highlights without mentioning Bartolo who made this great over-the-shoulder catch look easy.
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It was a great season for Bartolo defensively as he led all major league pitchers with his 8 defensive runs saved. Somehow he didn’t end up being a finalist for the National League Gold Glove Award that Zack Greinke ended up winning.
The Mets defensive play of the year was without a doubt the great catch that Curtis Granderson made in the Wild Card game to keep the score tied at 0-0 in the top of the 6th inning.
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What were some of your favorite Mets plays in 2016? Share your memories below in the comment threads.
