Brian Wright selects:

Edgardo Alfonzo Goes 6-for-6!

Twelve Mets in history have blasted three home runs in a game. Even fewer have collected six hits. Edgardo Alfonzo managed to do both on one night in Houston nearly 21 years ago.

Alfonzo spent his career in New York overlooked and under-appreciated by the national and local media, but he stood alone on August 30, 1999 — establishing or tying team records in four separate categories. He set single-game highs in runs scored (six) and total bases (16) in addition to being among the handful to enjoy a three-homer performance.

Of even greater rarity was that he accomplished the feat at the Astrodome — where no visiting player in the stadium’s 35-year history ever produced that kind of power exhibition. “Fonzie” also became the first Met with six hits in a game, and did so without wasting a turn at the plate.

Alfonzo’s smooth right-handed swing deposited Houston starter Shane Reynolds’ first-inning offering into the second row beyond the distant left-center-field fence. New York then sent nine to the plate in the second inning, in which Alfonzo singled to the opposite field to help prolong a six-run frame.

Reynolds’ evening ended early. Alfonzo’s attack on Astro pitching, though, didn’t quit. With one runner aboard, he sent another home run to left field against reliever Brian Williams — only to return two innings later to haunt Sean Bergman with the same outcome. Alfonzo, who had long since surpassed his career-high for round-trippers in a season, opened the sixth by connecting on his third – the first Met to hit a trio of round-trippers since Gary Carter in September 1985.

Alfonzo kept ’em in the park from then on, but wasn’t done setting records, though. He singled and scored in the eighth and then cemented his masterpiece with a ninth-inning run-scoring double that pushed New York’s lead to 15-1. When he came home later in the inning to score his sixth run, his 16 total bases joined him with only 17 other major leaguers who had reached that amount in a nine-inning game since the turn of the 20th century. Houston fans who stayed to witness this 17-1 shellacking stood and applauded Alfonzo’s accomplishments.

In the wake of a performance that would usually make even the modest a bit self-congratulatory, when asked in the locker room about his favorite part of the evening, the second baseman provided a self-effacing answer.

“The last out,” he said, “because we won the game.” A game in which the unassuming Alfonzo earned a distinguished place in Mets history.

Sal Manzo selects:

Carlos Delgado Drives In Nine!

Although Alfonzo’s six-hit performance certainly ranks as one of the best in Mets’ history, there is another single-game effort that deserves the top spot. That honor goes to former slugger Carlos Delgado, who on June 27, 2008 smacked a team-record nine RBI’s to help beat the Yankees 15-6 in the Bronx in the first game of a day/night, two-park double header.

There are a few layers as to what makes this the franchises’ best offensive performance in a single game.

First and foremost, it’s a record that was broken against the hated Yankees, IN Yankee Stadium. The ‘Subway Series’ is especially important to Mets fans, and no matter how well or poorly the team may be doing, beating the team from the Bronx always goes a long way, especially when it involves breaking team records against them.

Another layer to what makes this record more compelling was the player who accomplished this feat. Unlike Alfonzo who was assenting into his prime years, Delgado was on the downslide of his career, and sliding fast. Going into that day in 2008, Delgado was hitting .195 with runners in scoring position and was 4 for his last 36 overall.

Now a far cry from the player he once was in 2006, few expected him to even be in the lineup. But Delgado was penciled in fifth spot as the DH, and boy did it pay off.

Delgado would get three hits in five at bats and was again a force in the middle of the Mets’ lineup. He would start with a two-run double in the fifth inning to break a 4-4 tie off Yanks’ reliever Edwar Ramirez. Then with a 7-4 Mets’ lead in the top of the sixth, he would take a 3-1 offering from Ross Ohlendorf and launch it into the right-center field bleachers for a majestic grand slam.

And if that wasn’t enough, the aging slugger capped off his afternoon with a record setting three-run blast to right off (future Met) LaTroy Hawkins, breaking Dave Kingman‘s Mets’ single-game record of eight RBI’s.

When you consider the opponent, the player Delgado was at the time, and the fashion in which he broke the record (with a whole lot of power) it would be difficult not to consider his nine RBI day the best single-game offensive performance in Mets’ history.