The 1986 Mets dominated the National League. They won 108 games during the regular season, and seemed destined to steamroll any opponent that stood between them and a championship. The Houston Astros had other ideas.

The Mets and Astros clashed in the 1986 NLCS, after Houston won the National League’s western division with a 96-66 record. The Astros, behind the pitching of Mike Scott, gave Mets all they could handle during the six-game series, culminating in an epic sixth game that frayed the nerves of Mets fans everywhere.

Game One in the Astrodome had gone to the Astros by the score of 1-0, when Mike Scott threw a complete game, five-hit, fourteen strikeout shutout to out duel Dwight Gooden. The Mets bounced back to win Game Two by a 5-1 score, behind the pitching of Bob Ojeda. Ojeda went the distance, allowing 10 hits and striking out five.

Back at Shea Stadium for game three, the Astros roughed up Ron Darling for four runs in the first two innings. The Mets were stymied by Bob Knepper through five innings, but rallied to tie the game in the sixth inning, highlighted by a Darryl Strawberry three-run home run. After the Astros took a 5-4 lead in the seventh, the Mets were down to their last two outs when Lenny Dykstra stepped to the plate in the ninth with Wally Backman on second base.

Dykstra swatted a two-run home run to right field, and the Mets had a walk-off win, with a two-games-to-one series advantage. The good feelings were thwarted the next night, when Mike Scott again beat the Mets. This time it was 3-1, with Scott once again pitching a complete game, allowing only three hits. The series was tied a two games apiece, and the Mets were destined to have to try to win the pennant in Houston.

Game Five was a nail-biter, when Gooden took on Nolan Ryan. The game was tied 1-1 (the Mets’ run came on a Strawberry home run) going into the 12th inning. Gary Carter singled in Wally Backman to end the game, and send the Mets to Houston up three games to two in the series, needing one win in two games to claim the franchise’s third pennant. The problem? Mike Scott was set to pitch game seven.

The Mets knew they had to win game six to avoid seeing Scott in an elimination game. Game Six could not have started worse for New York, as the Astros scored three runs off Ojeda in the bottom of the first inning. Going into the top of the ninth, the Mets were being shutout and had just two singles off Bob Knepper. Len Dykstra started a rally with a pinch-hit triple. A single by Mookie Wilson, double by Keith Hernandez, and sacrifice fly by Ray Knight tied the game.

To extra innings the game went. The tension was palpable, and become more intense with each passing inning. The Mets broke through in the 14th inning, on a Dykstra single that scored Strawberry. Needing three outs to go to the World Series, Jesse Orosco took the mound for the bottom of the inning. He struck out Bill Doran, then faced Billy Hatcher.

The game was tied. A World Series vision that was becoming clear had been instantly extinguished. Now, the Mets had to remain composed and try to find a way to win the game. They got out of the 14th, and seemingly put the game away in the 16th when Knight and Dykstra drove in runs, and another scored on a wild pitch. The Mets led 7-4. This time it had to hold, right?

It wasn’t that easy. The Astros refused to go quietly. After recording the first out, a tiring Orosco allowed the Astros to rally. RBI singles by Hatcher and Glenn Davis had the winning run on base when Kevin Bass stepped to the plate with two outs. Orosco snapped off a wicked 3-2 curve ball to strike Bass out swinging, and the celebration was on.

The Mets were headed to the World Series. What seemed like destiny became an arduous battle, one that drained the team so much that several players admitted to having a a hangover effect when they played Games One and Two of the World Series at Shea.

Mets fans who witnessed Game Six of the 1986 NLCS will never forget it. With a great season hanging in the balance, the Mets showed why they were the class of baseball, coming from behind and then hanging on to punch their ticket to a championship.

I’ll never forget the tension that mounted inning by inning. For a few hours, it seemed like the inevitable was not going to happen. When the game was over, the players were not the only ones feeling a hangover effect over the next few days.

Little did we know that another Mets’ thriller was set to play out in ten days.