It had been 124 straight games in which the New York Yankees won after taking a lead into the eighth inning. But that wasn’t going to stop the Mets, nor were six home runs. Even if it took facing Mariano Rivera at the end.
Matt Franco defied the odds and defeated the defending champions with a single to right field that brought in Rickey Henderson and Edgardo Alfonso to put an exclamation point on the best Mets win in Subway Series history.
The last time the two New York teams faced off in June, the Mets were in the midst of their worst stretch. They had lost eight in a row, but soon rattled off 21 wins in 29 games. The hot streak continued in the opener at Shea on July 9, highlighted by a key Mike Piazza homer off Roger Clemens
The Yankees used power to their advantage a day later. The Mets fell behind on a first-inning two-run homer by Paul O’Neill, but came back. Leads were hard to hold on to throughout the afternoon.
Poor Yankee defense allowed the Mets to pull ahead in the fourth, but it was tied by the top of the fifth on back-to-back long balls. Two more Bronx bombs swung the momentum, but only for a bit.
Piazza still had some pop in his bat. Alright, a lot of it. He completely destroyed a Ramiro Mendoza pitch in the seventh, launching it over the picnic tent beyond the visiting bullpen, and added a casual bat flip in the process. The three-run home run was estimated to have traveled 482 feet. Howie Rose often jokes that this was the first home run to take place on the grounds of Citi Field.
Not long after after Piazza’s ball landed, the Mets’ one-run lead became a one-run deficit thanks to Jorge Posada‘s blast and the Yanks’ sixth (and thankfully) final round-tripper.
It appeared that would be enough, especially when Mariano Rivera came trotting out of the bullpen to pitch the bottom of the ninth. More often than not, Yankee victories followed. Rivera got Brian McRae out on a harmless grounder. But after a one-out walk to Rickey Henderson and Bernie Williams misjudged an Edgardo Alfonzo fly ball, the invincible force of the late-inning Yankees showed vulnerability. John Olerud grounded out to first base, failing to advance the runners.
One hit could win it, and one out would lose it. Joe Torre wasn’t going to give Mike Piazza the chance to do either. The Yankees walked him to set up a force at any base. Franco came up to bat for Melvin Mora, fell into an 0-2 hole. He then took a pitch that would be in the strike zone of most umpires. Luckily for Franco, the Mets, and Mets fans, Jeff Kellogg’s zone was small enough.
Franco swung at the next pitch—a single in the hole between first and second. Henderson scored easily and O’Neill’s throw came in too late to get the sliding Alfonzo, giving the Mets a sensational 9-8 walk-off win.
This marked the first time the Mets had taken a series from that team from the Bronx. They marked the occasion by celebrating beyond any ordinary regular season victory.
