“Losing,” Ray Knight said following his walk-off home run against Houston, “is a word we don’t think of.” It was rarely needed in 1986. And whenever these Mets were on the precipice of defeat, it was a mistake to count them out. 

Such was the case on July 3 at Shea Stadium, even when Phil Garner muscled a home run off Jesse Orosco to give the Astros a two-run tenth-inning lead and put New York’s six-game winning streak in jeopardy. 

Down 5-3. Bottom of the tenth. Sound familiar? Oh yeah, and the Mets rallied here too — defeating their future NLCS opponent just like they did to the Red Sox as well that October. 

Darryl Strawberry provided the critical hit. After a leadoff walk by Lenny Dykstra, New York’s uber-talented outfielder lifted a Frank DiPino pitch over the 410-foot mark in straightaway center. 

It wasn’t the least bit surprising to see Darryl go deep. He delivered 27 homers during the season and earlier hammered a Jim Deshaies offering to deep right field in the fifth to tie it at three. It wasn’t a shock to see him hit two in a game, a feat had accomplished 10 times since 1983. It was surprising at the time, however, that both came against a left-hander — considering he hadn’t hit one off a southpaw up to that night. 

Two outs later, the batter was Knight — trying to shake an 0-fer of his own. The veteran third baseman’s stat line was unsightly: four times up, four strikeouts. But Knight gladly traded in his symbolic “golden sombrero” for heroes’ laurels with just one swing. 

His first fair ball of the evening was a no-doubter when it left the bat. Knight gave it a somewhat dismissive wave as his ninth home run of the year headed into the empty bleachers, vacated because of the post-game fireworks to come.

”Things looked bleak,” Knight said to The New York Times. “Then Darryl hits a home run and I hit a home run. It felt good, especially after not making much contact over the course of the night.”

New York had notched its seventh straight — its 53rd win in 74 games. Meanwhile, the Astros got an early taste of the Mets’ postseason magic.