It was deja vu all over again…again.
The modified famous words of the former Mets manager and player Yogi Berra echoed during the team’s series with NL Central-leading St. Louis. The Cardinals walked off not once, not twice, but three times during a three-game set at Busch Stadium, which dispatched New York from its temporary stay in first place and back into a familiar setting behind the Braves.
The Mets followed that disheartening weekend in one Midwest city, with disappointing follow-up in another in Cincinnati. Yet while the Mets lost ground to Atlanta, they maintained a comfortable advantage on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the race for the Wild Card. The margin was 5.5 games entering August 28. And even after a 3-7 stretch, New York’s lead remained five.
Bobby Valentine‘s club hosted the hapless Houston Astros for the final games of August and won twice. Thanks to Atlanta dropping two of three during that same time, the Mets–who were behind by six games on July 25–were now dead even with the Braves at 79-54.
It was Glendon Rusch who helped New York join Atlanta at the top. In the opening game of the series, the lone starter who really struggled during the Mets’ summer surge, proved his worth. Rusch navigated through several stressful innings, but the only runs he surrendered came on solo blasts to Roger Cedeno to lead off the game and Richard Hidalgo in the third.
The offense, namely Edgardo Alfonzo, gave him a nice lead to work with. Fonzie lifted a first-inning homer with Benny Agbayani and Derek Bell aboard. New York added insurance thanks to a balk in the eighth and Turk Wendell completed a two-inning save.
The next night could simply be characterized as a pain in the butt. It was literally that for Al Leiter, who felt a strained muscle in his backside as he prepped for his Tuesday night start. Leiter tried to give it a go anyway and gutted out two scoreless innings before things came apart in the third. The Astros scored four runs — on their way to 11 for the evening. Leiter was done before the fourth inning, but was not expected to miss his turn in the rotation.
Houston’s outburst was tempered by Rick Reed in the rubber game. Reed took a no-hitter into the fifth and only allowed three singles and two walks. His counterpart, Chris Holt, was nearly as effective. Yet he had one slip-up. It came in the opening frame, when he uncorked a wild pitch with Mike Piazza batting. Benny Agbayani scored what turned out to be the only run. The Astros were set down in order by Wendell and Armando Benitez in the eighth and ninth innings.
The Mets had a day off to travel to St. Louis. But they still gained ground on the Braves. In fact, they overtook them. Atlanta fell to the Reds, meaning New York was alone atop the NL East for the first time all season. It wouldn’t last through the weekend.
Among the Mets’ September call-ups was Timo Perez, a speedy outfielder who was in Japan a year ago, replacing the injured Derek Bell. He delivered a two-out single in the ninth inning of a tie game in the opening contest at Busch Stadium. But with Alfonzo batting and Piazza on-deck, Perez made a rookie mistake. He tried to steal second, but Cards catcher Mike Matheny threw him out. Pat Mahomes prolonged his struggles by surrendering a walk-off homer to Jim Edmonds.
But a Braves loss that night kept the Mets in first — for now.
More frustration was in store some 16 hours later. Fernando Vina‘s two-out ninth-inning single off Armando Benitez drove in J. D. Drew for another game-winner. The Cards mobbed Drew and Vina in the immediate aftermath, but Darryl Kile deserved the most adulation. He retired the last 18 Mets he faced and wound up with a complete-game victory.
Mike Hampton had a shutout working in the sixth until Craig Paquette singled to bring home Placido Polanco with the Cards’ first run to tie it at one apiece. Hampton still had a chance to go nine, but a leadoff single by Drew and a sacrifice bunt put the deciding run on third with less than two outs. Benitez came in and got a strikeout before Vina delivered the clutch hit.
Photo by Keith Torrie/NY Daily News Archive
On Sunday, Edmonds offered the Mets a recurring nightmare: another walk-off homer. This time it was a high fastball from Rick White deposited into the left-field bullpen in the eleventh inning to propel St. Louis to a 4-3 win and put an end to New York’s frustrating stay by the arch. The Mets mustered only five hits on the day, one coming on a home run from Bubba Trammell which briefly staved off defeat.
Their cold spell continued in Cincinnati. New York’s offense batted .179 over the first two games. Luckily, the Mets pulled one of those out. A tenth-inning homer by Todd Zeile on September 5th snapped a 2-2 tie and helped put an end to a four-game skid.
And wouldn’t you know it — on the day the Mets finally bust loose, the pitching lets them down. They clobbered Reds starter Rob Bell, with a Matt Franco homer in the first and a Todd Pratt blast in the second. But Bobby Jones nearly gave it all back, relinquishing round-trippers to Ken Griffey Jr. and Sean Casey.
The Mets regained the lead in the fourth, added to it in the seventh, but the bullpen self-destructed in the bottom of the eighth. Wendell, John Franco (coming off injury), and Benitez were scorched for six runs. Just like that, an 8-5 advantage became an 11-8 loss.
By dropping seven of ten, concerns arose about another September slump, which befell this team the previous two seasons. The Mets, though, had a golden opportunity to get well versus their next three opponents, each far below .500: the Phillies, Brewers, and Expos.
