Following their three-game sweep at Shea Stadium versus Pittsburgh, extending their winning streak to four games, the New York Mets welcomed the middle-of-the-road Florida Marlins into town for a late-June tilt.

At 41-31, the Mets had climbed within three-and-a-half games of the Atlanta Braves and were looking to feast on the Fish and whittle that gap down.

Up 4-3 heading into the sixth inning of the opening game of the series, Jay Payton led off the frame with a well-hit single into left-center field. Two batters later, Mark Johnson took Florida reliever Joe Strong to deep center field, putting the Mets ahead 6-3.

Payton and Benny Agbayani tallied back-to-back solo shots with two out in the seventh and Melvin Mora — filling in admirably for the injured Rey Ordonez at shortstop — added a two-run homer later in the frame to stake the Mets to a 10-3 lead that they’d make stand up for a 10-5 win.

A game closer in the standings following an Atlanta loss, the Mets had left-hander Glendon Rusch on the hill the next night.

Back-to-back run-scoring sacrifice flies in the top of the fourth via Preston Wilson and Mike Lowell put the Marlins ahead 2-0, but that would be all the crafty southpaw would give up.

The Mets answered back with four in the bottom half of the inning courtesy of RBI singles from Agbayani and Joe McEwing and tacked on one more for good measure in the seventh on an Edgardo Alfonzo RBI base hit to score Mora, making it a 5-2 game.

Rusch passed the ball to John Franco in a scoreless eighth and the big righty, Armando Benitez, worked around a ninth-inning walk to secure his 18th save of the year and keep the Mets within striking distance of the Braves, who also won.

At six wins in a row and counting, the Mets were cruising. After falling into a 4-1 hole versus Miami in the series finale, New York did what good teams do; they picked themselves up and got the job done. With a little help from the Marlins.

After consecutive strikeouts from Payton and Matt Franco to start the bottom of the sixth, Agbayani drew a two-out walk to get things started.

Kurt Abbott singled. Robin Ventura drew another walk via Marlins starter Brad Penny, and before you could pick your head up from your helmet sundae, the Mets had something cooking.

Mora drew a walk in the next at-bat to force in a run and chase Penny. Future Mets coach Ricky Bones entered the game and immediately walked Derek Bell to make it a 4-3 game. Mike Piazza reached on an error to score Mike Hampton (pinch-running for Ventura), and Mark freaking Johnson singled to score Mora and Bell, putting New York ahead, 6-4.

Florida would score a run off Dennis Cook in the seventh, but Pat Mahomes and Franco — not without some hiccups — made the one-run lead stand up for the Mets’ seventh win in a row.

With Atlanta coming into town for a four-game set and the deficit in the NL East at two for the Mets, things were about to get hot in Flushing.

The Braves pounced on Rick Reed in the first game of the series, getting to the right-hander for four runs over three innings and setting the tone for the evening.

Veteran righty John Burkett held New York to four runs over five innings (one earned) and, despite a two-run sixth via RBI hits from Todd Zeile and Agbayani, Jason Marquis, John [expletive deleted] Rocker, and Kerry Ligtenberg kept the Mets in check over the final three innings to lock up a 6-4 Atlanta win.

The following night — Friday, June 30, 2000 — would turn out to be a historical evening for this franchise.

Down 8-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Derek Bell led off the frame with a base hit into center field and Piazza singled two batters later to put men on the corners and the merry-go-round began in earnest.

  • Bell scored on a Ventura groundball (8-2)
  • Zeile singled to score Piazza (8-3)
  • Payton singled moving Zeile to second
  • Agbayani walked to load the bases
  • Johnson, Mora, and Bell all drew bases-loaded bases-on-balls (8-6)
  • Alfonzo singled in McEwing (running for Johnson) and Mora (8-8)

And Mike Piazza capped off the most fruitful inning (10 runs scored) in Mets history with a towering three-run homer to give New York an 11-8 lead, which they’d hold onto, to pull back within two games of Atlanta in the division.

Whew, what a night. But that was just the start.

The Mets would get to Atlanta’s Hall of Fame right-hander Greg Maddux for seven runs over two innings the following night, riding Al Leiter‘s (seven innings, 12 strikeouts) strong outing to a resounding 9-1 win and cutting the Braves’ lead in the NL East to one game.

Shea Stadium was electric. Unfortunately, the good times wouldn’t last.

The Mets dropped the series finale to the Braves that Sunday, dropping back to two games out, and would lose two-of-three in South Florida before heading back home to face the Yankees for three at Shea with a make-up game at Yankee Stadium squeezed in there, too.

Until next time…