The surging Mets took a brief respite from their breakneck pace — falling to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0, on July 31.
It was a hiccup during what was the team’s best stretch of baseball.
After the Reds loss, New York went on to take 10 of their next 12 and narrow the gap between them and the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves to only 1.5 games.
The key in this run of success was their pitching — namely starters Mike Hampton and Al Leiter along with relievers John Franco and Armando Benitez.
The Mets took the three-game series against the visiting Reds thanks to Hampton pitching 7.1 innings and allowing two runs (while driving in one) in a 3-2 victory secured by the Franco-Benitez tandem.
That was followed a day later when Leiter yielded only a run over seven.
The offense didn’t do much, but it did enough.
In that rubber match, Robin Ventura‘s two-run first-inning homer was the difference as New York bats managed just one extra-base hit after the opening frame.
The Mets moved from Shea to Bank One Ballpark to face their closest competitor in the NL Wild Card fight and didn’t miss a beat.
They continued their dominance over the Diamondbacks, winning their eighth straight against Arizona dating back to the Division Series victory the previous year.
Mike Piazza suffered a slight setback when he strained his knee running to first base in the fourth inning on August 5, causing him to miss the rest of the game as well as the next three contests.
A night after a 6-1 win behind Rick Reed, Bobby Jones worked six effective innings while allowing two runs, eight hits, and two walks to move his record to 6-5.
D-Back bats solved the New York pitching quandary, jumping on Glendon Rusch for five runs and seven hits over four innings and continued the ambush on lefty reliever Dennis Cook to salvage the finale.
The Mets once more brushed off that loss, a 9-5 defeat in the desert, and came back with a hard-fought 6-5 win in their initial visit to Enron Field in Houston — which was a homecoming for two former Astros and a convergence of the principals from last winter’s trade.
The 36,356 fans didn’t take too kindly to the return of Mike Hampton, who gave up five runs and batted in two.
But they really had it out for Derek Bell. After hearing constant boos, Bell had a response.
With two outs in the ninth and Hampton on the hook for a loss, Derek ripped a game-tying solo homer.
The man who relinquished it was Octavio Dotel.
It was he, along with Roger Cedeno, who were sent to Houston in exchange for Bell and Hampton.
In the 11th, score tied at five, Kurt Abbott — playing only because Edgardo Alfonzo had strained his groin innings earlier — homered off Jason Green.
Houston, enduring a rough year at nearly 30 games below .500, bounced back with a 9-3 win.
Leiter was done in by an early throwing error by newcomer Mike Bordick which led to two unearned runs and Pat Mahomes struggled in his one inning of work.
Enron Field had already gained a reputation for being hitter-friendly.
And over the remaining games of the series, the Mets went out and proved it — racking up 22 runs in two resounding victories.
On August 9, New York blasted three home runs to lead a 12-5 thumping.
The first from Jay Payton, the next from Darryl Hamilton, and the last off the bat of Piazza — no worse for wear in his return to the lineup.
The following night, the All-Star catcher went 4-for-4 (to up his batting average to .351) and drove in four of the team’s 12 runs.
Meanwhile, Bobby Jones pretty much held every Astro batter in check — except Jeff Bagwell.
The future Hall-of-Famer connected twice for bases-empty round-trippers, the only two Houston runs scored against Jones.
Back home facing the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants, the Mets posted a cumulative total of nine runs in the three games — but won them all.
Piazza still had some carryover from his Texas power surge and delivered a towering shot in the fourth inning, a two-run homer which landed in the left-field picnic area.
Edgardo Alfonzo aimed to duplicate his teammate’s feat with an equally impressive homer as the two combined to take down the Giants, 4-1.
During this two-week stretch, the Mets had been giving the Shea crowd plenty of thrills.
But on August 12, Benny Agbayani gave back a little more than he should.
With Mike Hampton working on a shutout and protecting a one-run advantage, the Giants put men on second and third with one out in the top of the fourth. Reminder — one out.
Bobby Estalella hit a fly ball in the general direction of left fielder Agbayani.
He drifted over to his right and made the catch. Jeff Kent tagged from third.
Benny, thinking his catch ended the inning, ran over and handed the ball to a youngster.
Agbayani quickly realized his mistake, but it was too late. His brief brain malfunction was costly. Ellis Burks was able to take two extra bases and score behind Kent.
”I looked at the scoreboard and I guess I saw the strike count instead of the outs,” Agbayani said to the New York Times.
”I just glanced at it. It could have cost us the game and that would have been especially tough for Mike Hampton, the way he pitched.”
“My teammates kept telling me not to worry about it, that it was already done.”
Benny had chances to atone, but he struck out in the bottom of the fourth and grounded out with the bases full in the fifth.
Fulfilling their team mentality, the Mets picked up their downtrodden outfielder.
Todd Zeile‘s two-run double off Felix Rodriguez in the seventh flipped the contest in favor of New York, which went on to win for the 19th time in 25 games and saved Agbayani from further embarrassment.
As it turned out, Benny would get the last laugh on the Giants come October.
The Mets brushed aside that faux pas and swept San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon — thanks to a combined shutout from Al Leiter and John Franco and a pair of eight-inning RBI hits from Robin Ventura and Bordick.
By showing their strength against teams with postseason prospects, New York improved its record to 69-47, good enough for the second-best mark in the National League.
Unfortunately, it was only good enough for second in the division, too. But the Mets had a foothold on that Wild Card spot — 5.5 games clear of Arizona.
