Heading into the 2000 All-Star Break having lost three-of-four to the Yankees, the New York Mets surely got some rest in preparation for their tied-for-season-long 11-game road trip beginning in Beantown and ending in Hotlanta.

At three games back in the National League East, Bobby Valentine‘s Mets had the momentum to give the Braves a run for their money atop the division, and buckets of talent to get the job done.

Powered by a .348/.414/.693 line with 24 homers and 72 RBIs, Mike Piazza‘s 4.0 first-half wins above replacement (FanGraphs) was good for seventh in the NL and Edgardo Alfonzo‘s 3.4 fWAR (aided by his .318/.417/.538 line; wow) placed him 14th.

On the pitching side of things, Al Leiter‘s 2.99 ERA was good for third in the league and Mike Hampton‘s 3.36 mark ranked eighth.

Again, just so much talent. All this team had to do was continue picking themselves up when the going got rough — as we’d seen them do all season up until this point.

An 11-game, part-interleague road trip to start the second half of the season was certainly one way to throw a wrench in those plans.

The Mets’ three-game jaunt in Boston didn’t go as planned, to say the least.

The BoSox were no slouches — finishing the year at 85-77 for a second-place finish in the AL East with standout Nomar Garciaparra leading the way on offense (.372/.434/.599 on the season) and Pedro Martinez arguably at his zenith (1.74 ERA, 284 K over 217 IP) — but they weren’t quite ready for primetime, either.

After losing the opener in heartbreaking fashion (Mets took a 3-2 lead into the ninth before Armando Benitez blew it in the ninth), New York, down 4-3 late in the second game, went ahead on Piazza’s two-run homer in the eighth and sealed it with a Melvin Mora RBI single in the ninth to even the series.

Normally, this would be where the Mets would roll, rattling off five or six before slowing down again. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case.

Despite a ninth-inning rally that fell just short, the Mets lost the series finale in Boston and headed to Toronto, where they’d be met by a Hall of Famer and a should-be enshrinee.

The 2000 Blue Jays were a good team. Carlos Delgado leading the offensive charge (.344/.470/.664, 41 HR, 137 RBIs) complemented a mediocre pitching staff nicely, with Long Island standout Billy Koch (West Babylon, ’93) closing the door for the eventual third-place Jays.

A 23-year-old Roy Halladay would get the ball against the Mets in the first game, scattering three runs on five hits over six innings to pick up his fifth MLB victory, but New York would battle back, taking the final two games north of the border.

Led by a hitless six-inning performance from the Mets bullpen after Rick Reed allowed five runs over five innings of work (Pat Mahomes, 1.1 IP; Dennis Cook, 1.2 IP; Turk Wendell, 0.2 IP; John Franco, 1.1 IP; Benitez, IP), the Mets scored two in the top of the 11th to take the second game.

New York rode a four-RBI day from Piazza (with two each from Lenny Harris, Derek Bell, and Alfonzo, to boot) to an 11-7 win over Toronto in the series finale before continuing their North Country trek with a two-game set in Montreal.

 

The Mets took it to a bevy of Expos hurlers (Felipe Lira started the game but Scott Strickland, Anthony Telford, Steve Kline, and Guillermo Mota all saw action after Lira’s exit after the third) for a win in the opener.

Todd Zeile‘s 15th home run of the season set the tone and left-hander Glendon Rusch (six innings, two earned runs) set the pace for the Mets’ third consecutive victory and a much-needed spark with a big showdown on the horizon.

They’d lose the finale the next day, falling victim to right-hander Dustin Hermanson‘s 8.2 innings of one-run ball (eight strikeouts, two walks; and please check his player page in the link, specifically the photo), but the matchup was set for a three-game barnburner in Atlanta to restart this pennant race.

The Braves had won six-of-eight to start their second half, extending their lead in the NL East to five games heading into their series with the Mets.

New York got off to a hot start against Atlanta starter Terry Mulholland in the series opener, tagging the left-hander for three runs on five hits over 2.2 innings, but Mets lefty Al Leiter didn’t have his best stuff either, allowing four over the first three to keep things close.

A Javy Lopez solo homer off Leiter in the sixth extended the Braves’ lead to 5-3, and perpetual nemesis Chipper Jones‘ RBI-single in the eighth was all the insurance Atlanta would need to secure a big win.

The Mets would rebound nicely the following afternoon, riding seven shutout innings from Rick Reed and two clean frames from Franco and Benitez to a 4-0 win in the second game of the series.

Derek Bell’s 14th homer of the year off Greg Maddux in the sixth stretched the Mets’ lead to 3-0 and one more in the ninth had New York back within five games in the East.

A pitchers duel on Sunday, July 23 between Atlanta’s Andy Ashby (complete game, seven strikeouts, two walks) and Bobby Jones (5.1 innings) was decided by a lone run crossing the plate via Wally Joyner‘s RBI double in the sixth to score Brian Jordan.

New York had their chances over the final three innings, but they’d fail to capitalize. With the deficit in the division back to six games, the Mets would need to pick themselves up and dust themselves off once again, but this time from the friendly confines of Shea Stadium.

With the clock ticking to make some real waves, hoping to usurp the Braves, they’d need a SuperBall bounce over their nine-game homestand to make this dream come alive.

And they’d do their best to make it happen.