Al Leiter
After the first two rounds, the Sweet 16 in each of the four brackets is set, and there are going to be some fun and difficult match-ups. So far, all of those who have had their numbers retired and have been captains in team history have survived.
In the Miracle Bracket, Tom Seaver should be expected to advance. To secure a spot in the Final Four, he is going to have to face the winner of Jerry Koosman/Cleon Jones, which has Mets fans deciding which of the somewhat unlikely heroes of 1969 (and 1973) should advance.
The Amazin Bracket kicks off with a battle between the first two captains in team history – Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter. As if deciding between them isn’t tough enough, fans have to decide whether they love Dwight Gooden or Darryl Strawberry more.
The Mojo Rising Bracket only has members of the 1999 Mets remaining, which is appropriate given how the region was named after that team. The first match-up is between the helmeted ones in the catcher Mike Piazza and the first baseman John Olerud. Then, it is a match-up between Al Leiter and Edgardo Alfonzo, who were the heros of the play-in game against the Reds.
Finally, in the Citi Bracket, we have two Cinderella runs from Wilmer Flores and Pete Alonso. Flores faces David Wright in a match-up of the emotional stories from the 2015 season. With Alonso, he squares off against Jacob deGrom to see which current Mets player fans adore more.
Voting begins tomorrow with Seaver and Ed Kranepool.
Starting with Mike Piazza hitting a first inning two run homer off of Curt Schilling scoring Edgardo Alfonzo to give the Mets a 2-0 lead, this game had a bit of an ugly deja vu feeling to their frustrating loss to the Phillies yesterday.
Part of that deja vu was Pat Burrell being the Phillies big bat leading the assault. The other part was a ninth inning meltdown by the Mets bullpen.
After two, the Mets had a 3-0 lead with Jason Tyner hitting an RBI ground out scoring Jay Payton in the second. Al Leiter would surrender that 3-0 lead in the third with two of the three runs being unearned.
With one out, Robin Ventura made a rare error allowing Doug Glanville to reach safely. After that, the Phillies would load the bases. Mike Lieberthal hit a two run double, and then Kevin Jordan hit a sacrifice fly tying the game at 3-3.
After the score was tied, Schilling had begun making quick work of the Mets lineup. Starting with the second inning, Schilling retired nine in a row. After Schilling retired Tyner to lead off the fifth, Leiter and Melvin Mora would hit a back-to-back singles, but the Mets could not push a run across.
That immediately came back to haunt the Mets with Burrell leading off the sixth with a homer. In the seventh, it was Ron Gant homering against Leiter to give the Phillies a 5-3 lead. When Scott Rolen followed the Gant homer with a single, Bobby Valentine lifted Leiter for Turk Wendell.
You could argue Leiter deserved better on the day. Through his 6.1 innings, he had allowed five runs with only three of them earned. He would walk three while striking out seven. However, that third inning rally was exacerbated by Leiter, and he didn’t get the big out he needed.
Fortunately for Leiter, the Mets would get him off the hook. Chris Brock came out of the Phillies bullpen in the eighth, and he was greeted immediately with back-to-back singles by Derek Bell and Alfonzo. After Alfonzo stole second and Piazza struck out, there was runners on second and third with one out. Ventura delivered and atoned for the two unearned runs resulting from his error with a two RBI single tying the game.
The Mets had the chance to take the lead but squandered it. Todd Zeile followed Ventura’s RBI single with a single of his own. The rally ended there as Payton struck out, and Tyner grounded out to end the inning. Much like in the sixth, the Mets would immediately regret wasting this chance.
John Franco had nothing. He was pitching for the second straight game and third time over a four day span. Perhaps, he was just tired. Whatever the case, he imploded.
After a Gant double, there were runners on second and third with no outs. After Franco struck out Scott Rolen, Lieberthal, who is a Mets killer, was walked to load the bases and set up a potential double play. That double play never happened.
Franco walked Jordan to force home a run. Then, Valentine brought in Benitez to pitch to Burrell. Benitez was tired himself. He had pitched over an inning yesterday and threw 33 pitches. On the fifth pitch to Burrell, Burrell got Benitez again this time hitting a grand slam to put the Phillies up 10-5.
With the Mets going down 1-2-3 in the ninth, they yet again had wasted a good pitching performance, and they were unable to overcome the failures of Benitez. Worse yet, it seems as if the rookie Pat Burrell is starting to become a Mets killer.
Game Notes: Piazza is currently riding an 11 game hitting streak. Rey Ordonez has been officially ruled out for the rest of the year leaving the Mets to ride with Melvin Mora and Kurt Abbott at shortstop until they decided to obtain one in a trade.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.
Benny Agbayani homered in his last two at-bats against the Cubs, and the newly installed lead-off hitter smashed a home run against Jimmy Haynes to give the Mets an early 1-0 lead over the Brewers. This was the beginning of yet another big day at the plate Agbayani.
Again, it was Agbayani knocking home a run in the second. After Jay Payton singled, and Melvin Mora reached on an error, Al Leiter bunted them over. With the lineup flipped over, Agbayani knocked home both Payton and Mora on a two RBI single. With that single, Agbayani alone knocked in enough runs for Leiter who was brilliant.
The only run against Leiter came in the third, and it was partially the result of him issuing a lead-off walk to the eighth place hitter Santiago Perez. After Haynes bunted him over, James Mouton would single him home.
After that RBI single, Leiter would retire 13 of the final 16 batters he faced. It may be too soon to talk Cy Young, but Leiter ran his record up to a career best 8-1, and he has a a very good 3.00 ERA.
When the Brewers scored that run, it was 4-1 Mets as Payton and Mora had hit back-to-back doubles to plate a run in the top of the third.
Things had quieted down from there until the sixth with Mike Piazza hit his 18th home run of the season to increase the Mets lead to 6-1. While Piazza has been nicked up here and there, he continues to just hit. With his going 2-for-5 today with a run, homer, and two RBI, he is hitting an incredible .366/.436/.722. For any position, that’s great. For a catcher that’s seemingly impossible, but that’s another example why Piazza is a future Hall of Famer.
In the eighth, Edgardo Alfonzo doubled, and he would score on a Robin Ventura RBI single. That put the Mets lead at 7-1, and that would be the final score of the game. That’s also what you expect the Mets to do. They are a vastly superior team than the Brewers, and they took care of business.
Game Notes: Agbayani’s homer to lead-off the game was his first against a team other than the Cubs this season. Jason Tyner was held out of the lineup for a second straight game with a sore arm. The Mets other Bobby Jones pitched a scoreless ninth.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.