Anyway, here's how things really happened. The Mets jumped out to a surprising 4-0 lead in the first off Curt Schilling, who had tallied four straight complete game wins against the Mets dating back to 1992. Eric Hillman then dominated the Phillies over 7 innings, allowing just one run on a Mariano Duncan 2-out single in the 3rd. But, eclipsing 100 pitches in the 8th, Hillman walked Dykstra to lead off the inning and then struck out Duncan. John Kruk was next up, and he swung at the first pitch and hit a bomb out to left-center field, the only HR Hillman would surrender to a left-hand batter all season. Dallas Green then brought in Anthony Young with the score 4-3. AY got Pete Incaviglia to ground out, but then Darren Daulton doubled, Wes Chamberlain singled home Daulton and reached second on the throw home by Orsulak, and Met-killer Kim Batiste hit a bloop single that scored Chamberlain, giving Philly a 5-4 lead. Young just couldn't get that elusive final out before giving up the lead, and sure wasn't helped by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. The rookie ump had an inconsistent strike zone all day, and when Young appeared to throw a pitch right over the heart of the plate against Daulton but had it called a ball, Green erupted in the dugout, prompting Cuzzi to yell back at him to cut it out. But Green persisted, and he got tossed. The skipper got his money's worth, though, throwing his cap a couple times and getting right up in Cuzzi's face. But I felt for Dallas -- it was easy enough for teams to beat the Mets in 1993; they certainly didn't need any additional help from the boys in blue.

The Mets attempted another rally off Philly closer Mitch Williams in the 9th, as Chico Walker reached on an error (which I though should have been a hit as Batiste had dove for the ball and made a great play but threw wildly to first) with 1 out, and Kevin Baez (who was only allowed to hit in such a big spot due to a rash of injuries to Kent, Bogar and Darrin Jackson at the time) walked with 2 out, but Charlie O'Brien flew out pinch-hitting to end the game. And thus, not only did AY blow his second save of the year, he also dropped his record to 1-15.

The Mets first inning was so promising, as Thompson scored on a wild pitch, Bonilla knocked in Hundley with a single, and Burnitz blooped a double down the LF line that wound up squirting away from Incaviglia, leading to an error-assisted inside-the-park home run. More than likely, if Incaviglia had just let the ball go, it would have settled in the stands for a ground-rule double, perhaps putting runners on 2nd and 3rd instead of 2 runs scoring. The crowd booed loudly during the inning, which I thought was pretty uncalled for considering the type of season the Phillies were having. Typical Philadelphia for you.

But after that 1st inning, the Mets managed just 3 more hits, sleepwalking their way through Hillman's performance. The left-hander even struck out a career-high 6 in the game. It was all for naught, though, as the Mets dropped another 1-run game. For the year, they finished 19-35 in 1-run contests. Only the Padres at 18-34 were worse by fractions of a percentage.