Dave VW
March 30, 2023
The Mets had a tangible feel of a team headed in the right direction at this time, and that feeling certainly helped produce this 10-9 win. Indeed, the Mets finished July with a .615 winning percentage, which was their highest in a month since June of 1990, when they went 21-7 (.750). Juan Castillo made his major league debut in this game (and 1 of only 2 ML appearances his entire career), holding his own for the most part until Todd Zeile zapped a 3-run homer off him in the fifth. Still, he left the game with a 6-5 lead and in line for a win. The lead even grew to 8-5 before the Cardinals rallied to tie the game against the Mets bullpen.
Mike Remlinger, making his only relief appearance in 1994, gave up a run on a pinch-hit single by ex-Met Gregg Jefferies in the 7th. Roger Mason took over after that and got out of the inning, and Josias Manzanillo came on in the 8th. But he only lasted one batter, as he gave up a triple to Geronimo Pena and came out due to injury. The diagnosis wound up being a bone spur in his right shoulder that cost him the rest of the season, and cost the Mets arguably their best reliever of 1994. Mauro Gozzo came in next and allowed an RBI sac fly and a pinch-hit home run to Luis Alicea that knotted the score at 8-8.
After a scoreless 9th and 10th, Jeff Kent hit a 1-out double in the 11th, and was followed by Brogna crushing a home run to dead center off Buckels, who was pitching for the fourth straight day. Franco was summoned in the bottom of the inning but, as Stephen alluded to, almost blew another one. After getting the first two outs, John gave up singles to Zeile, Mark Whiten and Pena, allowing St. Louis to get within a run. But he struck out Tom Pagnozzi to secure the save.
Future Mets Zeile and Bernard Gilkey both had really good games, combining to go 5-for-9 and score 6 of the Cardinals' 9 runs. Zeile also just missed a walk-off homer in the 9th, as he blasted a 3-0 get-me-over pitch by Eric Gunderson high off the wall for a double, but he'd be stranded on base to force extra innings. Both teams would leave 11 runners on base.
One last thing to mention: In the 11th inning, after Brogna's home run, Ryan Thompson walked and stole second base. On his steal, as almost every runner has been apt to do in recent baseball history, he slid head-first into second base. For some reason, Tim McCarver decided to rip into Thompson for the slide, and argued the Mets and the players union should fine Thompson to encourage him and others from ceasing the head-first slide. Yet, earlier in the game, Gilkey also stole second base and also slid head first, and McCarver said absolutely nothing. I understand the head-first slide carries a higher potential for injury than a feet-first slide, but the head-first slide also allows a runner more options for getting to the base safely, like swimming around a tag or grabbing onto the base to prevent an overslide. The fact McCarver took a jubilant inning and decided that was the time to get on a soapbox really irked me -- not to mention he sounded completely out-of-touch with the game's evolution. His rant gets added to the growing litany of things he did over the course of his broadcasting career that really made me wish he'd just shut up and go away.
Please note:
We're looking for your comments about this specific
game. We've had people use this space to share their thoughts on how the
current season is going, or on ways that the Mets can improve the team.
Such comments, unless in the context of
this particular game,
will be considered off-topic and will be removed.
Example One
The Mets suck! They need to trade Smith and get somebody like
Jones.
This comment is off-topic and will be removed. It has nothing to do with
any specific game. But here's an acceptable alternative:
Example Two
The Mets suck! Smith made three errors in this game, and hit into a
double play, and the Mets blew a 5-0 lead. They need to get rid of Smith
and get somebody like Jones.
See the difference? Here you're getting the same point across, but it's in
the proper context. We wouldn't consider this message to be off-topic, and
we would let it remain.
We do appreciate anybody who takes the time to share their thoughts on our
site, and we hate to remove anybody's postings. But if we didn't take
steps to ensure that only on-topic messages were retained, The Ultimate
Mets Database would become a confusing jumble of unrelated comments,
and would thus be less enjoyable to visitors like you.
Thank you!
