In his radio call of the triple play, Lindsey Nelson stated incorrectly that Felix Mantilla was the second baseman involved instead of Neal. Mantilla was playing third base in the game.

In the third and fifth innings, Hodges hit a pair of homers for 369 in his career. This total tied him with Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner for the then-existing record for home runs by a National League right-handed batter.

DaveVW, you raise a good point about Pete LaCock's last name. It was so unappealing that his own father abandoned it and became known as Peter Marshall when serving as host for "The Hollywood Squares" television game show.

Stearns and Staiger continued batting out of order the entire game, including Stearns' home run leading off the 4th, and only got called out by San Diego manager John McNamara when Staiger singled in the 7th. That meant Stearns and Staiger each got four at-bats in the wrong spot in the order before anyone in the Padres dugout noticed.

I don't know what's worse for a manager: Allowing your team to bat out of order, or not noticing the opposition getting away with it until the game is almost over!

Despite the blunder, the Mets won pretty easily. Jon Matlack went the distance and recorded a season-high 10 strikeouts. As Hot Foot mentioned, Kingman had a pair of 3-run dingers, each one leaving the broadcast team in awe of his power.

Also before the game, Lindsey Nelson interviewed new Met acquisition Lenny Randle. I never even heard of this guy before this game but, holy cow, after reading about him he seemed like he was always in the middle of some big controversy. The most recent being that he punched his former manager, Frank Lucchesi, before a spring training game, sending him to the hospital for surgery. Randle was suspended and charged with assault, but somehow wound up only needing to pay a $1,000 fine (though he did have to pay Lucchesi $20,000 in a lawsuit settlement). Not exactly the class act the Mets should have been targeting, but I guess they were that desperate for offense.

Also on this date, the Mets released Ray Sadecki. The lefty reliever spent 5 years on the team from 1970-74, and came back in 1977 to give the Mets a second southpaw in the bullpen with Bob Myrick. But Sadecki only got into 4 games before the Mets decided it was time to turn the page, and he retired right afterwards. "By the time the Mets released me, I didn’t even try to find something else," he said. "My arm was healthy but I was done. I said goodbye and I had no gripes."

Three major league pitching debuts were made on this day. For the Mets, starter Jose Butto hurled four innings in his first big league appearance and Nate Fisher had three innings of one-hit scoreless relief in what would be his only major league game. The Phillies' Tyler Cyr relieved in the ninth for his own debut and gave up Nimmo's home run before finishing the inning. Cyr was claimed by the Athletics on waivers three days later and never pitched for the Phils again.