Best Day

[nymr83]

theres 6 letters in his middle name: "fuckin"

[bmfc1]

After a slew of posts to this thread, it was time for Tom Glavine and everything has come to a screeching halt. This is a surprise as it's easy to remember Glavine's Best Day of '07 as it only happened a few weeks ago...

It was Game 162, September 30th, as the Mets played the Marlins. I don't have to remind you how important that game was but what stands out is how Glavine rose to the occassion. Glavine was sometimes called selfish and not a team player but on that day, Glavine showed why he's a future Hall of Famer. As the Mets waited to take the field, Glavine look to his teammates and said "get ready for the playoffs, I'm taking us there." Glavine strode to the mound and put on a pitching clinic. On the first pitch, home plate umpire Joe West gave him 6 inches off the outside part of the plate, and Glavine seemed to think "I'm back in Atlanta." He dominated the Marlins, coming up big--just as a 300 game winner was expected to do....

Aw hell, I just wanted to move the thread along. Glavine's best pitching was probably July 14th against the Reds as he pitched 8 innings, gave up 1 run, 2 hits, and 0 walks in a 2-1 Mets win. However, his best day was when he accomplished an individual honor: he won his 300th on August 5th against the Cubs.

Sadly, he couldn't come up as big when the focus was on the team and not on himself. The first 200 innings he pitched in '07 were great overall, but it was the extra 1/3d that we'll remember (he also stunk in his previous two starts). Nothing he does will make up for his last appearance and for that, I say farewell. I will be neither devastated or disappointed if he doesn't return.

Carlos Gomez, you're up.

[G-Fafif]

Carlos Gomez chose an ideal venue for his Best Day of 2007: The 1970s municipal parking garage known as renovated Yankee Stadium where he went 2-for-3, scored a run and made an Endy Jr. catch to rob Miguel Cairo of a potential home run and then doubled Hideki Matsui off second. Of the many things that went wrong in 2007, CarGo's injury was one of the overlooked ones. He has the tools, he'll know how to use them.

I hear Ruben Gotay has a day all his own coming up...

[bmfc1]

Ruben Gotay was one of the pleasant surprises of '07. He didn't go north with the team and is now somebody that looks like a definite member of the '08 Mets. His best day was one of the Mets best days--one of the games that SNY will play during the winter, one of the games that will get us revved up for the Mets to return.

May 17th against the Cubs was a Thursday afternoon and Willie rested Jose Reyes, David Wright and other regulars. When you saw the lineup, you thought it was a ST game: Franco batted 5th and Newhan 6th. Starting in place of Reyes was Gotay who, like Reyes, batted lead-off and played short.

In the 5th, Gotay doubled in Endy to tie the score at one. The Cubs scored four in the 6th to take a 5-1 lead and you might have thought that a comeback was impossible with "that" lineup.

In the 9th, against Cubs "closer" Rayan Dempster, Newhan lead off with a single; Castro lined out, Gomez singled, pinch-hitter Beltran walked to load 'em, and Endy walked to make it 5-2. With David Wright on the bench, it was logical to think that he would bat for Gotay but sometimes Willie let a young player stay in at a key time to see what they could do under pressure (so he'd know for the playoffs... ugh). Gotay singled, scoring two runs. Wright and Delgado then singled and the Mets had a classic 6-5 victory on Gotay's Best Day of '07.

Come on down, Shawn Green!

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ruben's best day might have been Willie's also.

[G-Fafif]

Shawn Green's greatest day left him out of the picture altogether:

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/

The most iconic of Welcome Home Walkoff Homer Committee meetings in 2007 was called by Shawn on Monday night, June 25 when Greenie ended a pitchers' duel that was begun by Jorge Sosa and Mike Maroth and endured until the bottom of the eleventh when Shawn reached back several years into his career and reached the scoreboard off Russ Springer. Mets win 2-1 on all of three hits. Shawn came up short as a rule in '07, but not that night. Not that night at all.

Warming up in the bullpen, Aaron Heilman...

[bmfc1]

Even though Aaron Heilman isn't one of my favorite Mets (I love them all but some more than others), I wanted to write up his Best Day so somebody else has to write Anderson Hernandez's Best Day.

Heilman's Best Day was the aforementioned Jeff Conine's Best Day: on August 25th, in a Mets victory over the Dodgers, Heilman pitched the 9th as Billy Wagner had a "dead arm." I remember Howie Rose caputring our mood when he said that the Shea crowd seemed nervous and anxious with Heilman on the mound. Heilman got Eithier for the first out and then gave up a single to Jeff Kent. Luis Gonzalez then came to the plate (Tom McCarthy's voice just came into my head saying that this was the "Foxwoods Casino Turning Point of the Game") and hit into a 1-6-3 DP. Heilman got the save, we said "phew!", and the Mets won 4-3. I remember listening to the post-game show and thinking how great things were in the Mets world. Alas.

Good luck with Anderson Hernandez!

[Guest sharpie]

With Anderson Hernandez one has four choices for best day as he only appeared in four games.

Let's dispense with July 25, when he struck out in a pinch-hitting appearance. That one really isn't an option.

One that might merit consideration is September 29, the next-to-last game of the season. He went 0-for-1 pinch-hitting for Jose Reyes in the 8th inning, but what makes this game special is that he played the field in the 9th, his only fielding appearance. But this game will be discarded, too.

The next one to merit consideration -- strong consideration! -- is July 28th when he got his only hit, a single, pinch-hitting for Aaron Heilman. This, plus the two aforementioned at-bats gave him a .333 batting average this season. But, as the hit didn't ultimately matter much in that game, I will discard this.

The winner for Anderson Hernandez's best day is his first appearance on July 22 when as a pinch-runner for Carlos Delgado he scored the tying run in a game won an inning later when Chip Ambres got his best-day hit.

The Mets' other Hernandez, Orlando, is now up.

[TransMonk]

Sunday, July 22nd @ LA:

With the Mets trailing 3-4 in the top of the ninth, Delgado singled and Anderson Hernandez came in to pinch run. He advanced to 2nd on a wild pitch and took 3rd on a LoDuca groundout. Hernandez scored the tying run on on error by Matt Kemp in right field on a Green popup. The Mets went on to win it in the tenth taking 3 out of 4 from the Dodgers in LA.

edit - sharpie's quicker on the draw

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm going with Handy Andy's successful July 22nd pinch-running appearance over his successful July 28th pinch-hitting appearance.

In one of the season's more thrilling games, a Met team down 4-2 --- in a Sunday rubber game against a Dodger team that was sitting atop the league --- scored once each in the eighth, ninth, and tenth to win it, 4-4.

We already know this to be Chip Ambres best day, but a game that swung on scratch runs had a lot of little heroes.

In the ninth, Dodger defense started getting goofy-handed confronted with the terror of Anderson's wheels:

• Carlos Delgado leads off the inning with a hard ground-ball base hit that first baseman James Loney couldn't come up with, crumbling under the pressure of knowing that the Mets had Hernandez on the bench to run for Delgado.


• His nightmare is complete, as Willie Randolph calls Delgado to the dugout and sends Hernandez to first.


• Jonathan Broxton, with he body of a defensive tackle and the fortitude of a dandelion spore, tries to keep the Handyman close but ends up uncorking a wild pitch, sending Anderson to second.


• Paul Lo Duca drives a hard gorunder up the middle. It looked like a base hit, but Rafael Furcal wasn't about to give Hernandez the chance to spread his wings. Andy nonetheless crosses to third as Lo Duca is nailed for the first out.


• Next up was Shawn Green, looking to plate the run with at least a fly ball. A fly ball he got. Would Hernandez outrun the throw by Matt Kemp? Kemp --- pooing in his toolsheds at the prospect --- misplays the ball in the sun as Hernandez trots home with the tying run.

All that's left is the heroics of Chip Ambres..

Andy's best day.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I received three phone calls while typing. I apologize to nobody for the lateness of my post.

[Guest sharpie]

At least there is a consensus on which day was his best day.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think three guys simultaneously writing about Anderson Hernandez's best day made today his best day.

[G-Fafif]

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was El Magnifico on June 23 at Shea against the Oakland Athletics: seven shutout innings, six hits, one walk, seven strikeouts. It was the elan that separated this outing from several other good Duque deeds in 2007, particularly the way he wriggled out of trouble again and again (119 pitches) with the entirety of the arsenal. Eric Chavez, for example, went down on Duque's storied Bugs Bunny fastball. It's still heading for the plate. The Mets won in the bottom of the ninth when David Wright placed a double just beyond the reach of rightfielder Travis Buck to score Ramon Castro from second. He's also still heading for the plate.

What's that, Philip Humber? You have a best day, too? We'll see if we can't find it for you.

[G-Fafif]

Philip Humber made his first Major League start on September 26 against the Washington Natonals at Shea in the heat of a pennant race. For three innings, it was an affair to remember, as the Mets raced to a 5-0 lead and Humber showed the stuff that made him a first-round draft pick three years earlier. Unfortunately, all that sitting around and waiting to make his first Major League start began to show in the fourth as Philip gave up a two-run dinger to Ryan Church. In the fifth, a walk, a single and a double drove Humber from his first Major League start. He still held the lead, but Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano would relinquish it in short order as the Mets would bow to the Nationals 9-6 at the worst possible juncture of the season.

But for three innings, it was quite a day.

Somebody want one at least as good for Ben Johnson?

[bmfc1]

Ben Johnson came to the Mets last November in a trade with San Diego and many of us thought that he would be the '07 version of Xavier Nady who also came from the Padres. This optimism lasted until we saw that he couldn't a) hit field c) run. Other than that, he was fantastic!

His best day as a Met was even less obvious than that of A. Hernandez. On May 31st, in his third game as a Met, Ben Johnson started against the Giants, batted 8th and played LF. He went 1 for 2 and scored a run on an Endy bunt single.

Johnson was only 5 for 27 for the year with 0 HR, 1 double (in a blow-out loss so it didn't meet my BD criteria) and he scored twice. One of them came during his Best Day as a Met as he was part, albeit a small one, of a 4-2 Met win.

Brian Lawrence is next on the list. I have no recollection of a Met by that name.

[G-Fafif]

Brian Lawrence put in one very representative start, on August 10 versus the Marlins at Shea: 6 innings pitched, 2 runs allowed. He left as the pitcher of record on the winning side, 3-2. Billy Wagner recorded only his second blown save of the season in the ninth to take the win away from Lawrence, who would have moved his record to 2-0.

Ricky Ledee is being called out of retirement...

[TransMonk]

Rickey Ledee had his best day in 2007 on June 18th at Shea vs. the Twins. He went 2 for 3 with a walk, a HR and 2 RBI. His single to right field in the fourth inning drove in Shawn Green who would be the winning run as the Mets went on to victory by a score of 8-1. Ledee's solo shot in the 8th sparked a four run inning for the home team. The Mets had lost 7 out of 8 coming into the game. In other notes from that day: Luis Castillo, then playing for the Twins, went 0 for 4 ending a 32 game hitting streak at Shea Stadium.

Paulie is up.

[bmfc1]

Paul LoDuca's Best Day of '07 was on September 4th when the Mets defeated the Reds 11-7 in Cincinnati. Ollie was ineffective but, get this, four relievers held the lead. Paulie went 3-5, with 2 3-run homers, 2 runs scored, and 7 RBI (a career high).

This post-game quote from Paulie is in the AP story: "It's amazing," said Lo Duca... "Unbelievable. I'm really proud of this team, especially with what happened in Philadelphia. To play the way we have these last five days is huge."

To me, this shows Paulie at his best: talking about the team, caring about the team, even when he could be talking about himself. I hope to see him wearing the Mets uni in '08.

John Maine is next and that choice should be easy.

[G-Fafif]

As was the case on October 18, 2006, John Maine pitched the second-to-last game of the Mets' season and came up huge. In 2007, the date was September 29, the situation just as dire as it was in Game Six of the previous year's NLCS: Win or forget about it. John Maine won: 7-2/3 innings of 14-strikeout, NO-HIT BALL against the Florida Marlins, with the Mets' first brawl in eleven years and potential elimination as backdrops. Throwing high, hard strikes all day, Maine kept those of us fortunate enough to be at Shea on the edge of our seats by flirting with history and embracing excellence. It would take a swinging bunt that trickled maybe 40 feet off the bat of somebody named Paul Hoover to wreck the "A" story, but not unimportantly, Maine led the Mets to a scintillating 13-0 victory. Paired with a Phillies loss to the Nats, the Mets moved back into a first-place tie.

As was the case directly after October 18, 2006, the Mets wouldn't win another game. But boy did Maine do his part to keep the end at bay.

From John Maine's best day, we now seek Pedro Martinez's...

[G-Fafif]

For someone whose active contributions to the Mets season totaled only five days, Pedro Martinez has plenty from which to choose. His return on September 3 in Cincinnati was memorable. His final turn on September 27 against St. Louis (7 IP) was baseball-heroic. But it was his homecoming to Shea against the Astros on September 9 that deserves to go down as Pedro Martinez's best day of 2007.

It wasn't just for the five shutout innings that led to a neat 4-1 win. It wasn't just for the way Pedro left the bases loaded in the fifth and stranded nine Houston runners. It wasn't even for the leadoff double he lined in the third.

It was for his being Pedro Martinez at Shea Stadium. The electricity between the crowd and the pitcher was palpable, and the results proved it was not misplaced. We gave him a curtain call for five innings of work. We could have given him one after every pitch and it would have felt right. Good to have Pedro back.

Lastings Milledge, anyone?

[bmfc1]

Lasting Milledge's BD was not John Maine's BD as you shouldn't have to answer questions about your behavior on your BD. Instead, Milledge's BD was on July 24th in a home game against Pittsburgh. As with the penultimate game of the season, Milledge's heroics were in support of a John Maine victory. On this day, Milledge was 3 for 3 with one homerun and an RBI as the Mets defeated the Pirates and Ian Snell 8-4.

Some of the time, Milledge looks like a future roto-God--he can hit, hit for power, run and throw--and on others, he looks like a dumb kid whose immaturity makes him a risk for an everyday job in '08. Maybe he's both. Maybe the later will diminish over the passing of time.

G. Mota's final last day as a Met (he said hopefully) comes next. Good luck.

[TransMonk]

Looking through the game logs for Lastings Milledge he had some very good days during some of the memorable pitching performances this season. He hit 2 HRs in the above mentioned best day for Maine. He went 3 for 4 with a SB during Glavine's 300th victory.

However, on July 24th with Pittsburgh in town, Milledge went 3 for 3 with a HR, 3 RBI, 2 runs and a HBP. His effort helped seal a 8-4 Mets win. Lastings had an RBI single in the fourth and then scored on a John Maine HR. He was plunked by Ian Snell in his next at-bat (which may or may not have been retaliation for some celebrating after Maine's HR). Milledge then hit a 2-run homer of his own in the 8th.

Ugh...Mota's next.

[TransMonk]

Beat again. At least we agree.

[G-Fafif]

On August 3 at Wrigley Field, Guillermo Mota pitched a scoreless eighth, preserving a 2-2 tie. The Mets scored four in the ninth giving him his first win of the season. The less said about him in the context of "best" anything, the better.

Anybody got cream for Carlos Muniz's coffee?

[Guest sharpie]

In one of his two appearances Carlos Muniz pitched a scoreless, hitless inning on September 29 to preserve the shutout begun by John Maine and, briefly, Willie Collazo.

David Newhan musta had a best day, which day was it?

[G-Fafif]

On Saturday May 12 against the Brewers at Shea, pinch-hitter David Newhan launched an absolute bomb in a losing cause, though when it was struck in the fifth, it pulled the Mets to within 4-3. For just a few minutes, David Newhan seemed like a viable option off the bench for the rest of 2007.

At the risk of being presumptuous, Chan Ho Park pitched once, pitched badly and was gone, so let's chalk up his best, worst and only day as April 30 against the Marlins and move on to Mike Pelfrey.

[bmfc1]

Mike Pelfrey's BD came on September 1st against the Braves. He followed John Maine's Friday gem with one almost as good as the Mets defeated the Braves 5-1. Beltran, Delgado and Milledge all homered. Pelfrey pitched six innings, gave up only one ER, one hit and walked three. Hope for '08?

This is the second time that this game was somebody's BD, IMHO, as I also used this game for Pedro Feliciano.

O. Perez, anyone?

[G-Fafif]

Ollie Perez shares his Best Day with Ramon Castro, the man he threw to on September 22: eight very solid innings (six hits, one earned run, eight strikeouts, zero walks) in a must situation, leading his team to a 7-2 win. It was all the must-ier given the Mets' recent use and abuse of their bullpen (not that the pen didn't abuse them right back).

Jose Reyes played 160 games in 2007. Which day among them was his best?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

How about when he tripled with the bases loaded off Smoltz at Shea, providing the tying and go-ahead runs? I know, we didn't win that game: Typical 2007 Mets. But Reyes was f-ing GOD back then.