1986 Post-Season

[Edgy MD]

Twenty-five years ago today, the 1986 post-season began for the Mets as Dwight Gooden dominated the Houston Astros in the dome where he made his big league debut two and a half years earlier. Gooden went seven innings, striking out five and walking three, holding the 'Stros to seven hits and a lone rone on a Glenn Davis solo homer.

Unfortunately for the Mets, Gooden more than met his match in Houston ace Mike Scott, who went the distance, striking out 14 (!!) Mets and limiting them to five singles and a walk --- one of those singles a pinch-jobbie by Danny Heep, the player the Mets got from Houston for Scott back in the 1982-193 offseason.

http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=4010

No Met so much as reaches third until the ninth, when Darryl Strawberry singles with one out, steals second, and advances on a groundout to first by Mookie Wilson. Up came Danny Heep, who had exactly the kind of clutch spirit and heart that we're missing around here. ... and he struck out to end the game.

Somewhere in the back of the Mets heads was the thought that they really really didn't want to face Scott three times in the series.

[Gwreck]

Dykstra is listed as advancing to second base on a "K" in the 6th inning. I guess that means there was a Wild Pitch or Passed Ball on called strike three to Hernandez?

Edited October 8, 2011 by Guest

[HahnSolo]

One of Backman's fly balls to left--I think it was teh AB in the 6th, with Dykstra on first--was deep to the warning track that was tracked down by Jose Cruz. I remember thinking at the time that that may have been our one chance to get to Scott.

[Frayed Knot]

Gwreck wrote: Dykstra is listed as advancing to second base on a "K" in the 6th inning. I guess that means there was a Wild Pitch or Passed Ball on called strike three to Hernandez?

BB-Ref lists it as a stolen base on the full-count strike 3 to Hernandez

[Edgy MD]

Well, I didn't get to post, but yesterday minus 25 years, Bob Ojeda matched up against future Hall of Famer and 1969 Mets ringwearer Nolan Ryan, and managed to go the distance despite giving up 10 hits --- nine of them singles, but combined with two walks yielded, such a complete game is all but untinkable today. The Mets lefthanded contingent had no problem getting around on Nolie, with six hits and two walks out of the first three batters. Hernandez two-run fifth-inning triple put the game well in hand for the Mets, But there's something about it being over when it's over, so Bob Ojeda stuck around until it was over.

Both Aurelio (Senor Smoke) Lopez and Charile Kerfiled got into the game. That's a lot of fun times and hard-working elastic. The Mets escape the Astrodome with one win in their back pockets.

[Edgy MD]

Twenty-five years ago, the Mets are back at home against the Astros, tied 1-1 in a newfangled best-of-seven NLCS. They kept it even with two well-pitched games from Dwight Gooden and Bob Ojeda. But Ron Darling? He comes out with nothing! Before 55,052 at Big Shea, he gives up two in an ugly first: Groundout-Doran/1B-Hatcher/SB-Hatcher/1B-Walling (1st run)/WP (Walling to 2B)/HbP-Davis/SO-Bass/1B-Cruz (2nd run)/ PkO-Davis.

Maybe that pickoff is a momentum turner, but the Mets go down in order against Bob Knepper in the first, and the Astros grab two more in the top of the first on a Doran homer.

That's the way it goes, until the bottom of the sixth, when a run-scoring error by Craig Reynolds on a groundout by Carter followed by a THREE! RUN! HOMER! by Darryl Strawberry. And they're going wild! Curtain call!

Short lived? Oh, yes, because Rick Aguilera, who gets more love from Davey Johnson than he has perhaps earned, is now in the game, and gives one up in the seventh. It's not all on himself, though, with a walk to Doran and an error on Ray Knight leading to a run on a groundout.

That's it, until the Bottom. of. The. Ninth. Wally Backman, already swapped in for Tim Teufel, leads off. If you've watched the Mets at all that year, you know what's going down. The Mets need a run, and Wally --- intent on being the baserunner that is going to score that run, pulls a bunt down the first baseline. He's... SAFE! I don't recall specifically, but I'm sure he slid into first, allowing him to avoid a tag and kick up some dust to obscure the play. Danny Heep pinch-hits for Rafael Santana --- OHMANAPASSEDBALLONALFUCKIGNASHBY! Backman is in scoring position with no outs. Almost any Met manager knows how to play this one. You can score this tying run just by making outs! Have Heep bunt!

But Davey Johnson --- he's not just any Met manager. He swings away with Heep. Danny flies harmlessly to center. But are the Mets undone by that non-productive out? No, they are emboldened by their manager's faith. Up comes Lenny Dykstra, pinch-hitting for the pitcher. Not having to just make contact to score a runner from third, he gets to swing --- like a winner. And OH MY GOD, IT'S A DEEP DRIVE DOWN THE RIGHT FIELD LINE! LENNY DYKSTRA HAS HOMERED!!! AND HE'S NOT EVEN ON THE JUICE YET ACCORDING TO THE HISTORICAL RECORD! THE METS WIN!! THE METS WIN!! THEY LEAD THE SERIES, TWO GAMES TO ONE!!!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Geez, that was an amazing month. I was totally absorbed in the Mets. Even when I wasn't thinking about the Mets, I was thinking about the Mets.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't recall specifically, but I'm sure he slid into first, allowing him to avoid a tag and kick up some dust to obscure the play.

He did slide. Actually more like a lunge as the big controversy on that play was the Astros claiming he went out of the baseline to avoid the tag.

[Edgy MD]

My Yankee fan college roommate was furious. Unknowing the world beyond the Yankees, he could not abide Houston manager Hal Lanier leaving in gray-haired bowlcutted Dave Smith. "Put in your ace!" he kept screaming.

"Joe," I told him after the homer, "Dave Smith is the ace."

"He sucks!"

"Third in the league in saves."

"The whole league sucks!"

Frayed Knot wrote: I don't recall specifically, but I'm sure he slid into first, allowing him to avoid a tag and kick up some dust to obscure the play. He did slide. Actually more like a lunge as the big controversy on that play was the Astros claiming he went out of the baseline to avoid the tag.

Remembering this vividly now.

[Edgy MD]

[youtube:3t3jbaot]8wJyQAPCcJg[/youtube:3t3jbaot]

[dinosaur jesus]

Dykstra was already in the game--he pinch hit for Aguilera in the seventh.

I spent most of that postseason not quite being able to watch. For a team that had cruised in the regular season, they sure made it hard for themselves.

[Edgy MD]

Ain't no cruising in the post-season. The competition is much harder, the stakes are much higher, and the sample size is much smaller.

[Edgy MD]

Looking forward to seeing if Fernandez has any more luck against Scott than Gooden did. I'm intrigued that Johnson has gone to a four-man rotation against Lanier's three-man.

That sets Darling up for a potential game seven! Against Scott!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I attended 1986 NLCS Game 4. My second in-person post-season game, and the first one involving the Mets. (I went to an Orioles-White Sox ALCS game in 1983.)

[Edgy MD]

Could Mike Scott improve 25 years ago last night on his 14-strikeout, five-hit shutout performance in game one. Not really, but in game four, he held the Mets on the ground, limiting them to three ground singles, no walks, and Wally Backman reaching on interference in the baseline by Scott himself. The Mets were hitless through the first five. While his scuff splitter fanned only five, it produced 13 groundouts.

The Mets got their only run in the eighth, as Mookie Wilson grounded a single through the hole, went from first to third on an infield out by Knight (as only Mookie could) and scored on a sacrifice fly by Danny Heep. If the Mets needed that sort of risktaking to scratch a single run while down 3-0 in the eighth, you know they were a little bit desperate. And the spectre of Game Seven against Scott loomed. IT LOOMED!

Not to be lost in the tale of dominance by Scott (his two game scores in the series thus far were 90 and 82). Was the Mets pitching (Fernandez, McDowell, and Sisk) holding the Astros to only five hits. Unfortunately, the only three hits El Sid yielded were three solo homers --- to Davis Ashby, and Thon.

Ashby's shot came after hitting an apparent foulout that the Mets were not able to get to because of the temporary post-season seats added down the line. Thon's homer was some degree of revenge for Dickie, who was playing against the Mets a few years before when a single pitch from Mike Torrez turned him from a budding All Star regular to a utility man.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I sincerely hope that 1-3 for Wally in the 9th wasn't a bunt.

[Edgy MD]

That's his game, baby. When you're tying run and have almost no extra-base power, you get on base any way you can, and bunting for hits against overweight pitchers is his way.

Wally was the extremest ground-ball hitter of his era, against a groundball pitcher. A single was the best you could reasonably hope for anyhow.

[metirish]

Future manager right there is Wally.

[HahnSolo]

Actually it wasn't three solo HRs. Ashby's was a 2-run shot, which makes the foul ball non-out even worse. That would have been the third out with no runs coming across that inning.

[Edgy MD]

Sorry. Misread that boxscore.

How does Garner go from batting third for a division champ in the post-season to getting pinch-hit for?

[Ceetar]

hit and run with Knight/Mookie in the 9th? Gusty to go first to third on an infield grounder.

[Edgy MD]

That was Mookie's game. As fast as he was stealing and in the outfield, going from first to third he was blazing. He just had this runningback's way of exploding out of his cut.

Stayed way fast in his thirties, too.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My one real memory of this game was Danny Heep hitting a home run. Turns out that he only had a sac fly. Scoring a run off Mike Scott was such a big deal that the years have morphed that sacrifice fly into a home run in my mind.

[HahnSolo]

Edgy DC wrote: Sorry. Misread that boxscore. How does Garner go from batting third for a division champ in the post-season to getting pinch-hit for?

Lanier going lefty/righty I guess. I think Walling and Garner platooned that series.

[Edgy MD]

The Mets, tied 2-2 in a series but unable to solve Mike Scott whatsoever, suddenly have the psychological context of their series switched on them. If a win Scott over Darling is such a given for game seven, that forces them to approach Games Five and Six as two consecutive elimination games. And with Game Five pushed back a day, the specter only grew, with reporters and the players left with nothing to do but talk and talk and talk about Mike Scott.

When the teams finally took the field on October 14, it was Met fireballers of two different generations matching up, with Nolan Ryan coming in against Dwight Gooden. The matchup lives up to its billing, with the two legends, 17 years of age difference between them, trading zeros through the first four. In the fifth, Houston scratches out a run on a double by Hal Ashby (their only extra base hit, a single by Craig Reynolds, a bunt by Ryan, and an RBI groundout by Billy Doran.

Do the Mets answer? Oh they do! Ryan had been masterful to this point, holding the Mets hitless (the way he tends to do) through four and a third with eight (eight!) strikeouts. But power against power is a beautiful thing, and Darryl Strawberry extending his arms against Nolan Ryan is a whole lot of power, and in this case resulted an a long homer down the rightfield line.

And... that's it. At the end of regulation, the teams are still tied at onesis, wit the Mets only garnering a single hit the rest of the way, a Hernandez single in the seventh. Even against the all-time walk leader, the Mets only managed a single free pass, also in the seventh, but with two on, Mookie Wilson flied out to end the faintest hint of a rally.

So, up against it, Davey Johnson makes the bold decision to get a 10th inning out of Dwight Gooden, cruising pretty well himself. Gooden gets two quick outs before pinch-hitter Terry "Swimming" Puhl tries to ignite a one-man rally, reaching on a an infield hit and stealing second. (You just know Tim McCarver was carrying on about Gooden's high leg kick) Gooden, pitches around Doran, and walks him, but ends the threat when Billy Hatcher flies to right.

That pinch-hit, though, cost the Astros their right to continue with old Nolie, and they send in their wierdo rookie seteup man Charlie Kerfeld. (Kerfield has had a fine season and would eventually finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting, but has been perhaps overused this season and would never be good again.) He picks up where Ryan left off, getting the Mets 4-5-6 hitters in order while striking out Strawberry and Wilson.

The Mets double switch Danny Heep in left and turn the game over to Jesse Orosco. Somewhere in the clubhouse, Kevin Mitchell breaks a few bats in outrage at the slight. Orosco is all over the Astros, striking out Denny Walling and Glenn Davis and getting Kevin Bass on a groundout back to the box. Mets half of the 11th, though, is no better, with Knight and Mazzilli (pinch-hitting for Rafael Santana) grounding out, Heep whiffing, and Mitchell trashing the porn room.

On to the twelfth and Orosco pitches a second perfect inning, getting the legendary Jose Cruz (who I think history hasn't been kind enough to), Ashby and Thon. In the Astros half, Lanier gets a little silly as he tries to get a third inning out of the punk rocker Kerfeld. But, you know, Kerfeld is a big guy. Wally Backman, coming up with one out, opts to save his bunts for another day and raps one toward third that ricochets off the glove of Denny Walling. He takes and aggressive lead of first, and Kerfeld tries to pick him off, but in perhaps the TURNING POINT OF THE GAME, he instead throws wild, sending Backman into scoring position with still on out and the heart of the order coming up. Kerfeld intentionally walks Keith Hernandez to take one more crack at Gary Carter, in the midst of a 1-21 slump. Carter works a full count before singling up the middle and OH MY GOD THE METS WINNNN!!!!! Thier second walkoff win of the series!



The accounts of the day remind me that double-plays were a big part of the story.

• The Astros led off the second with two straight singles, but Gooden defused the rally by striking out Ashby and getting a double-play on Craig Reynolds. Replays suggested Fred Brocklander blew the call and Reynolds beat the relay.
  
  
• The Mets attempted to get out of the fifith-inning Astro rally with a doubleplay, but Backman doubleclutched on the relay, and Brocklander, perhaps as a subconscious make-good, called Doran safe, giving the Astros their lone run.
  
  
• In the eighth, a hard-charging Mookie Wilson corralled what looked like a line single by Walling and had Billy Doran doubled easily off of first.

On to Game Six. Ojeda vs. Knepper, with Mike Scott looming... ever looming. This might be good.

[HahnSolo]

Amazing that the Mets went down in order 9 out of 12 innings and still won.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

got an email alerting me to a 86 reunion at Strawberrys Grill. Only $599 a ticket!

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: got an email alerting me to a 86 reunion at Strawberrys Grill. Only $599 a ticket!

with a list of the players that "might" attend.

[Benjamin Grimm]

For $599 they better let you into the porn room!

[Frayed Knot]

Darryl Strawberry extending his arms against Nolan Ryan is a whole lot of power, and in this case resulted an a long homer down the rightfield line.

I remember that HR for how atypical a Strawberry swat it was; instead of the high almost punt-like paths to CF/LCF that were his usual fare, this one was a line-drive down the RF line that didn't get much higher than the top of the fence and got there so quickly that it could easily have wound up a single until it just snuck over the wall before ricocheting back-and-forth four or five times between the shell of the stadium where the old 341' mark had been and the back of the then "new" wall.