IGT 8/30@Phi Th-Th-Th Third, Third Third. Third is the Word.

[batmagadanleadoff]

BASEBALL; In a Bruising Outing, the Mets Rally and Win
By JOE SEXTON
Published: August 10, 1990

There was blood, both bad and real. There were bruises, to egos as well as to arms and legs. Oh, and there was a ball game, too. That, the Mets won, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies last night, 5-4, at Shea Stadium. The game was obscured by a fifth-inning brawl, a tangled affair that took 20 minutes to defuse and one that will no doubt require an official National League inquiry to fully sort out. The Mets and the Phillies, teams with a history of hostility toward each other, last night staged a ferocious slugfest, a full card of wild matchups that included an umpire scoring the night's most dramatic takedown as well as the ejections of six players and a coach. A Hush in the Dugout ''Scary,'' said Bud Harrelson, the manager of the Mets. ''Nasty,'' said Randy Marsh, the home-plate umpire. ''The dugout was pretty quiet after it,'' said Howard Johnson, the Mets third baseman whose bat produced the evening's most devastating haymaker. There was plenty to be sobered by. The melee, one that may have traced its origins to an exchange of threatening pitches in Wednesday afternoon's game between the two teams, erupted in the fifth when Pat Combs's first pitch of the inning drilled Dwight Gooden in the knee. Gooden, who hit two Phillies with pitches in the first five innings, instantly tore off his helmet and headed for the mound. He was tackled from behind and punched repeatedly from on top by Darren Daulton, the Philadelphia catcher. ''I wasn't sure what he was going to do,'' Gooden said of Combs, denying he had intentionally hit either Dickie Thon or Tom Herr. ''I was going to take one pitch and see what happened. You've got to do what you've got to do.'' Leyva Lauds Combs Nick Leyva, the manager of the Phillies, said: ''Combs did the right thing. That's the way the game should be played.'' No game, though, was played for the next 20 minutes as serious scraps and bizarre standoffs broke out, incidents that included Joe West, an umpire, dumping Dennis Cook, a pitcher for the Phillies, to the infield dirt, and Darryl Strawberry, one of Gooden's best friends, becoming his most public defender. Strawberry, unable to get to Daulton, got pitched to the ground for his trouble. Gooden, Strawberry and Tim Teufel were eventually ejected for the Mets. Combs, Daulton and Cook were banished for the Phillies. ''It's the worst I've seen in a while,'' said Marsh, who said he had police reinforcements in mind as a last resort. ''It was a bad situation, and it kept dragging on.'' The game didn't exactly wrap itself up neatly once it was resumed. The Mets, trailing by 3-1 at the moment of the fight, struck for three runs in the sixth as Johnson cranked a two-run homer to level the score and Kelvin Torve set off more crowd noise than he probably had in his 10 years in the minor leagues with his two-run double to right center one out later. The onslaught helped the Mets pull within a half-game of the first-place Pirates in the National League East after Pittsburgh lost to the Montreal Expos. Dykstra Drives in 3 Even so, the Mets were far from secure. Len Dykstra drove in his third run of the night with his fourth hit of the game in the eighth off John Franco to make the score 5-4. In the ninth, Franco permitted runners to reach first and third. ''I wasn't,'' Franco said, ''as sharp as I'd have liked to be.'' This was understandable on a night when everybody, it seemed, was on edge. 'Hey, we're not afraid to fight anyone,'' Johnson said. ''Teams ask for it, it's obvious what reaction they'll get. It did wake us up.'' The entire episode was likely set in motion during Wednesday's 8-4 triumph by the Mets when Philadelphia's Don Carman and the Mets' David Cone exchanged stares and dangerous pitches of questionable intent. The lingering uneasiness was restored when Gooden hit Thon with a pitch in the second and then plunked Herr in the fifth. ''It ran through my mind that two of their guys had now been hit,'' Johnson said. ''Then I started to think of yesterday. You got the sense. . . . Marsh, anyway, maintained that he never believed Gooden was throwing at the Phillies but that Combs had specifically targeted Gooden. ''It was obvious,'' the umpire said.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Guest

[Edgy MD]

The article seemingly suggests Gooden never got to Combs before Daulton hopped on him from behind. The video evidence you provide suggests otherwise. Good job.

Oh, and... Kelvin Torve!

[batmagadanleadoff]

[seawolf17]

Gah, I hate those grey unis with the maroon/purple P. I associate them with Von Hayes going 5-for-5 in every game against us.

[batmagadanleadoff]

You think the powder blues with the maroon "P" evoke warmer memories? The first think I think of is Schmidt and Luzinski launching rockets off of Puleo, Bomback and Pacella into the Shea sky and into the farthest sections of the old Vet.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Mike Baxter, who is wearing the number that should have been retired for Bernard Gilkey, makes with the leadoff KABOOM.

[Edgy MD]

Ba-X-ter.

That's a more bad-ass way of writing it. Hardcore, if you will.

[Edgy MD]

Oh, and

[*:2f1w5iql]Baxter, rf[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Murphy, 2b[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Wright, 3b[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Davis, 1b[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Duda, lf[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Hairston, cf[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Cedeno, ss[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Thole, c[/*:m:2f1w5iql]
[*:2f1w5iql]Niese, sp[/*:m:2f1w5iql][/list:o:2f1w5iql]

I'm glad to see Duda not anchored to right field and I wish they moved him around more earlier in the year.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Edgy DC wrote: Ba-X-ter. That's a more bad-ass way of writing it. Hardcore, if you will.

Another couple of Xes wouldn't hurt, either.

[Edgy MD]

BA=#BF8040]X=#BF8080]X=#BF8040]XTER

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Edgy DC wrote: BA=#BF8040]X=#BF8080]X=#BF8040]XTER

In the words of Lucy Van Pelt, THAT'S IT!!!

Meanwhile, more kaboomage. We love Hairy!

[Edgy MD]

Hairy has a chance at 20 homers, and maybe a sweet little offseason contract to boot.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Yes, and I have a feeling he'll be working toward that number in San Francisco, California.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Neise wriggles out of a bit of trouble but does allow one run. 2-1 Metsies after 3.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: I'm glad to see Duda not anchored to right field and I wish they moved him around more earlier in the year.

And I'm glad to see Jason Bay not anchored to left field.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Bah. Wiggy doubles in Mayberry and Lerud singles to follow. Shmendrick sacs, so it's 2nd & 3rd, two out for Rollins. Bad read by Wiggy or it would be 3-2 Phils.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Furtherbah. Fransen doubles and scores on a sac fly. 3-2 Phils.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

I hate one-out doubles by the opposing pitcher, and I really hate passed balls on the next pitch.

[bmfc1]

Jesus. That's the 3B's ball. Ike is second choice. Ridiculous. Niese has to get the hell out of the way.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

And I really really hate sky-high popups in front of the mound that nobody catches.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

And somehow they don't give up a run.

[MFS62]

The Yahoo box score shows Niese with 97 pitches through 6, and Kendrick about 2/3 of that. Is Niese getting squoze by the ump?

Later

[Frayed Knot]

MFS62 wrote: The Yahoo box score shows Niese with 97 pitches through 6, and Kendrick about 2/3 of that. Is Niese getting squoze by the ump

No, he's giving up lots of hits.

[Edgy MD]

Come on, you Mets! Third place is your'n!

[Benjamin Grimm]

If you tell them it's urine they may not want it.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: If you tell them it's urine they may not want it.

Well, Ike pissed that rally away.

[Zvon]

bmfc1 wrote: Jesus. That's the 3B's ball. Ike is second choice. Ridiculous. Niese has to get the hell out of the way.

Haven't seen all the game but I saw this and it was in a perfect spot, exactly on a line to the mound between 1st and 3rd. Wright could have caught it, Ike could have caught it. And even though he should have yielded, Niese should have caught that. It went right through him. I thought he swallowed it and shit it out.

[bmfc1]

Please GKR, talk even more about Jeter. Mets fans LOVE that.

[bmfc1]

Zvon wrote: Jesus. That's the 3B's ball. Ike is second choice. Ridiculous. Niese has to get the hell out of the way. Haven't seen all the game but I saw this and it was in a perfect spot, exactly on a line to the mound between 1st and 3rd. Wright could have caught it, Ike could have caught it. And even though he should have yielded, Niese should have caught that. It went right through him. I thought he swallowed it and shit it out.

You're right Zvon, Niese should have caught it but on IF pop-ups, I always was told, and taught, that the 3B is the 1st priority, followed by 1B. Niese may have called off everyone else, leading to the clusterfuck, but on paper, David should have taken charge. Cal disagrees: http://www.ripkenbaseball.com/cc/notebook/index.html?article_id=582

[Zvon]

bmfc1 wrote: bmfc1 wrote: Jesus. That's the 3B's ball. Ike is second choice. Ridiculous. Niese has to get the hell out of the way. Haven't seen all the game but I saw this and it was in a perfect spot, exactly on a line to the mound between 1st and 3rd. Wright could have caught it, Ike could have caught it. And even though he should have yielded, Niese should have caught that. It went right through him. I thought he swallowed it and shit it out. You're right Zvon, Niese should have caught it but on IF pop-ups, I always was told, and taught, that the 3B is the 1st priority, followed by 1B. Niese may have called off everyone else, leading to the clusterfuck, but on paper, David should have taken charge. Cal disagrees: http://www.ripkenbaseball.com/cc/notebook/index.html?article_id=582

I agree with you. I played third base in baseball and softball and I, as the 3rd baseman, would have had a good angle to approach and take charge of the situation. Problem there was no one took charge. Yea, as I third baseman I would have felt that was my bad.