Here’s what happened on this day in New York Mets history:
1988: After a 3-1 loss to Tom Browning and the Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets rightfielder Darryl Strawberry said the team was “dead” on the field. ”I describe it as getting too content,” he said. “You go out there and – dead. Nobody’s saying anything. You just have nothing going. Sometimes I wonder what’s going through guys’ minds. If we want to be a championship ballclub, we’ve got to act like one every day.”
1999: With John Franco on the disabled list with an injured finger, Armando Benitez posts a save in a 2-1 win against the Montreal Expos. After the game, Mets pitching coach Dave Wallace said, ”You know what he does? He has an idea of how to go after hitters. More so than I realized. In and out. Fastball, breaking ball. How to start a hitter off. He is ahead of where I thought he was.”
2006: Orlando Hernandez pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits as the New York Mets shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-0 at Shea Stadium. The Mets scored all five of their runs in the first inning. The team did not get another hit after the first innign either.
2008: The New York Mets beat the Phialdelphia Phillies, 9-4, but lose John Maine and Ryan Church to injury. Maine was removed in the sixth inning with cramps in his pitching arm, while Church began having migrane headaches, affects from a concussion two months earlier. Mets manager Jerry Manuel said later, “I just think if he has a headache, this is something he’s had before, so he probably has a feel for when it comes on, when something is coming on, that type of thing. If he can just let me know, that, hey, I feel today I might have one of those migraines, then we won’t play him.”