Amazin’ Look Back – 7/29/73: Expos Nip Mets Late

The Mets dropped the ball late today as Ray Sadecki fell apart in the eighth inning to hand the Expos a 6-4 victory. Mike Marshall scooped up the win for the visitors from Quebec, and Sadecki was stuck with the loss.
July 30, 2011; Washington, D.C., USA; During a game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets a fan holds a sign in support of the Montreal Expos team at Nationals Park. The Nationals defeated the Mets 3 – 0. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
After falling behind 2-0 in the third, the New Yorkers responded for two runs in each of the next two innings. Substitute Jim Beauchamp plated two on a double in the fourth, and after Montreal retook the lead with a run in the top of the fifth, singles by Felix Millan and Rusty Staub made it 4-3 for the home team.
Meanwhile, Sadecki was solid in the sixth and seventh frames and appeared to be on the way to shutting down the Canadians for good. But a leadoff single by Ken Singleton led to him scoring the tying run on Bob Bailey’s double two batters later. Sadecki then walked the bases loaded and provided Ron Fairly the chance to play hero, which he did in the form of a two-run single.
The Mets almost did the same thing to Marshall in the eighth, forcing him to walk the bases loaded with two out. But Millan’s fly ball sailed right to the right fielder Singleton, and it was all for naught. New York put runners on first and second with one out in the ninth inning as well, but Jerry Grote grounded into the game-ending 5-4-3 double play to spoil the night for the 28,205 fans who visited Shea Stadium.
The starting lineups were as follows:
Montreal Expos
New York Mets
1
2B1
CF2
CF2
2B3
RF3
RF4
1B4
LF5
3B5
1B6
C6
C7
LF7
3B8
SS8
SS9
P9
P
The Mets will play their 99th and 100th games of 1973 tomorrow as they host the Expos in a doubleheader.
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