Mets win over the Red Sox in 1986 began with the Bob Ojeda trade

The 1985 trade between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox which brought Bob Ojeda to Flushing turned out to be the first step in winning the World Series.

Bob Ojeda was a big part of the New York Mets pitching staff in the latter part of the 1980s. The southpaw joined the club after several mediocre years with the Boston Red Sox. In his first year, Ojeda went 18-5 with a 2.57 ERA. It was a season worthy of a fourth-place Cy Young finish and a World Series ring at the end.

Ojeda continued to pitch well with the Mets for several more seasons. However, it’s the 1986 campaign that mattered most because of what he did in the regular season, postseason, and how it all began. Let’s connect some dots and see why the Ojeda trade sparked a championship in Queens.

The fact that Ojeda joined the Mets in a trade with the Red Sox less than a year before the two teams faced off against each other in the World Series is coincidence enough. The deal was a big one in terms of the number of players involved but not really in name-recognition. None of the others had anything close to the career Ojeda had, making him the outlier in this deal.

Ojeda is the same man the Red Sox traded away and had to face in Game 3 of the 1986 World Series. What made this special is that it was the first win by the Mets in the series.

After dropping the first two games at Shea Stadium, Ojeda went up to the familiar confines of Fenway Park where he helped take down Boston 7-1.

Several days later, Ojeda was on the mound to start another equally as important game. This time, with the Mets down to their last out, they stole Game 6 when the ball rolled between Bill Buckner’s legs.

Although we remember that moment most, the game started with Ojeda on the mound where he delivered six innings of two-run ball.

To make matters worse for the Red Sox in this outing, the man who earned the blown save and loss was one of the pitchers traded for Ojeda. Calvin Schiraldi was the man who came in relief for Roger Clemens. He’s the same one that gave up the three two-out singles to put the Mets in a position to win the game.

Who knew this trade for Ojeda would turn out to be so important?

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In the biggest of moments, he seemed to come through for the Mets in his first season. What’s more, one of the guys the Mets handed over to the Red Sox ended up becoming a goat in Boston even if Bob Stanley and Buckner had to eat the brunt of the hate. Without Schiraldi’s mishaps on the mound or Ojeda’s pair of quality starts, we might remember the 1986 Mets much differently.