New York Mets: The best walk-offs hits in Mets history

One of the greatest finishes in sports is the walk-off win of a baseball game. The New York Mets have been a part of those giving the fans at Shea Stadium and Citi Field nights, or days, to remember.

There have been many walk-offs in the New York Mets history whether it was a walk-off home run, base hit, or a walk. Each one is always a special, fun moment as well as it could be against a division rival or a big come from behind win. The Mets have given fans exciting finishes both in the regular season as well as postseason games.

Just to start us off let us look back to 2016 when the Mets faced the Phillies and were trailing late in the game. Jose Reyes tied the game with a home run to send it to extras and we all know what happened next. Trailing by two in the eleventh inning Asdrubal Cabrera came up with a huge three-run walk-off home run to help the Mets stay alive in the wild card chase, and let us not forget about the little showboating from Cabrera.

Another big walk-off was the 2000 NLDS against the San Francisco Giants. Benny Agbayani hit a walk-off home run in the thirteenth inning to give the Mets a 2-1 series lead where they ultimately won in three games.

Mets fans also love when they can grab a walk-off against their crosstown rivals. It was a Friday night with Mariano Rivera, the best closer in baseball, on the mound in the ninth and David Wright took advantage of Johnny Damon playing shallow on him.

These are just a few of the fun walk-offs in Mets history; now let us take a deeper look into a few more memorable walk-offs from the Amazins.

The grand slam single

One of the most famous walk-off finishes, not only for the Mets but in MLB history, came back in 1999. It was the National League Championship Series between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves. The Braves led the series three games to one going into Game 5 in a must-win for the Mets.

The Braves had ace Greg Maddux on the mound so it was not going to be easy for the Mets but the Mets got on board first with to runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Braves knotted things up with two runs of their own in the fourth inning and it stayed that way for a while.

The game headed into extras and we found ourselves in the fifteenth inning. The inning started with Octavio Dotel on the mound for the Mets. Dotel was not able to keep the game tied as Keith Lockhart for the Braves came up with an RBI triple to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead and just three outs away from advancing to the World Series.

The Mets loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifteenth with one out and up came Todd Pratt. Pratt drew a walk to tie the game at three which then brought up Robin Ventura with a chance to win the game.

Kevin McGlinchy was the pitcher for the Braves and he fell behind Ventura on a 2-1 count. On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, Ventura hit a deep fly ball to right-center field. Bob Costas of NBC was on the call of the walk-off play:
“A drive to right….back to Georgia! Gone, a grand slam!”

A walk-off grand slam for the Mets to stay alive in the series, right……..let us look into what happened next.

As the ball cleared the fence in the right-center field the Mets were about to win the game 7-3 with the grand slam but only one player came across home plate. As Ventura was rounding first base, Todd Pratt who was on the bases as well, grabbed Ventura before he can get to second base and the entire Mets team was out celebrating in the middle of the bases.

Roger Cedeno was on third and was the only player to have touched home plate after the home run. With no other players touching home plate and Ventura only getting passed first base the official scoring of the play was an RBI single. Ventura was rewarded just one RBI on the play as well and the Mets officially won the game 4-3.

Wilmer turns tears to cheers

One of the wildest weeks in Mets history was in 2015 during the trade deadline. The Mets were close to first place but knew they needed something to be done if they wanted to reach the postseason for the first time since 2006.

In a game against the San Diego Padres on July 29th, 2015, just days before the trade deadline, the Mets reportedly had a trade made during the game. The reported deal was that the Mets were going to acquire Carlos Gomez from the Brewers with one of the pieces being Wilmer Flores.

Now when a player is reported to be traded he should be pulled from the game to save the risk of injury no? This was not just any reported deal though.

Flores stayed in the game which turned heads for a lot of fans who knew the deal was in place already and all the fans at Citi Field knew about thanks to social media. So when Flores came up to bat he received a huge standing ovation from the Citi Field crowd.

At this point, Wilmer Flores had to know something was up and after he grounded out and went to shortstop he began to get emotional. The camera caught Flores at shortstop with tears running down his face as he assumed his career with the Mets was finished. This is a kid who grew up in the Mets organization and loved where he was so the emotions made sense.

After the game reports came out that the deal fell apart due to Carlos Gomez’s physical and now all that was crazy, just got crazier. Mets manager Terry Collins was furious with reporters after the game for leaking information that was not true yet. In the postgame press conference he let reporters know it:

“You guys think this game is easy to play? Play it with s— like that going on in the background.”

The fun happened two days later where the Mets found themselves three games out of the NL East with a three-game series against the first-place Nationals. Flores was still a Met and was in the starting lineup in the series opener.

Flores got things going for the Mets with an RBI single in the second but the Nationals came back to tie the game in the eighth inning and this game headed to extras.

With neither team scoring in the first two extras inning Carlos Torres came in to pitch for the Mets and pitched a scoreless top of the twelfth. This set the Mets up for yet another walk-off opportunity with none other than Wilmer Flores leading off.

With a 1-1 count to Flores, the tears from Wednesday night quickly turned into Flushing cheers. Flores drilled a shot to deep left-center field for a walk-off home run to pull within two games of the division. Flores rounded third and grabbed his jersey by his chest and gave bumps pretty much saying hey this is where I want to be.

Citi Field was in a frenzy, not only for the walk-off but because Wilmer Flores walked it off. Flores was a huge fan favorite for the Mets and this exact moment was not only big for him but for all fans.

Gary Carter’s Amazin’ debut

The Mets finished the 1984 season with a 90-72 finishing in second place and missing the playoffs. The ninety wins was a huge jump for a team that did not win more than 68 games in a season since 1976. They knew a few moves had to be made to get over the hump in December of 1984 they did just that.

On December 10th, 1984, the Mets acquired Gary Carter from the Montreal Expos for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham, and Floyd Youmans. Carter was coming off six consecutive all-star seasons but the Expos did not want to meet Carter’s contract request.

The Mets knew the addition of Carter’s bat would be huge to this lineup and could help bring them into pennant contention. His debut with the Mets on April 9th, 1985 will always be considered one of the greatest Mets debuts in history.

The Mets opened the 1985 season at home against the St. Louis Cardinals on a chilly afternoon. Doc Gooden, coming off his 1984 Rookie of the Year season, got the nod to open the season for the Mets. Not only was the teenage phenom on the mound but this was the debut of the offseason acquisition of Gary Carter.

The Mets jumped out to a 5-2 lead on the Cardinals and getting Cardinals starter Joaquin Andujar chased in the fifth inning. After Gooden was able to get into the seventh for the Mets they then found themselves only holding on to a 5-4 lead heading into the ninth inning.

Doug Sisk was on the mound for the Mets in the ninth and he was not able to hold onto the lead. He walked in the tying run and the 1985 opener headed to extras after the Mets left the bases loaded in the ninth.

The Mets survived a tenth inning double from Ozzie Smith and set themselves up again to walk it off. Keith Hernandez led off the bottom of the tenth and struck out to start things off. Looming on deck was Gary Carter.

Not only was this his Mets debut but Carter was considered the best hitting catcher in baseball ad knew he had the potential to end a game with one swing.

Neil Allen was still on the mound for the Cardinals and with one out and a 1-1 count, he threw a hanging curveball to Carter. Carter turned on the curveball and hit deep to left field where Cardinals left fielder Lonnie Smith had to make a leaping attempt at the wall. The ball just cleared the glove of Smith and landed into the Mets bullpen and Gary Carter played the hero roll in his Mets debut.

Knowing the type of hitting Carter was and seeing what he did in his first game with the Mets, fans knew more good things were to come from “The Kid” during his Mets career. Just that happened as Carter made four more straight all-star appearances and was a huge piece to the Mets 1986 World Series championship team.

Todd Pratt sends the Mets to the 1999 NLCS

It was a Saturday afternoon game at Shea Stadium, the Mets vs the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS. The Mets were up two games to one in a best of three series and were one win away from advancing to the NLCS for the first time since 1988.

The Diamondbacks entered the postseason with the second-best record in baseball in 1999 only trailing the Atlanta Braves. The Mets on the other hand ended the season losing eight of their final twelve games and falling into a tie with the Cincinnati Reds for the NL Wild Card. The Mets and Reds played a tiebreaker for the Wild Card a day after the regular season ended. New York won 5-0 to secure their spot in the postseason.

It was a tight back and forth game all day and the Diamondbacks scored two in the top of the eighth to take a 3-2 lead with a chance to force a pivotal Game 5. The Mets however answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a Roger Cedeno sacrifice fly to tie the game after a defensive miscue for the Diamondbacks gave the Mets runners on the corners.

As in the previous slides, this game also ended up going into extra linings. Matt Mantei was the pitcher for the Diamondbacks in the tenth inning and retired the first batter Robin Ventura. Coming up next was Todd Pratt who was 0-7 at the plate in the series.

Todd Pratt took a 1-0 pitch from Mantei to deep centerfield and Steve Finley made a leap at the wall and then came the few seconds of silence. On the call for play-by-play was the legendary Chris Berman:
“Oh, that’s hit well to center field…Finley goes back, back, back… It’s over! it’s over! Todd Pratt, one of the most unlikely heroes, has hit it to dead center field the Mets have won it in ten 4-3!”

The centerfielder for the Diamondbacks was Steve Finley who was known for making spectacular plays in center field to rob hits so when he leaped and nobody knew if he caught it or not was very stressful.

When asked about whether he thought Finely made the play or not at first here is what Pratt had to say postgame:
“Right off the bat, I thought it had enough but then I saw Finley going back — like I’ve seen him do multiple times — and when he jumped I was like, ‘Ah, he got it.’ But as soon as he looked down at his glove, I knew he didn’t and the rest is history.”

The Mets went on to lost to the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS but this home run was one of the wildest frenzies at Shea Stadium according to some fans.