The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans like their games to be neverending
You can't play 16 innings without playing 15 innings.
That sounds like something that Yogi Berra would have said and maybe he did. Shoot, he was on the 1986 Astros who played a very famous 16-inning game against the Mets and also played a less-famous 15-inning game against the Mets this week in 1986.
It's the less-famous game that's on our list for review today. The Channel 20 version from Houston with Milo Hamilton, Gene Elston and Larry Dierker is available on YouTube and though I didn't watch the entire 5 1/2-hour broadcast, I did watch enough to get the full broadcast flavor and the most important game highlights. So, buckle up 'cause we're Doin' it up right (the 1986 Astros slogan).
Hey Yogi!
We pick this one up in the eighth inning on a Sunday afternoon with the Astros trying to take three of four. Other things happened during the weekend for the Mets, but we're not going to get into them (you could look 'em up). Sid Fernandez started for the Mets and Jim Deshaies did likewise for the Astros. The score was tied 2-2 until the bottom of the sixth when Kevin Bass homered, and Alan Ashby, who had a great series, doubled in Jose Cruz.
Kudos to whichever member of the 20Vision Sports production team tempted fate by asking and answering this trivia question at the start of the inning.
An appropriate question given what would happen in this game.
In fact, this graphic stayed on the screen so long that you missed the Aurelio Lopez pitch that Kevin Mitchell hit over the right field fence, cutting the Astros lead to 4-3. Three pitches later, Keith Hernandez homered and the game was tied.
One of the distinct traits of a 20Vision broadcast was the unusual angle that it used for its center field shot. Most of the time this camera is lined up right behind the pitcher. Sometimes it's a little to the right. This one is distinctly to the pitcher's left.
Brief digression: Alert viewers will recognize the angle from the Mets highlight film, A Year to Remember.
Anyways, back to the game. After the two homers Astros broadcaster Gene Elston said "They don't give up. They can make a comeback any time from any deficit." The Mets had actually come back from 4-0 down in the ninth inning the day before only to lose on a walk-off homer by Craig Reynolds.
All the Mets comebacks did well to foreshadow Games 3 and 6 of the NLCS. In this case, it was a sneak preview of what they'd do to Aurelio Lopez in the playoffs.
The Mets ended up taking the lead. George Foster executed a perfect hit-and-run with Darryl Strawberry on first base to put runners on the corners and when Astros second baseman Bill Doran couldn't finish a double play against Ray Knight, the Mets led, 5-4 (not the last time Knight would put the Mets ahead 5-4 in Houston late in a game).
In the bottom of the eighth Doug Sisk tried to protect the one-run lead and -as was the case sometimes with Sisk- it didn't go well. Wally Backman made a nice play at second base, but Sisk missed the bag covering first and Jose Cruz was safe. Ashby's single tied the game, 5-5. Dickie Thon then hit a popup over Backman's head at second base. Backman retreated, got a glove on the ball, but couldn't catch it.
Sisk was PISSED when he came out of the game, pointing at the first base umpire and yelling at him. Jesse Orosco came in and ended up hitting Doran with the bases loaded to put the Astros ahead, 6-5. Denny Walling then singled to right field to bring in two runs. Astros 8, Mets 5.
It was a bottom of the eighth inning that was something out of a horror movie for the Mets.
Speaking of which, this was your morning entertainment if you watched 20Vision at 9 in the morning. It was Morning Monster Madness Week.
Scary movies at 9 a.m. Sounds like a Texas kind of thing to do.
Another brief digression. When the Astros broadcasters started going through the Out-of-Town Scoreboard prior to the start of the ninth inning, one score got my attention. The White Sox defeated the Yankees, 8-0, behind a shutout from my all-time favorite player, Neil Allen.
Yes, Neil Allen is my favorite … as I've noted before, he was nice to me at a baseball card show just prior to getting traded for Keith Hernandez. I'm forever loyal (learn the full story HERE).
What was distinct about this shutout was that Allen had 0 strikeouts, 0 walks, and pitched a two-hitter. In the 40 years since there have been three 0 and 0 shutouts, the last by Rick Porcello in 2014. No Met has thrown one. And none of the three were two-hitters or better.
Back again to the ninth inning where the Mets had some work to do, down by three runs (this will feel familiar when they experience it again a few months later).
Do you think a three-run lead is comfortable against the Mets? Houston announcer Milo Hamilton posed the question. The answer: "Not the way they played us this year." Prescient.
Astros reliever Dave Smith couldn't finish the Mets off (also familiar). A leadoff walk to Howard Johnson started things. Keith Hernandez's one-out opposite-field single (not far from his Game 6 oppo-field double) brought Johnson in to cut the Astros lead to 8-6. Smith then hit Carter with a 3-0 pitch and was subsequently yanked for lefty Frank Dipino. Dipino had given up a game-tying 10th-inning home run to Darryl Strawberry 17 days earlier. This time he struck Strawberry out on three pitches. The Mets were down to their last out.
But sometimes rallies come from the unlikeliest places. Rafael Santana entered the day hitting .166 but blooped a single to right that scored Hernandez and moved Carter to third base. In his last 68 games of the season, starting with this one, Santana would hit .266.
"The wheels have fallen off the bullpen cart lately," lamented Hamilton.
The cart spun further out of control when pinch-hitter Ed Hearn smashed a single to center, scoring Carter. Mets 8, Astros 8. The Astros could have saved this one a lot of trouble had they scored in the bottom of the ninth, but Howard Johnson made a nice play on a ground ball, then stepped on third and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.
Things started to get loopy in the 11th inning. A likely-overserved fan began screaming strike calls, as if he were Enrico Palazzo from The Naked Gun, mid-pitch. "Steee-rike 1 …. Stee-rike 2." I don't know if this was enough of a distraction such that Dipino than hit Hernandez in the hand with a pitch, but it certainly could have been. Astros manager Hal Lanier was ejected for arguing the ball hit the bat and not Hernandez's hand, but Hernandez's reaction was such that I think Lanier was wrong.
That marked the sixth time that Hernandez reached base in this game.1 But he didn't score on this one. The Astros didn't score in the 11th either as Dykstra made a tumbling catch in center field and Ashby, who had 7 hits and 6 RBI in the four-game series, flew out with two men on base.
The 12th inning was interesting for those of you that are baseball broadcasting nerds. You're probably used to the camera angle that shows the view of a stolen base attempt from a camera behind home plate. Channel 20 used the center field camera, which produced this shot when Bill Doran tried to steal.
The benefit to shooting from this angle … you really appreciate the puffs of dust.
The replay came from the home plate camera and it showed that the umpires blew the call. Doran was called safe but was definitely out. There's clear and convincing evidence. Alas, there was no way to overturn the call.
Safe???
It was kind of a make-up because earlier in the at-bat the umpires missed a clear balk by Mets reliever Roger McDowell. It all ended up not mattering. The Astros didn't score. We went to the 13th, 14th, and then 15th still tied.
This game finally reached its end point, but not without controversy. Bill Doran led off with a single. With Billy Hatcher up, Milo Hamilton said "You got a mortgage you wanna pay off. Bet on bunting." No word on if Milo's comment was sponsored by FanDuel. He also noted "Bunting is no guarantee with Keith Hernandez playing first," which is something that Mets fans no very well.
Hatcher bunted, deadening the ball with his bat, advancing Doran to second. McDowell then intentionally walked Denny Walling after the count went to 3-1. That was interesting strategy because it brought up the eventual MVP runner-up Glenn Davis, who had 8 hits in the series. McDowell got ahead 1-2 but Davis got it to 3-2 and McDowell hit him in the butt with a pitch.
So now the bases were loaded with No. 5 hitter Kevin Bass up. This is basically bizarro 1986 NLCS Game 6 right here. Game on the line, Bass vs McDowell instead of Jesse Orosco. Bass hit a slow grounder to first that Hernandez charged and threw home to Gary Carter. The runner (Bill Doran) and ball got to home plate at basically the same time. Home plate umpire Greg Bonin and Astros broadcaster Larry Dierker got the last word on this one.
"Tie goes to the runner." Bonin called him safe. It is an extraordinarily close play and after 40 years, I'm willing to concede that the ump could be right here. The Mets weren't. They argued hard.
Mad Mets.
And boy, that's a tough way to lose. The win meant more to the Astros than it did to the Mets. It kept them in a tie for first place with the Giants. It was part of a six-game winning streak, with the last five wins all being by walk-off. The Astros would move into sole possession of first place in the next game after this one and never relinquish that spot.
They would see the Mets next in October.
You can contact me on Bluesky or via e-mail ([email protected]). You can find my other newsletter, which summarizes interviews I do with journalists, here.
1 Keith Hernandez had two games in his career in which he reached base safely 6 times. There was this game and there was one other … played 2 days later!