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| Forever Young does what had never been done. (AP Photo) |
On Thursday, the Mets defeated the Atlanta Braves, 6-4, giving them just their fifth series win at Turner Field in their last 19 series there. As rare as a series victory has been for New York in the house that Ted built, the Mets had won four series there since 2008 prior to Thursday's win. But something else happened Thursday night that was even rarer than the Mets taking two-of-three in Atlanta. And it made Eric Young, Jr. the answer to a fascinating trivia question.
Young was a true tablesetter in the series finale, going 3-for-5 and reaching base a fourth time on a fielder's choice. Young stole three bases for the Mets and scored all four times he reached base, becoming the first player in team history to score four runs and steal three bases in the same game.
Prior to Thursday, the only Mets with as many as four hits and two steals in a single game were Bob Bailor, who accomplished the feat on September 8, 1982 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Luis Castillo, who scored five runs and stole two bases on June 27, 2008 versus the Yankees. That was also the game Carlos Delgado produced a club-record nine RBI.
The only time an opposing player ever manufactured a four-run, three-steal game against the Mets was on July 1, 1998, when Toronto's Shannon Stewart turned the trick in a 15-10 shootout lost by the Mets at the Skydome.
Congratulations to Eric Young, Jr. on defining what a tablesetter does. He stole three bases to set up run-scoring opportunities and he crossed the plate four times, almost single-handedly defeating the Braves. In doing so, Young became the first Met in history to put up those numbers in the same game.
In the words of the late, great Mel Allen, "How about that?"
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