The Mets Look to the Future by Trying to Avoid a Repeat of the Past

Matt Harvey and his teammates hope to turn their frowns upside down in 2016.  (David J. Phillip/AP)

The 2015 Mets had a wonderful season that ended in disappointment, as the team's fifth World Series appearance resulted in their third Fall Classic defeat.  The two previous times the Mets won the pennant but lost the title, they had poor seasons in the year immediately following their World Series appearance, with the 1974 squad going 71-91 and the 2001 club needing a sizzling September to barely finish the year with a winning record (82-80).

Clearly, the 1974 and 2001 squads are not the the same as the team that what will become the 2016 Mets.  But there are some similarities with the '74 squad that should be looked at if the Mets want to avoid regressing to the style of play that permeated Citi Field from 2009 to 2014.

During the 2015 regular season, Mets pitchers were decent at keeping opponents off the scoreboard from the eighth inning until the game's conclusion.  They allowed 139 runs in 331 innings after the seventh frame - an average of 3.78 runs per nine innings.  (The team as a whole allowed 613 runs in 1,462⅔ IP, an average 3.77 runs per nine innings.)  But that changed in the postseason, as Mets pitchers combined to give up 22 runs in 34 innings in the eighth frame and beyond - an average of 5.82 runs per nine innings.

Now let's compare this to what happened in 1973 and 1974.  The 1973 Mets allowed 112 runs after the seventh inning.  In 1974, the pitching staff combined to give up 150 runs from the eighth inning on.  That's nearly a 34% increase in runs allowed in the late innings and in extra frames from their pennant-winning season to their lackluster 71-91 followup campaign.

The 2015 postseason began to show a crack in the late inning armor.  That cannot continue in 2016 if the Mets don't want a repeat of what happened in 1974.  Making sure the bullpen - especially Jeurys Familia - is not overworked, is critical to the success of next year's team.

Speaking of Familia, let's look at the closer in 1973 - Tug McGraw.  McGraw recorded 25 saves in the Mets' pennant-winning season and allowed runs in 18 of his 58 relief appearances.  A year later, McGraw struggled, giving up runs in 20 of his 37 relief efforts and recording a mere four saves.  (The Mets bullpen as a whole had just 14 saves in 1974 - the lowest total by any Mets team since the save became an official statistic in 1969.)  It should be noted that between the regular season and the playoffs, McGraw pitched a whopping 137⅓ innings in 1973, which was 26⅓ innings more than his previous career high.  Similarly, Familia reached a career high in innings pitched in 2015, tossing 92⅔ innings last season after never having pitched more than 77⅓ innings in parts of three major league seasons before 2015.  Familia's workload cannot be as heavy in 2016 if the Mets want him to continue to be one of the most reliable closers in the game.

Do I have to get on my knees for the Mets not to overuse Familia in 2016?  (John Starks/Daily Herald)

Moving on to the hitting, the 2015 Mets batted .244 as a team, which was only one percentage point ahead of the San Diego Padres, who finished the season with a league-worst .243 team batting average.  However, the Mets finished near the league average in on-base-plus-slugging (OPS), posting a .712 OPS which was just under the league average of .713.  Both numbers improved when there were runners in scoring position, as the Mets batted .252 with a .736 OPS in RISP situations.

The same thing could be said for the 1973 squad, a team that batted .246 overall with a .653 OPS in all situations during the regular season.  But when there were runners in scoring position, those numbers increased to .254 and .702, respectively.  A year later, the 1974 club could only manage a .238 batting average and .644 OPS with runners in scoring position.  Both of those numbers were worse than what the 1973 squad put up in all situations.

By not being able to drive in runners from second or third base, the 1974 team put more pressure on their pitchers to allow fewer runs and the moundsmen were not up to the task, as Tom Seaver posted the first non-winning season of his career and Jon Matlack had a 13-15 won-loss record despite his 2.41 ERA and seven complete-game shutouts.  The 2016 Mets must continue to drive in runners when they reach scoring position.  If they lose Yoenis Cespedes and Daniel Murphy to free agency, the two players must be replaced with guys who are effective in RISP situations.

Another crucial hitting situation is the one that involves a runner on third base with two outs, where a hitter cannot settle for a fly ball to drive in the runner as he would when there are fewer than two men out.  In 2015, the Mets were not very good in these situations, batting .209 with a .648 OPS.  However, the 1974 squad would have loved to have had that type of production with two outs and a runner on third.  That team batted just .198 and had a measly .547 OPS when those situations occurred - a far cry from the .236/.652 marks the team put up in its pennant-winning 1973 campaign.  The .209/.648 performance by the 2015 club with a runner on third and two outs was not very good and must be improved in 2016 if the team wants to compete for another postseason berth.  If those numbers get any worse, the team could be looking at a sequel to the 1974 season.

Finally, let's look at the Mets' ability to win close games.  The 2015 team was 25-24 in games decided by one run, went 9-6 in extra-inning affairs and only lost four games via the walk-off.  All of those numbers are quite acceptable.  The 1973 pennant-winning Mets - a team that finished the regular season with an 82-79 record - wasn't nearly as good as their 2015 counterparts in close games, as they went 31-32 in one-run contests, 7-12 in extra innings and 6-9 in walk-off games.  However, those numbers were superior to what the Mets produced in 1974 - a year in which they finished 17-36 in one-run games, 4-16 in extra-inning contests and 3-14 in games that ended on a walk-off.  Clearly, the 2016 club must continue to play well in tight ballgames.  To fall as far as the 1974 squad did in the late innings and in extra innings would be disastrous.

The 2015 Mets went places that no one expected them to go.  Although they fell just short of a World Series title, they have the pieces in place to make another run at the team's third championship.  But they can't fall into the trap that befell the 1974 Mets.  That team had a closer that was overused in the previous pennant-winning campaign, could not keep opponents off the scoreboard in the late innings, had difficulty driving in runs with runners in scoring position and was absolutely useless in getting runners in from third base when the other team needed one out to get out of the inning.  The 1974 club followed up their World Series-losing season by winning 71 games.

The 2016 squad still has many players who participated in all or most of the six straight losing seasons the team recorded from 2009 to 2014.  Although those players have wonderful memories of 2015, the memories of those sub-.500 campaigns are also still fresh in their minds.  Next year's team should look at what happened in 1974 and learn from that team's mistakes so as not to repeat history.  Terry Collins cannot overuse Jeurys Familia next year.  Sandy Alderson has to put together a bullpen that will not give up run after run in the late innings, a la the 1974 squad.  And the team has to show that even with the potential loss of Murphy and Cespedes, it can drive in runs in critical situations.

A dropoff in several key categories and positions killed the Mets' chances to return to the World Series in 1974.  It can do the same for the 2016 team.  Alderson, Collins and the players have to make sure the Mets don't repeat the past if they want to be successful in the future.

Quick Starts Don't Always Guarantee Happy Endings

For Mets fans, Charlie Culberson is proof that Bichette happens quite often at Coors Field.  (AP Photo by David Zalubowski)

In 2006, the Mets rolled to a division title.  The turning point of the season came in early June, during a three-city, ten-game road trip.  The Mets had opened up a seven-game bulge in the NL East by late April, but their lead in the division had been halved to a more tenuous 3½-game lead by early June.

New York split the first two games of their long road trip in 2006, but then won each of the remaining eight games, scoring in the first inning of all eight contests.  By the time the Mets returned to Shea Stadium, they had increased their lead to 9½ games and had lost sight of every division rival in their rear view mirror.  By racing out to quick starts in each game, the Mets increased their chances to win ballgames, and they took advantage of the early leads throughout the road trip and for the rest of the season.

The 2006 Mets scored in the first inning in 61 of their 162 games.  They had the lead after one inning 44 times.  They won 33 of those 44 games, for a .750 winning percentage.  It's not uncommon for a team to win a ballgame when it gets out to a fast start.  Even the 1962 Mets, who finished the year with a 40-120 record, went 16-21 in games in which they held the lead after one inning.  Their .432 winning percentage in those games was significantly higher than their overall .250 winning percentage.

That brings us to the curious case of the 2014 Mets.  This year's squad has gotten out to a better-than-expected 15-14 record.  However, they have lost three straight following Saturday night's heartbreaking loss to the Rockies.  The Mets scored three runs in the first inning, extended that lead to 6-0 two innings later, then watched the Rockies take the lead in the fifth.  New York came back to take a one-run lead in the ninth only to watch Charlie Culberson (who had never homered at Coors Field in 80 career plate appearances) blast a game-winning two-run homer to straightaway center field off Mets "closer" Kyle Farnsworth.

When the Mets scored three runs in the first inning, it marked the 12th time in 29 games they had crossed the plate in an opening frame.  But once Charlie Culberson touched home in the ninth inning, the Mets' record dropped to 3-9 in those dozen affairs.  That's a .250 winning percentage.  In other words, the 2014 Mets have had as much of a chance of winning when they score in the first inning as the 1962 Mets had of winning any game.  But even the original Mets were able to play better when they scored in the first than this year's squad.

It's still early in the season, and the Mets' awful record when they score first could easily turn around.  But it's become an alarming trend that starting pitchers are having trouble holding early leads and relievers also are experiencing technical difficulties protecting those precious leads.

The 2014 Mets have won 12 of 17 games when they haven't scored in the first inning.  Their luck changes dramatically when they do score in the opening frame.  It doesn't make any sense why this should be true.  But it needs to be corrected or else Sandy Alderson's prediction of 90 wins will prove false.
 

Plunks For The Memories

Jeurys Familia knows that he pitched a plunker of a game.  (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

If you were one of the many insomniacs who stayed up until 2:03am to watch the conclusion of the Mets' colossally important April interleague game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County near Disneyland where Gwen Stefani grew up, then you were witness to just the fourth walk-off loss on a hit batsman in franchise history.

When Jeurys Familia plunked Hank Conger in the bottom of the 11th inning with the bases loaded, he joined a small, but infamous fraternity that included Jack Aker, Greg McMichael and Scott Schoeneweis - pitchers who ended games on the road by throwing a pitch that made contact with the opposing batter.

But it's not who they hit that made Mets fans go to bed unhappy, it's when they hit them.  Of course, when you look at the short list of players who sacrificed their bodies for a bruise-off victory, maybe it's also who the pitchers hit that make Mets fans cringe.

On July 25, 1974, Jerry DaVanon of the Cardinals was hit by a poorly placed Jack Aker pitch, giving the Mets a 4-3, ten-inning loss in St. Louis.  DaVanon played eight years in the big leagues for five teams, collecting just 117 hits.  He had three homers in 574 career plate appearances.  In other words, grooving a pitch right down the middle probably wouldn't have hurt the Mets as much in that situation as throwing one into the body of DaVanon.

The Mets didn't suffer another embarrassing walk-off defeat for another 23 years.  It wasn't until Greg McMichael plunked Houston's Luis Gonzalez on August 3, 1997 that the Mets walked off the field a loser because of a hit batsman.  Granted, Gonzalez was not Jerry DaVanon at the plate, as he produced over 2,500 major league hits and 1,018 extra-base hits over his 19-year major league career.  But most of his success came after the 1997 season.  From 1998 to 2003, an average Gonzo season saw him produce a .306 batting average, 38 doubles, 32 homers, 108 RBI and 102 runs scored.  Prior to 1998, Gonzalez's average annual numbers were not quite the same (.268, 25 doubles, 10 HR, 60 RBI, 56 runs scored).  Perhaps McMichael was afraid Gonzalez would hit a walk-off double against him, explaining why he felt hitting the not-yet slugger was a safer bet.

The third time a Mets pitcher ended a game with a walk-off plunk was not a charm for New York, as Scott Schoeneweis hit San Diego's Paul McAnulty with a bases-loaded pitch in the bottom of the ninth on June 5, 2008.  McAnulty had himself a career that only his mother and Jerry DaVanon were proud of.  The former Padre played parts of five seasons in the majors, producing a fearsome .201 batting average and .325 slugging percentage.  At the time of his beaning by Schoeneweis, McAnulty had produced just 39 hits in his big league career in 214 plate appearances, numbers that clearly scared the Mets reliever in such a way that he couldn't get himself to throw a ball somewhere around home plate.  Fortunately for Schoeneweis, that wasn't the low point of his career with the Mets.  That would happen almost four months later, as he allowed Wes Helms' go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth inning in the last game ever played at Shea Stadium.  But hey, at least he didn't hit Helms with the bases loaded, right?  Because that would have been embarrassing.

In the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, Jeurys Familia joined Jack Aker, Greg McMichael and Scott Schoeneweis, becoming the fourth pitcher in Mets history to walk off the field as a result of a game-ending hit batsman.  Familia's victim was an unfamilar face in Hank Conger.  The artist formerly known as Hyun Choi Conger obviously changed his name to Hank to evoke fear in the hearts of pitchers and it clearly worked against Familia.  After watching all the tributes to Hank Aaron in Atlanta earlier in the week, Familia must have been spooked into grooving a pitch to another Hank, not knowing that the Angels' Hank had only produced 106 hits in parts of five seasons with Los Angeles/Anaheim/Orange County/Disneyland/Gwen Stefani.

If Familia never does anything else of importance in the major leagues, he can always say he's a member of an exclusive Mets fraternity - one that includes the unforgettable trio of Jack Aker, Greg McMichael and Scott Schoeneweis.  The bruises will heal on the bodies of Jerry DaVanon, Luis Gonzalez, Paul McAnulty and Hank Conger, but at least they will always be able to say "plunks for the memories".

Hank Conger has a boo-boo because of Jeurys Familia's boo-boo.  (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

The Mets Have Also Had Weird Walk-Off Losses

Photo by Elsa/GettyImages (via the NY Times)

On Saturday night, the Cardinals defeated the Red Sox in Game 3 of the World Series in bizarre fashion.  St. Louis had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning and the game tied, 4-4.  Jon Jay then hit a ground ball to second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who made an outstanding diving stop before throwing home to nail Yadier Molina at the plate.  Allen Craig, who was not running at 100% because of a sprained foot, then took off slowly for third base.  Seeing Craig scrambling to reach third, Jarrod Saltamacchia attempted to throw him out.  But his throw hit Craig and caromed into foul territory, where it was picked up by left fielder Daniel Nava.  His throw back to Saltalamacchia appeared to get Craig at the plate for the third out, but umpire Jim Joyce called interference on third baseman Will Middlebrooks, allowing Craig to score the winning run.  Middlebrooks had tripped up Craig after Saltalamacchia's throw sailed down the left field line.

It was as strange an ending to a game as Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, also lost when a Red Sox corner infielder allowed the winning run to score, this time against the Mets.  Although the Mets have never lost a game on an interference call, they have lost their share of games in other weird walk-off ways.  Let's take a look at some of them.

In addition to losing hundreds of games on game-ending hits, sacrifice flies and bases loaded walks (Kenny Rogers, you will never be forgiven), the Mets have also lost three games when a runner on third scored on a balk (most recently accomplished by Collin McHugh, who balked home Miami's Donovan Solano in R.A. Dickey's last start as a Met on October 2, 2012).

Similarly, there have been three instances in Mets history in which a pitcher forced in the winning run by hitting a batter with the bases loaded.  One such hit batsman helped set in motion the firing of the team's manager.

On June 5, 2008, the Mets were opening a four-game series in San Diego after taking two of three from the Giants in San Francisco.  They entered the series against the Padres playing good baseball, having won seven of their previous nine games to go from three games under .500 (23-26) to two games over (30-28).  But in a 1-1 tie, Scott Schoeneweis walked future Met Scott Hairston to lead off the bottom of the ninth.  Schoeneweis then issued two more walks (one of which was intentional) to set up a bases loaded matchup with Paul McAnulty, who sported a Mario Mendoza-like .210 career batting average entering the game.  Schoeneweis was trying to induce an inning-ending double play from the Padres' left fielder.  But he hit McAnulty with his first pitch, forcing in the winning run.  The loss ignited a five-game losing streak for the Mets.  One week later, manager Willie Randolph was fired.

A week after Schoeneweis plunked a Padre, Willie Randolph was "schoen" the door by the Mets.

Another rare way the Mets have lost in walk-off fashion is via the groundout.  On nine occasions, a ground ball out has failed to prevent the winning run from scoring.  And once, a double play couldn't even stop a walk-off loss.  On July 21, 1973, the Mets and Pirates went to the bottom of the ninth deadlocked at one.  Mets reliever Buzz Capra loaded the bases on a single and two walks.  With no outs, Tug McGraw came into the game and induced a ground ball from Bucs first baseman Bob Robertson.  The Mets were able to get a force at home and another out at second, but Dave Cash came all the way around from second base to score the winning run while the Mets were throwing the ball all over the place.  Therefore, a 4-2-9-6 double play produced a W-A-L-K-off loss.

The Mets have lost 21 games on a walk-off error, including one by the normally sure-handed Keith Hernandez on July 2, 1983, just two and a half weeks after the Mets acquired him from St. Louis.  Doug Sisk and Francisco Rodriguez are the only two pitchers to be victimized by walk-off errors twice.  Sisk was on the mound when the Mets lost games in 1984 and 1985 on miscues by Hubie Brooks and Rafael Santana, respectively.  Similarly, K-Rod walked off the field in disgust when Daniel Murphy made an error in September 2009.  It was the second time that season that Rodriguez witnessed a walk-off error from the mound, as just three months earlier, Luis Castillo made everyone want to "Forget Lou" after he failed to use two hands on an Alex Rodriguez pop-up at Yankee Stadium.

All of the above were certainly odd ways to lose games in walk-off fashion.  But perhaps the most bizarre walk-off loss in Mets history took place on July 27, 1967, in a game the Mets lost to the Dodgers in 11 innings, 7-6.  The Mets were already shorthanded, as only 21 players suited up for the team that day.  John Sullivan started for the Mets at catcher and delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning to pull the Mets to within one run of the Dodgers.  But manager Wes Westrum then foolishly used Jerry Grote - his sole remaining catcher on the bench - as a pinch-runner for Sullivan.  When Grote came in to catch in the bottom of the seventh, he started barking at home plate umpire Bill Jackowski about his strike zone.  After the inning was over, Grote continued to voice his displeasure over balls and strikes from the dugout and was tossed from the game.  That left Westrum without a catcher on his bench.  That is, until he called upon Tommie Reynolds to put on the catcher's gear.

Tommie Reynolds

Reynolds had never played the position before in a major league game.  But he took one for the team and squatted behind the plate for what he thought would be no more than two innings.  Of course, the game went into extra innings and the inexperienced Reynolds stayed in the game as the team's catcher.  Finally, in the 11th inning, with one out and runners at the corners, Reynolds couldn't handle a Jack Fisher pitch, allowing the winning run to score for the Dodgers.  The ruling by the official scorer was a passed ball by Reynolds.  It was the only time in Mets history that the team suffered a walk-off loss on a passed ball, and it was committed by a player who never caught another game in his career.

So you see, Red Sox fans, you're not alone when it comes to weird walk-off losses.  The Mets have done it all the time, even against your team in World Series play.  After all, this is baseball, where you're always bound to see something you've never seen before, just like Tommie Reynolds never saw that Jack Fisher pitch in 1967, a year the Red Sox also played the Cardinals in the World Series.

Will Middlebrooks is now part of a weird walk-off family.  But don't worry.  He'll have new family members to keep him company before too long.
 

Some Trivia About Mets Walk-off Losses

On Friday night, the Mets dropped the opener of their four-city, 11-game road trip, losing to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-4.  They were defeated when MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt hit the schmidt out of a Scott Atchison offering, leading the Diamondbacks to the walk-off win.

Walk-offs are nothing new against the Mets.  Friday night's defeat was the Mets' tenth walk-off loss of the season and the 421st against the team in franchise history, which includes three postseason walk-off losses.  (For the record, the Mets have won 387 regular season and postseason games via the walk-off, including eight such wins in 2013.)

Game-ending hits, walks, errors, wild pitchers, balks, etc. are common against the Mets, but I'm willing to wager a Scott Atchison autographed sundial (he still uses them to tell time) that you don't know everything there is to know about walk-off losses against the Mets.  So sit back, pop open a Rheingold, and enjoy a little bit of Mets trivia - Studious Metsimus-style - on those dang blasted walk-off losses.

Another day, another walk-off loss.  (Photo by Matt York/AP)

The Mets' first walk-off loss occurred on May 26, 1962, when Willie Mays took Jay Hook deep at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, turning a 6-5 Mets lead into a 7-6, ten-inning defeat.  However, by that time, the Mets had already experienced four walk-off victories, all of which came in a span of five days between May 12 and May 16.  Of course, by the next time the Mets won a game via the walk-off on July 7, 1962, the team had dropped five more games in this fashion.

The most walk-off losses registered by the Mets in a single season is 14, first accomplished by the 1974 Mets and then matched by the 1978 squad.  The fewest regular season walk-off losses in a single year is one, accomplished by the 1999 Mets (Armando Benitez allowed a game-ending homer to the Marlins' Mark Kotsay on June 30, 1999).  Unfortunately, the Mets' season ended that year on a walk-off walk by Kenny Rogers to Andruw Jones in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.

Many players have delivered game-ending hits (or other type plays) against the Mets over the years.  Several players have been a triple threat, beating the Mets three times via the walk-off.  Those players include Hall of Famers (Andre Dawson, Tony Gwynn, Tony Perez), former All-Stars (Dusty Baker, Cesar Cedeño, Ron Cey, Jim Davenport, Jim Edmonds, Dale Murphy), several active players (Dan Uggla, Ryan Zimmerman), a journeyman slugger (Bob Bailey), a former Rookie of the Year (Jerome Walton) and two guys named Manny (Manny Mota, Manny Trillo).  But only one player has delivered four walk-off hits against the Mets in team history.  That would be one Michael Jack Schmidt, who hit walk-off homers to defeat the Mets in 1974, 1975 and 1978, then kept it in the park for a game-ending RBI single against Roger McDowell in 1987.

Of their 418 regular season and three postseason walk-off losses, the most common way the Mets have lost via the walk-off has been on a single (194 losses).  That's followed by home runs (123, including ten grand slams), doubles (23), errors (21), walks (17) and sacrifice flies (17).  The Mets have also been victims of the walk-off loss through uncommon plays.  They've lost three games on walk-off balks and have been witnesses to two game-ending triples.  But the Mets have suffered only one walk-off loss because of a passed ball.  That occurred on July 27, 1967, when Tommie Reynolds could not handle a pitch by Jack Fisher, allowing Nate Oliver to score the winning run for the Dodgers in the bottom of the 11th.  Although Reynolds played for four teams from 1963 to 1972 (including 101 games for the Mets in 1967), it was his first and last appearance behind the plate in a big league game.

What don't you see in this photo of Tommie Reynolds?  Catching equipment.  That's because he wasn't a catcher.

Including last night's affair, the Mets have now lost 123 times on a game-ending home run.  Two pitchers share the team record for most walk-off homers surrendered, as both Jesse Orosco and Randy Myers allowed six game-ending home runs during their time with the Mets.  But Myers is alone when it comes to walk-off homers allowed in a single season.  In 1989, Myers gave up four such blasts, as he watched Rey Quiñones, Von Hayes, Mark Grace and Chris James circle the bases into the arms of smiling teammates.  Although he only pitched three full seasons in New York (he had cups of coffee with the Mets in 1985 and 1986), Myers was on the mound for ten walk-off losses, making it more palatable for the Mets to trade him to the Cincinnati Reds for John Franco (more on him later).  But those ten walk-off losses are not the most in Mets history.  In fact, they were eight short of the record at the time.

Neil Allen pitched for the Mets from 1979 until he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Keith Hernandez on June 15, 1983.  In his four-plus seasons with the Mets, Allen was victimized by the walk-off an incredible 18 times.  In 1980 alone, Allen walked off the mound six times while the opposing team celebrated their late victory.  Changing uniforms in 1983 did nothing to change Allen's penchant for the late-inning loss.  In the two seasons following the trade from the Mets to the Cardinals, Allen watched the Mets celebrate four walk-off victories against him, with the most memorable coming on Opening Day 1985, when Gary Carter took him deep in his first game as a Met.

Allen is no longer the team record-holder when it comes to being on the mound while the opponent is walking off with a win.  That distinction belongs to John Franco, who witnessed 25 walk-off celebrations from a distance of 60 feet, six inches.  Two players walked off against Franco twice.

Glenallen Hill hit a two-run homer off Franco on September 5, 1993 to give the Cubs a 2-1 victory over the Mets.  Hill then hit another game-ending homer off the longtime Met nearly two years later, giving the Giants a 6-5 win on September 1, 1995.

Steve Finley is the only other player to be at the plate against John Franco when Franco delivered the pitch that gave the opponent a victory.  However, one of those two walk-offs was made possible by an untimely error.  On September 7, 1993, just two days after he watched Glenallen Hill hit a game-ending two-run homer against him, Franco was on the mound for another walk-off celebration, although this one was created by poor defense.  A gaffe by Jeff Kent on a ball hit by Finley allowed the winning run to score in a 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Astros.  Nearly ten years later, Finley victimized Franco again, but this time the blame was all on Franco's shoulders.  On August 9, 2003, Finley became the first Diamondback to hit a walk-off home run against the Mets, connecting on a solo blast in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Arizona a 2-1 victory.

Steve Finley might have walked off against the Mets twice, but he couldn't prevent this walk-off from happening.

And that brings us back to last night and Paul Goldschmidt's game-ending homer.  Goldschmidt's bomb came on the ten-year anniversary of Finley's homer.  Those two homers are also the only times the Diamondbacks have defeated the Mets with a walk-off homer.  The only other time Arizona walked off with a victory against New York was on July 21, 2010, when Chris Snyder delivered an RBI single off Fernando Nieve to end a 14-inning marathon in the desert.

The Mets have lost thousands of games over their 50-plus years of existence.  But there is nothing more heartbreaking than a walk-off loss.  And the Mets have had their share of those.  Whether it be on a game-ending homer or a passed ball by a catcher who had never played the position before, it never gets easier to watch a team you don't root for celebrating a late victory against the team you do.  That's just baseball for you.

I hope you enjoyed this piece on game-ending trivia and related minutia.  By reading it, you will no longer be at a loss when you walk off to tell your friends about it.