A Wild Finish in Milwaukee Allows the Mets to Accomplish Something They Hadn't Done Since 1985

Jeurys Saves!  And what a wild game he ended up saving...  (SNY screen shot)

The Mets defeated the Brewers at Miller Park on Friday night by the final score of 2-1, needing a bizarre play in the 11th inning to push across the go-ahead run.

Clearly, Milwaukee's infielders had not watched Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills video, as they attempted to retire Kelly Johnson after they had already retired him.  By losing track of which runner they needed to tag in the bases-loaded, one-out situation, Asdrubal Cabrera was able to hustle home with the Mets' second run of the game.  And once Jeurys Familia recorded his 70th career save (passing Neil Allen into 8th place on the team's all-time saves leader board in the process), the Mets were able to celebrate a highly unorthodox victory.

Six pitchers combined to allow just three hits in the 11-inning affair, as Matt Harvey, Hansel Robles, Antonio Bastardo, Jim Henderson, Jerry Blevins and Familia all contributed to the win by striking out 15 batters, with each hurler fanning at least one Brewer.

The low-hit, extra-inning effort was a rarity in Mets history, as it was just the fourth time the team had ever allowed no more than three hits in a game that lasted at least 11 innings.  And it was the first time they accomplished the feat since June 12, 1985 - almost 31 years ago to the day.

That date in 1985 looks awfully familiar.  Maybe it's because of what happened the day before...

After accomplishing the feat for the first time in 1967 (an 11-inning complete game win by Bob Shaw) and then repeating it in 1976 (Craig Swan and Skip Lockwood combined on the 14-inning three-hitter), the Mets waited until 1985 to record their third such game, when Ron Darling, Jesse Orosco and Rick Aguilera combined to allow three hits in the team's 11-inning victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on June 12.  What made that effort even more spectacular was that it came just one day after five Mets pitchers combined to give up 26 runs to the Phils - the most runs ever scored against the Mets in a single game.  The Von Hayes Game, as it's now known because of the Phillies' leadoff hitter's two homers and five RBI in the first inning alone, is still brought up by Mets fans whenever the team gets completely embarrassed by its opponent on the diamond.

The Mets have yet to allow as many as 26 runs in another affair since the Von Hayes Game.  (No team has crossed the plate more than 19 times in any contest against the Mets since June 11, 1985.)  And since the day after that forgettable game that no one can seem to forget, the Mets had also not played a game of at least 11 innings in which they gave up three hits or fewer.  Until Friday night, that is.

An unusual play in extra innings helped the Mets earn a win in Milwaukee on Friday night.  It also helped the Mets accomplish something they hadn't done in over three decades.  As the old saying goes, if you watch the game long enough, you're bound to see something you've never seen before.  If you watched the Mets game on Friday, you saw something you couldn't have seen more than three times before.

On The Road With Joey & Iggy: Weekend At Bernie's

Hello again, everyone!  We're Joey and Iggy Beartran and this is the road trip recap you've been waiting for!

Earlier today, we posted a recap of the Chicago part of our road trip, in which we visited U.S. Cellular Field (home of the Chicago White Sox) and Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs).  But the Mets were not involved in either game.  Instead, they were playing in Milwaukee, which according to the GPS system that got us lost and sent us to a seedy area of Milwaukee (where no Cheesehead would dare enter), was only 82 miles north of our hotel room in Rosemont, IL.  (Note to selves:  We might need a new GPS.  Just sayin'.)

After a winless week at Citi Field, the Mets tried to get back on the winning track at Miller Park.  Jonathon Niese was on the hill for the Mets, although the scoreboard crew in Milwaukee wanted us to think otherwise.

Spell Check, people!  It's Jonathon, not Jonathan!

The Mets scored two runs in the first and second innings, taking an early 4-0 lead over the Brewers.  The four runs scored by the Mets before we had gotten our first whiff of the bratwurst were completely unexpected, especially considering that the Mets had gone over a month since the last time they had scored four runs in a home game.  The road seemed to agree with them on Friday.

We almost missed the early outburst, as we were enjoying our dinner for the evening.  A Food Network cart had found its way into the ballpark, serving up buffalo chicken mac and cheese and a bacon sloppy joe sandwich with Fritos corn chips.  We only had two words for that.  Yes, please.

A cupful of buffalo chicken mac and cheese goes beautifully with a bacon sloppy joe sandwich.

After emptying Miller Park of all its napkins (the sandwich was a little messy but dang, was it exquisite), we returned to our seats for a few innings.  We got to see two things we hadn't seen in a while - a home run by Lucas Duda and an RBI by Josh Thole (on an extra-base hit, no less).

Once the Mets had a comfortable five-run lead, we decided to hit the Brewers Team Store, where you could buy the T-shirt of any Brewers player on the team.  No, seriously.  Any player.  They're all on the racks and on the walls, as seen in the photo below.

Yes, that's Bob Uecker's No. 9 T-shirt at the top right of the photo.  As always, he's got the furthest seat in the house.

Before we could start mumbling and grumbling about how the Mets took a million years to get a Jonathon (not Jonathan) Niese T-shirt in the Mets Team Store, we noticed a subsection of the Brewers Team Store called The Meat Locker, which is dedicated to the competitors in the daily Sausage Race.  In case you aren't familiar with the speedy sausages, they're in the photos below.

The top photo features the meaty racers and the bottom photo features our travel companion and sometimes correspondent, Ballapeño, with a stuffed version of his favorite sausage, Chorizo, whom he spotted in The Meat Locker.

After our pit stop in the team store, we finally made it back to our seats just in time for the ninth inning and another shaky effort by Ramon Ramirez.  With one out in the ninth, Ramirez walked shortstop Jean Segura and allowed an RBI triple to Tony Plush himself, Nyjer Morgan.  But faster than you can take out the Rolaids (which must be popular at Miller Park due to the artery-clogging ballpark fare), Ramirez retired the next two batters, preserving the victory for Jonathon (not Jonathan) Niese.

It was time to celebrate for the dozen or so Mets fans in attendance at Miller Park, so we whooped it up near the Mets dugout and fooled around on a lifesize replica of the Brewers' primary mascot, Bernie Brewer.  We then went back to the Brewers Team Store to let the Brewers bears have it as well.

The Mets went on to lose the next two games of the series to the Brewers, but at least we got to see their only victory of the weekend series at Miller Park.

We (including Ballapeño) totally enjoyed our Milwaukee experience, and we were very happy that the Brewers bears had no hard feelings because of our playful ribbing at their expense.  We had great seats, great food, great company (okay, so maybe there were a baker's dozen of Mets fans in attendance) and even got to see a rare Mets offensive outburst.  It was a perfect night if you were a Mets fan in Milwaukee.

Now about that Bob Uecker T-shirt in the team store, I wonder if it would fit this statue of him, located outside the ballpark.  He's got to get cold standing out there in the cold Milwaukee winters, don't you think?  (Thanks for reading our road trip recap!  See you on the road!)

Bob Uecker finally made it to the front row.