Gary Cohen, SNY.tv
Here's a story from SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen with his thoughts on each of SNY's Top 5 Mets games of the decade. To vote on ranking the Top 5, click here.
June 1, 2012: Johan Santana No-hitter
Growing up as a Mets fan, you were keenly aware of this odd quirk of the team's history. Despite having long been known as a franchise dominated by elite pitching, somehow the Mets had never had a pitcher author a no-hitter.
It wasn't that no pitcher who starred for the Mets had never thrown a no-hitter. No, it was far worse than that. Tom Seaver threw a no-hitter for the Reds. Nolan Ryan threw SEVEN no-hitters. And perhaps most galling, David Cone and Dwight Gooden had pitched no-hitters for the Yankees.
So by 2012, 50 years into the franchise's existence, the lack of a no-hitter had become a living, breathing monster. In some respects, an oddly embraceable aberration, but gnawingly irritating nonetheless.
In Johan Santana, the Mets had another member of the pitching pantheon, but in 2012, his arm posed nightly questions. After Johan missed the entire 2011 season following shoulder capsule surgery, the Mets had been careful not to push him too hard, never more than 108 pitches in his 10 starts in April and May. And it was working. Johan had a 2.75 ERA through those first 10 games, and was coming off a 96-pitch shutout of the Padres in his previous outing.
There was nothing about the early innings of Santana's June 1 start against the Cardinals that would suggest this would be a history-breaking night. Johan did not have good command of his signature change-up, and his walks and pitch count ballooned; four walks, 79 pitches through the first five innings. No hits, but with Terry Collins committed to limiting Santana to 105-110 pitches, nothing unusual appeared imminent.
But in the top of the sixth, Carlos Beltran hit a screaming line drive over third that appeared to hit the outside of the chalk, but was ruled foul. In the top of the seventh, Yadier Molina drove one toward the wall in left-center, but Mike Baxter sacrificed his body, took away a double, crashed the fence hard, and had to be helped off the field. Now the possibility of history seemed more real.
Through seven, Santana's pitch count was at 107. Absent the no-hit bid, he would have been done for the night. And here is where Terry's agony began. Knowing what was at stake, in terms of Santana's legacy, the franchise's void, and the potential for injury, Collins seemed to age over the last two innings, as pitch followed pitch. Another walk in the eighth, but still no hits. Now 122 pitches.
There was nothing easy about the ninth -- Matt Holliday's liner to center looked like a possible hit, but Andres Torres caught it. Allen Craig's bloop appeared to have a chance to fall, but Kirk Nieuwenhuis snagged it.
Then Santana fell behind David Freese, 3-0. One hundred thirty-one pitches. Anguish on the face of Collins. Called strike, 3-1. Foul ball, 3-2. And then, on pitch number 134, a garden-variety Santana diving change-up got Freese swinging, and the 50-year drought was over.
July 31, 2015: Wilmer Flores Walk-off
Has any player and team ever been whipsawed in 48 hours the way Wilmer Flores and the Mets were the final days of July 2015? Two nights earlier, the Mets began their game with the Padres at 52-48, but in an underwhelming NL East, they trailed the division-leading Nationals by only one game.
So when it appeared the Mets were finalizing a trade with the Brewers to bring back Carlos Gomez, it made sense for a team looking for a catalytic bat. But in the age of Twitter, word leaked out, Wilmer caught wind of the fact that he was about to be traded from the only organization he had ever known, and the tears flowed, in full view of every Mets fan.
Of course, the trade fell through, and Flores wasn't in the lineup the next afternoon, that gruesome Thursday, when Justin Upton's crushing ninth-inning, rain-soaked home run seemed to draw the curtain on the Mets' fortunes.
But July 31, everything changed. Sandy Alderson pulled off a last-minute deal for Yoenis Cespedes, and Wilmer Flores became a folk hero.
Every time Wilmer showed his face that Friday night against the Nationals, he received a standing ovation. Through his tears, Wilmer had expressed his devotion to the same cause that fans spend their lives wedded to. He showed that the idea of the Mets meant as much to him as it did to them.
And so, it was only fitting that when the 12th inning arrived, it was a Flores blast to left-center that started the raucous celebration, and began to propel the Mets to their eventual destiny as National League champions.
Aug. 24, 2015: David Wright Returns
Since fracturing his back making a tag early in the 2011 season, much of final years of David Wright's career were spent in anticipation. Unlike the Hall of Fame-caliber arc of the first seven years of his career, the last seven were plagued by injuries small and large, some nagging, one ultimately career-ending.
And while the time away was agonizing, Wright had established a habit of hitting the ground running following each injury.
In fact, as he prepared to make his return in Philadelphia, following a hamstring injury and the initial diagnosis of spinal stenosis, you couldn't help but have a small sense of déjà vu.
In the opening week of the 2012 season, David suffered a fractured pinkie diving back into first base, and missed three games. He was expected to be placed on the disabled list, but talked his way back into the lineup for that Saturday's game in Philadelphia. First inning, first at-bat, first pitch from Vance Worley, Wright crushed a home run to the farthest reaches of Citizens Bank Park, proving that he could indeed hit with only nine fingers.
His return this time was a little different. Same venue, but this time, Wright had missed 115 games. He had been out since May, and in his absence the Mets had endured a rollercoaster. But the Mets had been remade in August, with the acquisition of Cespedes, Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe and Tyler Clippard, and the return to health of Travis d'Arnaud. Wright was the final piece of the puzzle.
David led off the second inning against Adam Morgan, took a strike, then a ball, and then launched a missile deep into the seats in left field. Another towering return at Citizens Bank Park. And the start of a historic night for the Mets, who hit a franchise-record eight home runs, another inspiring performance en route to the World Series.
Sept. 26, 2015: Mets Clinch NL East
By the time the Mets arrived in Cincinnati for the penultimate weekend of the 2015 season, the National League East title had long since been salted away. The key juncture in the stretch drive had come two weeks earlier in Washington, when the Mets swept a three-game series from the Nationals, coming from behind in each game, capped by Cespedes's series-clinching home run against Drew Storen. They left Washington seven games in front, and that lead ballooned to nine-and-a -alf after a four-game sweep in Atlanta.
The only question, then, was where and when the Mets would put on the finishing touches. And after winning the Thursday and Friday games, the Mets were in position to clinch in a Saturday late afternoon affair. It was amazing how many Mets fans poured into town as the weekend progressed, to the point where Great American Ballpark felt like Citi Field West.
There wasn't much drama in this one, after Lucas Duda touched off a first inning grand slam against John Lamb. From there, the whole afternoon and evening felt like a celebration. Matt Harvey started, Jeurys Familia finished, and the Mets capped two exhilarating months by celebrating their first division title since 2006.
Sept. 29, 2018: David Wright's Last Game
I was able to share some thoughts about this game last week, but some points bear repeating.
Most important, this poignant night would never have occurred, but for two important factors.
First, that Wright earned a level of respect within the Mets organization, that he was able to script his farewell, despite the fact that his body clearly wasn't up to the rigors of a full major league game.
The other, was David's motivation. Many athletes, in a similar circumstance, would want a sense of completion. But in Wright's case, his desire was more specific. His torturous road back to the field had taken so long that neither of his young daughters, Olivia and Madison, had any memory of seeing him play. It was enormously important to him that his girls could not only witness this night, but be part of it as well.
Among the tear-producing moments that punctuated the night, then, perhaps none resonated as much as the sight of Olivia throwing a first-pitch strike to her daddy. She might not have recognized the fullness of the circle being closed, but we did.
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