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GAME 6


By Mike Silva ~ July 24th, 2008. Filed under: 1986 Mets vs. 1998 Yankees.

SPENCER WRAPS UP SERIES
(YANKEE’S WIN SERIES 4-2 )

Ron Darling was in a familiar situation. Runner’s on, two outs, and no room for error in a tie game. He had this situation twice before and was able to make the big pitch. With two outs and a runner on first in the bottom of the 7th Shane Spencer strolled up to the plate. Already having hit five homers in the series, he was the one guy that concerned Davey Johnson. Bring in Roger McDowell or stick with Darling? Spencer had already hit a homer off of Roger. Darling had shown grit throughout Game 6. Johnson stuck with Darling and the same result ensued: 2- run homer that eventually became the game winner.

Game 6 started off a potential barn burner. Mets struck first with a Gary Carter sac fly in the top half of the opening frame. Yankees stormed right back with four runs against a “nervous and anxious” Ron Darling. Unlike Game 1, the Mets continued to pick away against lefty David Wells. They scored a run in the 2nd, two in the 3rd, and tied the game at five in the 4th. Ironically, it was the bottom of the order that would get rallies started with Mookie Wilson and Rafael Santana as the spark plugs.

Both pitchers settled down until the seventh inning. Spencer described the pitch as a fastball “up in the zone” and he hoped that he didn’t “hook it foul”. Fortunately for Yankees fans it stayed fair down the line. Joe Torre stuck with David Wells to start the 8th, but a leadoff single by Mookie Wilson summoned the “sandman” Mariano Rivera to close it out. Rivera promptly struck out Lee Mazzilli, and retired pinch hitter Howard Johnson and Lenny Dykstra on harmless outs.

Come the ninth there still was tension throughout the Stadium. Afterall this is Game 6 and we are talking about the 86’ Mets. With two outs déjà vu seems to take over as Gary Carter lined a single to center. Here was the moment of truth. Struggling slugger Darryl Strawberry vs. all time great closer Mariano Rivera. Power vs. power. Strawberry pulled a cutter to second base where Knoblauch scooped it up for the victory. The celebration started prompting tears from Joe Torre. “We really had to battle these guys. Neither team deserved to lose, but in the end I am thankful that we battled to victory”. A much more somber Davey Johnson ended with this quote “We still think we are the better team.” After a pause he ended “Who could have thought a September call up would be the difference in the series?”MVP Shane Spencer finished with a .476 average, 6 homers, and 12 RBI. Everyone in the champagne soaked Yankees clubhouse was happy for the rookie. “This will go down as one of the best moments of my career,” said Spencer.

GAME 6 BOX SCORE

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Also check him out at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com He discusses all sports topics at is website www.mikejsilva.com. You could contact him professionally there as well.
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10 Responses to GAME 6

  1. Eddie K
    June 8th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

    R U KIDDING ME? THE ’86 METS WOULDA BEAT THE ’98 YANKEES NOT ONLY WITH SUPREME PITCHING, HITTING AND DEFENSE, THEY WOULDA HAD AT LEAST TWO BENCH-CLEARING BRAWLS WHICH WE WOULD’VE WON HANDS DOWN ALSO!

  2. Matt
    July 31st, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    This is a biased bunch of crap. The ’86 Mets would have beaten the snot out them. I guess if the Daily News played this the Mets would have won.

  3. The Real Truth
    August 12th, 2009 at 3:07 am

    This just goes to show that not all sportswriters know their jobs very well. It’s pretty obvious that the writers ARE YANKEE FANS and yes, they forgot that had the Mets, with their sheer raw talent and youth, would’ve eventually worn out the older and slower 98 Yankees team! You got to be kidding me when they wrote how terrible Ron Darling was when he was a great pitcher and was unhittable at times. Not to mention that he nearly blanked the vaunted and heavily favored Redsox, to just 1 run in game 1! And did we forget about Jesse Orosco fellas? He alone would’ve shut down the Skanks and eventually the Mets would’ve beaten them. Their only problem would’ve been with Petite, otherwise this series goes to the younger and much stronger Mets! Who cares if they were drunk or took enough cocaine to choke an elephant! They were kids who didn’t know how much power and talent they really had. Although, to be fair to those many fake “Mets” writers, I think this series would’ve went 7 games with of course, the Mets taking it! Stop this nonsense that the 98 Yankees were so good. They really didn’t have much competition thoughout the year so they were bound to win alot of games. Now go back to the 80′s with this same team, and all those powerhouse American and National League teams out there. I doubt the 98 Yanks would’ve had as much success. Face it people, the 86 Mets were not only the youngest team in baseball, but they were the most talented and the toughest to beat, hands down! You actually think that the 98 Yanks would’ve gotten through El Sid Fernandez, Rick Aguillera, Roger McDowell’s sinker, Bobby Ojeda and last but not least, Jesse Orosco? Granted, I wasn’t a fan of Orosco when he first came up. His nickname was “Oh No Orosco!” With the help of Mel Stotlemyer who corrected this young pitching staff errors, this team I believe would’ve embarrassed the 98 Yanks as they just would’ve ran out of gas! Take this idiotic and utterly fake, phony, fraud of a make-believe World Series scenario out of this paper! Unless you want to make it a comedy sketch because it is pretty funny!

  4. Mike Silva
    August 12th, 2009 at 6:45 am

    The Real Truth

    This was run by a computer! We didn’t just make up the results.

    I think you are underestimating the 98′ Yanks. They had a very strong and balanced offense, great starting pitching, and a balanced bullpen. I think, on paper, they are probably stronger than the Mets. Believe it or not I think the 88′ Mets might have been better than the 86′ group.

  5. ED
    December 6th, 2009 at 2:39 am

    hahaha.. you are underestimating the 86 Mets. You could even let them drop the first 2 games and they’d come back to whip those Yankees. Those Yanks couldn’t beat the Braves without all the umpiring help. A computer only does what you tell it to do. The first bull crap is the sentence “if the first game is any indication…” clearly programmed after the 86 series with Boston as if a Mets series always starts that way..

    If those Yanks played in the NL east in 1986, the Mets would have had a 20 game lead on them at season end.

    86 Mets take on any team in history and I’m betting on those 86 Mets.

    Now that’s the real truth.

  6. Kevin C
    April 14th, 2010 at 2:38 am

    I think it is quite generous to give the Mets more than one win. Is an 86 cone better than the 98 version? Definetly, that is the only one that I would give the Mets. The Mets barely beat the Astros and the Red Sox. The Yankees would have crushed them. We are talking about a team that won 114 games here.

  7. Kevin C
    April 14th, 2010 at 2:48 am

    The 86 series was probably the most exciting series of all-time, but the Mets were lucky. With an 84 gooden that threw like Bob Gibson in the 60′s, the Mets may have had a chance, but not with the 86 version. The Yanks just cruised through the regular season and the playoffs with an 11-2 record. The Mets needed Calvin Schraldi and the curse of the bambino to beat the Sox. No argument here.

  8. Greg
    September 7th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    The ’98 Yankes dominated the entire season. The Mets were a great team, but they had a lot of luck on their side. Very few teams would beat the ’98 Yanks in a simulation, let alone real life.

  9. The Dude
    June 10th, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    As a Met fan I would have to say the ’98 Yanks, would have won because they had the help of steroids. Just look at the team and count up the number of guys who admitted to using and the others who you can be almost positive have used! There are at least two individually confirmed users on that team….they should pump up all those WS titles with ‘roids!

  10. Some Dude
    September 16th, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    The Dude, if that’s what you want to believe then I’m sure Dykstra would like to have something to say.

    Not to mention whatever drugs the 1986 Mets have taken besides coke.

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