Saturday Seasons: 1985 season. The Kid Helps a Young Team Grow Up

There was much optimism in the air around Shea Stadium when the 1985 season began.

The expectations had risen after a 1984 season that saw the Mets take a step up to respectability with a 90-win season, a 22-game improvement from the previous season.

There was the debut of Dwight “Doc” Gooden, the 1984 National League Rookie of the Year who had taken Major League baseball by storm. Young slugger Darryl Strawberry was heading into his third season while All Star first-baseman Keith Hernandez had established himself as the leader of this up and coming young squad.

The Mets made a great run during the 1984 season only to fall short to the NL East champion Chicago Cubs. The Mets finished in second place but no matter, the organization and the fans felt the best was yet to come.

With Gooden, Ron Darling, and Sid Fernandez, the Mets had the makings of a young starting rotation that could carry them to the top in 1985, but there seemed to be one more piece that would be needed.

That missing piece came on board just days after the 1984 Winter Meetings when General Manager Frank Cashen engineered a franchise changing trade with the Montreal Expos to acquire All Star catcher Gary Carter.

“The Kid” was deemed one of the top catchers in the sport in the 1980’s and was the perfect addition to not only handle this young pitching staff, but to also provide another potent right handed bat to the lineup.

It didn’t take long for Carter to make his impact felt.

It was a cold, raw day at Shea Stadium when the Mets opened the 1985 season on April 9th against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Gooden got the opening day start but he labored through six innings as he gave up four runs, three earned, on six hits with two walks, six strikeouts and one home run. Jack Clark, who was making his Cardinals debut after being acquired in a trade with the San Francisco Giants, went deep against the fire balling right hander but it would prove to be only a blip on what became a dominant sophomore season for the 20-year old.

Carter hit fourth in the lineup and the Mets already had a 1-0 lead when he came up for the first time against Cardinals starter Joaquin Andujar in the bottom of the first. After receiving a raucous standing ovation, Carter was hit by a pitch on his elbow which prompted a loud round of boos from the over 46,000 fans on hand.

Carter’s first Mets hit came in the bottom of the 6th when he lined a two out double to the gap in left center field.

The Mets had a 5-4 lead in the ninth but Doug Sisk walked Clark with two out and the bases loaded to force in the tying run. Former Met Neil Allen got out of a bases loaded, two out jam in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings and set up a storybook finish.

With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Carter drove a 0-1 pitch from Allen into the Cards bullpen in left center field to give the Mets a thrilling, 6-5 win.

The win was the first of three walk off wins that keyed a five game sweep of the opening home stand.

Allen walked Danny Heep with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th of game two while Strawberry hit a walk off home run off future Met John Franco to give the Mets a 4-0 start to the season.

Gooden capped off the successful home stand by tossing a complete game, four hit shutout with ten strikeouts against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Mets went 4-5 on their first road trip of the season but returned home to go 6-0 at Shea as Darling shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates on five hits with 11 strikeouts.

After losing their first home game, the Mets scored their fourth walk off win of the early season. This was an 18-inning, 5-4 win against the Pirates where the winning run scored on an error by Pirates first-baseman Jason Thompson.

On May 3rd, the Mets beat the Reds in Cincinnati 9-4. What was notable about the win was that it was Lenny Dykstra’s Major League debut. Dykstra’s first hit was a home run off of Reds pitcher Mario Soto in his second big league at bat.

In early May, the Mets swept another five game home stand to go 13-2 at Shea, 19-8 overall.

Following a successful 5-3, West Coast road trip, the Mets were 30-18 and were in first place by a game over the Cubs, but things went south from there. The Mets finished the month of June by losing 16 of their next 24 games as they fell to fourth place, five games behind the division leading Cardinals.

The tough stretch was highlighted by the worst loss of the season, a 26-7 thrashing by the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium. Von Hayes hit two home runs in the first inning to key a 9-run rally. The Phillies had a 16-0 lead after two innings as Mets pitcher Calvin Schiraldi was charged with 10 runs in an inning and a third.

The Mets lost their sixth straight game to begin the month of July, but they rebounded with a nine game winning streak and a stretch where they won 15 out of 17 that righted the ship.

On July 4th, 1985, the Mets played one of the craziest games in franchise history when they beat the Atlanta Braves, 16-13 in 19 innings at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium. The game did not start until after 9 pm, eastern time and was marked by multiple rain delays totaling over two hours so it did not end until the early hours of the next morning.

The stats from this game was off the charts.

The Mets (28) and Braves (18) combined for 46 hits and 37 (Mets 20, Braves 17) men left on base. 11 players had at least three hits and 14 players had at least one RBI. The marathon that lasted over six hours in actual game time, and ended at about 4 AM eastern time.

Hernandez hit for the cycle, Carter caught the entire game and had five hits. Howard Johnson pinch-hit for shortstop Rafael Santana in the ninth and had three hits including a home run and four runs scored and played shortstop for the final 11 innings.

The Mets tied the game at 8 in the 9th when they scored off Hall of Fame closer Bruce Sutter.

Ho Jo’s two run homer in the top of the 13th gave the Mets a 10-8 lead but the Braves tied the game in the home half on Terry Harper’s two run homer off of Mets pitcher Tom Gorman.

The Mets took an 11-10 lead in the top of the 18th on Dykstra’s sacrifice fly but the game became even more bizarre in the bottom half of the inning.

After Gorman easily got the first two outs, the Braves were out of players so light hitting pitcher Rick Camp had to bat. At the time, Camp was hitting .060 and had shown no hitting ability whatsoever, so Carter waved to the outfielders to move in.

Gorman got ahead in the count 0-2 and appeared ready to end the game, but Camp got a hanging curve ball and drove it over the left field fence to tie the game in stunning fashion. Left fielder Heep put his hands on his head while Ray Knight threw up his hands in frustration as the game was tied once again.

In the top of the 19th, Knight, Heep and Wally Backman had run scoring hits as the Mets took a 16-11 lead.

Darling came on to pitch the home half in a non save situation, but the Braves would not go away quietly. With two out and the bases loaded, Harper’s two run single made it a three run game but Darling struck out Camp to finally end it.

The Mets were 21-7 in July and followed that up with a 17-11 mark in August. Heading into September, the Mets were 76-52, two games behind the Cardinals.

The Mets began September with five straight wins out West. After having the streak snapped on a walk off at Dodger Stadium, the Mets beat the Dodgers and then headed home for a huge, three game series against the Cardinals, trailing by just a half game.

In the opener, Ho Jo hit a grand slam in the first inning as the Mets scored five times and held on for a 5-4 win that put them in first place.

St. Louis won the second game, 1-0 in 10 innings. John Tudor, who went the distance and was a thorn in the Mets side all year long, dueled Gooden for nine scoreless innings but Cesar Cedeno homered off of Jesse Orosco in the top of the 10th. The Cardinals ace walked Backman to start the 10th but Hernandez lined out into a double play. After walking Carter, Tudor struck out Strawberry to end it.

Over 46,000 fans showed up for the Thursday afternoon finale.

The Mets had a 6-0 lead after two but the Cards made it a 6-5 game and then tied it in the ninth on Willie McGee’s home run off Orosco.

Mookie Wilson singled off of Cards lefty Ken Dayley to lead off the ninth and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. With Carter on deck, the Cards elected to pitch to Hernandez who delivered the game winning hit for a 7-6 win that left the Mets in first place by a game in the NL East.

The next two weeks proved pivotal as the Mets went 9-6 but the Cardinals won 14 of 15 to take a four game lead in the division.

On the penultimate weekend of the season, the Mets won two of three in Pittsburgh to pull within three games of St. Louis with a huge three game series on tap at Busch Stadium.

Ron Darling matched John Tudor in the opener for nine scoreless innings. After Tudor retired the Mets in order in the tenth, Jesse Orosco pitched a scoreless tenth inning to send the game to the eleventh.

With two out and no one on, Darryl Strawberry unloaded on a Ken Dayley curve ball for one of his most memorable home runs as a Met. Strawberry’s blast traveled an estimated 440 feet and struck the digital clock behind the bleachers in right center field to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.

Orosco made it stand up as he worked around a one out error as the Mets scored a 1-0 win that put them two back of the Cardinals with five games to play.

The next night, the Mets beat the Cardinals 5-2 behind Doc Gooden, who went the distance for his league leading 24th win. The Mets were a game behind with four to play and were looking for the sweep, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Keith Hernandez went 5 for 5 but it wasn’t enough as the Cardinals salvaged the finale of the series with a 4-3 win. Jeff Lahti retired Gary Carter with the tying run on first as the Cardinals went up by two with three to play. The Mets were on the brink of elimination and needed some help if they were to even tie St. Louis and force a one game playoff.

On the final Friday of the season, the Mets beat the Montreal Expos at Shea but the Cardinals beat the Cubs to keep it a two game deficit. On the next to last day of the regular season, the Mets lost to the Expos but it didn’t matter as the Cardinals beat the Cubs to clinch the NL East.

After the season, Gooden became the second Met, other than Tom Seaver, to win the Cy Young Award. Gooden posted, arguably, the greatest season by a Mets pitcher. In his second season, the 20-year old put together the “pitching triple crown” as he led the Major Leagues in wins (24), ERA (1.53) and strikeouts (268).

Hernandez had a team best .309 average while Carter led the team with 32 home runs and 100 runs batted in.

The season was a disappointment, but it fueled the Mets for 1986 when they put it all together to become World Champions.