Posted: Monday, 04 August 2008 12:36PM
Schwei Vision: Heading Home and Hitting Homers
mets@wfan.com
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New York, NY (WFAN) -- When the Mets left Shea a week ago last Sunday they were atop the N.L. East but after a dismal 1 and 5 road trip they return home to play the San Diego Padres, who will make their final visit to Shea and the surprising Florida Marlins, who also head to Flushing to face the Mets this week.
 The Padres swept all four games against the Mets in their only other meeting of the season in San Diego back in early June. The Padres won each of the first three games of that series by a 2-1 score, giving them a major-league record four consecutive 2-1 victories. It also marked the first time in Mets' history that the club dropped three consecutive 2-1 decisions and just the 6th time any team in big league history suffered that dubious distinction.
The Padres capped off the 4-game sweep that weekend with a come-from-behind 8-6 win thanks to former Met Tony Clark's three-run pinch-hit home run off of Billy Wagner. Clark has hit five career home runs against the Mets. Here's a list of the one-time New York Mets who hit the most lifetime homers vs. the Mets:
| Player |
HR v. Mets |
| Willie Mays |
39 |
| Joe Torre |
30 |
| Gary Carter |
26 |
| Dave Kingman |
23 |
| Preston Wilson |
23 |
| Rusty Staub |
21 |
| Kevin Mitchell |
18 |
| Moises Alou |
17 |
| George Foster |
16 |
| Ken Boyer |
15 |
| Donn Clendenon |
15 |
| Richie Hebner |
15 |
| Keith Hernandez |
15 |
Two weekends ago, one-time Padres relief ace Rich Gossage and former Padres manager Dick Williams were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The Mets faced Gossage during his N.L. stints with Pittsburgh, San Francisco, the Chicago Cubs as well as San Diego. In 34 lifetime outings vs. the Mets, Gossage was 3 and 3 with 12 saves and a 3.28 earned run average. Gossage also had a base hit against the Mets' Doug Sisk back on September 2nd, 1984. The single was the 8th and final hit of Gossage's career, coming in a 3-2, 12-inning Mets win. Gossage took the loss that day, pitching four and 2/3 innings of relief before allowing George Foster's game-winning hit. Dick Williams managed the Oakland A's to their World Series victory over the Mets in 1973 and then managed against the Mets while with the Montreal Expos and then the Padres from 1977 thru 1985. Williams' Expos teams went a combined 48 and 30 vs. the Mets from 1977 thru September of 1981 when he was replaced by Jim Fanning. With the Padres, Williams went 23 and 25 in games managed against the Mets.
David Wright has hit 117 career home runs, one fewer than Ed Kranepool's 118 on the all-time Mets HR list. Like Kranepool, all of Wright's homers have been as a New York Met, the only team either one played or has played for as a major leaguer.
Here is the list of players who hit at least two career home runs and played their entire careers as Mets:
| Player |
Career HR |
| Ed Kranepool |
118 |
| David Wright |
117 |
| Jose Reyes |
57 |
| Ron Hodges |
19 |
| Bruce Boisclair |
10 |
| Dave Schneck |
8 |
| Rod Kanehl |
6 |
| Danny Garcia |
5 |
| Ron Gardenhire |
4 |
| Bill Murphy |
3 |
| Kelvin Chapman |
3 |
| George Theodore |
2 |
The Marlins took two of the three games played against the Mets last week in Florida after New York had won two of three in both of the previous series in 2008. The Mets have gone 64 and 55 all-time vs. the Marlins at Shea but Florida has won the season series in Flushing in three of the last five seasons. Prior to 2003, the Marlins won only one season series against the Mets at Shea, going 2 and 4 vs. the Mets in New York in 1994.
Carlos Beltran hit second in the Mets batting order twice this past weekend against the Astros. According to baseball-reference.com thru the games of August 3rd, Beltran has hit .292 with 48 homers and 153 rbi's in 886 career at bats as a number two hitter. Beltran's .292 average in the two spot is trails only his .312 mark hitting 7th (in 125 career at bats) and .500 clip hitting 8th (2 for 4 lifetime). The 48 homers trail only the 144 he has hit batting third (3005 at bats) for his most in any position in the order. As a cleanup hitter, Beltran has hit .290 with 32 home runs and 140 rbi's in 715 at bats.
This will be the Padres final and the Marlins next-to-last visit to Shea. Here are three memorable Shea Stadium moments against the Mets for both San Diego and Florida:
- April 22, 1970: Tom Seaver strikes out a major-league record tying 19 Padres, including the last 10 in a row, in the Mets 2-1 win.
- July 4th, 1972: Tom Seaver is two outs away from a no-hitter when the Padres' Leron Lee singles to end the no-hit bid. Seaver settles for one of his five career one-hitters in the 2-0 win.
- August 25th, 1985: Dwight Gooden joins Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman as the 3rd 20-game winner in Mets history, going six innings to beat the Padres, 6-3. Gooden finishes the season with 24 wins, the second-most by a Mets pitcher in a single season.
- April 14th, 1999: John Franco records career save number 400 as the Mets beat the Marlins, 4-1.
- September 19th, 2006: The Mets beat the Marlins 4-0 to clinch their first N.L. East title since 1988.
- September 30th, 2007: The Marlins score seven 1st inning runs on their way to an 8-1 win, eliminating the Mets on the final day of the 2007 season.
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