October 7th, 2000
NLDS, Game 3
San Francisco Giants at New York Mets
Shea Stadium, New York
The
New York Mets were in the postseason for the second consecutive year in their
quest to get to their first World Series since 1986. The Giants had yet to win a
World Series since moving from New York to San Francisco in 1958. Their last
appearance in the Fall Classic had been in 1989 when they were swept by the
Oakland Athletics.
The
teams would play each other in the NLDS in the first MLB postseason of the new
millennium. The first two games were played in Pac-Bell Park in San Francisco with
the Giants taking the first game 5-1, while the Mets rebounded to take the
second game in ten innings by a score of 5-4. The series would move to the
borough of Queens for the next two games.
Russ
Ortiz would take the hill for the Giants while the Mets would counter with Rick
Reed. Both pitchers would throw shut out baseball for the first three innings
with Ortiz only surrendering a walk while Reed would give up three hits and a
walk, but managed to escape without a run allowed.
The
Giants would get to the Reed for two runs in the top of the fourth, courtesy of
RBI singles by Bobby Estella and Marvin Bernard. Ortiz would finally give up a
run in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Timo Perez that scored Mike
Bordick. But the Giants still held the 2-1 lead after six innings.
And
the Mets would tie the score two innings later when Edgardo Alfonso doubled to
left, scoring Lenny Harris. With both starters out of the game, it belonged to
the bullpen as the teams traded zeros in the ninth to set up extra innings.
In
the tenth, the Giants put two runners on but didn’t score. In the eleventh, it
was the Mets’ turn as they loaded the bases with two outs but couldn’t push the
winning run across. In the twelfth, the Giants again put two base runners on
but couldn’t take the lead. And in the top of the thirteenth, two more singles
led to nothing.
On
to the bottom of the thirteenth, where with one out, Benny Agbayani came to the
plate for New York. On the second pitch of the at bat from Giants’ reliever,
Aaron Fultz, Agbayani became a post-season hero when he drilled the ball over
the left-centre field wall for a walk-off game-winning home run.
The
Mets won the game 3-2 and took a 2-1 lead in the series. They would wrap up the
NLDS the following day with a 4-0 shutout. They would then take out the St.
Louis Cardinals in the NLCS before losing to the New York Yankees in the World
Series.
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