Forty years ago tonight, the New York Mets beat the Boston Red Sox 8-5 at Shea Stadium to win the 1986 World Series. They did it two nights after Mookie Wilson’s ground ball rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6, and after falling behind 3-0 early in Game 7.
“Two Outs, Nobody On”
Boston led Game 6 by 5-3 heading into the bottom of the 10th inning on Oct. 25, 1986. Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez made the first two outs.
“Two outs, nobody on,” Mets reliever Roger McDowell said at the team’s 40th anniversary reunion at Citi Field in August, according to MLB.com. “I thought it was over. I thought it was done.”
Gary Carter singled, and so did pinch-hitter Kevin Mitchell. Ray Knight singled in Carter to make it 5-4. Bob Stanley came in to pitch to Wilson and threw a wild pitch that brought Mitchell home with the tying run. A few pitches later, Wilson hit a slow grounder that went through Buckner’s legs at first base, and Knight scored from second to win it, according to Wikipedia’s account of the Series.
Rain Pushed Game 7 Back a Day
Game 7 was scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 26, but it rained, and the game was moved to Monday night. The Mets started Ron Darling on regular rest instead of Dwight Gooden. Boston went with Bruce Hurst.
Boston Took a 3-0 Lead
The Red Sox scored three runs in the second inning. Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman hit back-to-back home runs off Darling, and Wade Boggs singled in Dave Henderson. Sid Fernandez took over for Darling in the fourth.
Hurst held the Mets scoreless until the sixth. Lee Mazzilli and Wilson singled, Tim Teufel walked to load the bases, and Hernandez singled in two runs. Carter then drove in the run that tied it at 3-3, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.
Knight led off the seventh with a home run over the wall in left-center off Calvin Schiraldi, and the Mets went ahead 4-3. Rafael Santana and Hernandez each drove in another run, and it was 6-3 after seven.
Boston came back in the eighth. Evans hit a two-run double that made it 6-5, and Jesse Orosco came in with the tying run on second and nobody out. He got out of it, and in the bottom of the inning Darryl Strawberry homered. Orosco singled in another run himself for the 8-5 final.
In the ninth, Orosco struck out Marty Barrett to end the Series and threw his glove into the air. The crowd at Shea was 55,032.
40 Years Later
Knight was named World Series MVP. It was the second title in Mets history, after 1969, and it’s still their most recent, as ABC7 New York noted on Sunday. That team won 108 games in the regular season.
Nearly the whole roster came back to Citi Field on Aug. 1 for the anniversary. “It’s been 40 years, and every year I hear a different story,” Wilson said, according to MLB.com.
The Red Sox didn’t win another World Series until 2004, their first since 1918. This year’s Series is between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Brewers led 2-0 going into Game 3 on Monday night, according to Yahoo Sports.
