Remembering Mets History: (1973) Utility Man Ted Martinez's Big Four RBI Game

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Monday September 3, 1973: Yogi Berra's New York Mets (64-73) were just 5 1/2 games out of first place, although they were still in fifth place.

They had five teams to jump over but went 18-6 winning 18 of their last 24 games to capture the NL East title.

 Today hosted Danny Ozark's Philadelphia Phillies (63-75 just seven games back).

It was a Labor Day doubleheader at Shea Stadium in front of 30,748 fans. The Phils had veteran left hander & future Hall of Famer; Steve Carlton go up against lefty Jerry Koosman.

Starting Lineups

The Met bats were asleep for this game, except for utility infielder Teddy Martinez, who was inserted 8th in the line up as that days third baseman.

 In the bottom of the 2nd, Rusty Staub & Don Hahn walked & Jerry Grote singled to load the bases. Ted Martinez came to bat with the bases loaded against Steve Carlton. He delivered with a single driving in Staub with his first RBI of the night.

In the bottom of the 4th, Martinez hit his only HR of the season (he only hit seven HRs in 1480 career at bats) this was a solo shot also coming off Carlton.

In the 5th inning; Rusty Staub reached on an error & walks to Cleon Jones & an intentional pass to Don Hahn loaded them up again for Martinez. He teed off again off Carlton, as he doubled to right field scoring both Jones & Staub making it 5-0. Staub would have two hits & score two runs on the night.

 Martinez finished off his career day with an 8th inning single, finishing up with four hits, a HR & four RBIs. On the 1973 season, Martinez batted .255 with one HR 11 doubles & 14 RBIs in 263 at bats. Koosman pitched a seven hit complete game shut out 

Comments

Cliff Blau said…
Did he look a lot like Greg Morris of Mission Impossible?
December 10, 2017 at 9:14 PM
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