Remembering Mets Opening Days (1998) A14 Inning Pitcher's Duel & Walk Off Win At Shea

 The 1998 season started with Bobby Valentine in his second full season with the Mets. Mike Piazza was staring his first full season in New York & changes were slowly happening. 

The 1998 Mets finished second with the same record they had the previous year 88-74. The next two seasons would also result in second place finishes but wild card berths. The 1999 Mets got to the NLCS & the 2000 club won the NL Pennant.

The Mets made significant changes to the pitching staff bringing in Al Leiter from the World Champion Marlins. Leiter would be a huge part of the Mets regular & post season success in the coming seasons. They also brought in reliever Dennis Cook from the Marlins as well as adding Masato Yoshi & Hideo Nomo. 

The rest of the roster was pretty much the same position players from the previous year but there would be big changes at the end of the season, Todd Hundley, Bernard Gilkey, Carlos Baerga, Butch Huskey, Armando Reynoso & Hideo Nomo would all be gone.

On Opening Day, the Mets hosted Terry Francona's Phillies. In 1997 the Phils had finished fifth (68-94) & would improve to a 75-87 finish behind the Mets in third place. 

A nice crowd of 49,142 came out to Shea Stadium for the opener, as Bobby Jones made his second career Opening Day start against the Phillies Curt Schilling. 

Trivia: The 1998 Mets slogan was "show up at Shea".

Tuesday March 31st, 1998: Bobby Jones threw out the first pitch at 1:42 pm for a game that would last four hours & thirty-five minutes.  Jones got the side out in order. In the 2nd inning he gave up singles to Mark Lewis & Bobby Abreu but struck out Desi Relaford to end the inning.

Jones retired the side in order in the next two innings. In the top of the 5th, Jones walked Mark Lewis to start the inning. 

Next Bobby Abreu collected his second hit of the game. Then Desi Relaford hit into a Carlos Baerga- Rey Ordonez- Edgardo Alfonzo- Rey Ordonez double play. Curt Schilling then grounded out to end the inning.

In the top of the 6th inning, the Phils got two more base runners, but Jones got out of another jam. He ended his day with six shutout innings, allowing four hits & two walks with one strike out.

In the top of the 7th, Greg McMichael came on to pitch for the Mets. In the 8th he gave up back-to-back singles& was relieved by Dennis Cook who struck out former Met Rico Brogna to end the inning.

The Phillies Curt Schilling rolled thru eight innings, shutting out the Mets allowing just two hits, while striking out nine batters & walking one. 

Curt Schilling Trivia: Schilling was coming off a 17-11 season leading the league in strike outs (319) & starts (35). In 1998 he would lead the NL in strike outs (300) innings (268.2) starts (35) & complete games (15) going 15-14.

The Phillies relievers of Jerry Spradlin, Billy Brewer & Mark Leiter shut out the Mets to the 12th inning.

In the top of the 10th, the Mets John Franco put two Phillies on with walks but struck out Mike Lieberthal to end the inning.

 In the 11th Mel Rojas came on & gave the Mets two scoreless innings. In the 12th he had two men on & ended the inning when Scott Rolen flew out.

In the 13th inning Turk Wendell came on & retired the first five batters he faced. After walking Ruben Amaro, he got Doug Glanville to ground out ending the 14th inning.

The Phils Ricky Bottalico came on in the bottom of the 13th for Philadelphia. After an easy inning
he quickly got into a jam in the bottom of the 14th.

Matt Franco led off with a base hit. Brian McRae then drew a walk. Edgardo Alfonso bunted but the lead runner was thrown out by Bottalico at third. 

Next Bernard Gilkey looped a single to left to load the bases. Bottalico got Luis Lopez to pop up for the second out.

Bobby Valentine sent up pinch hitter Alberto Castillo who won the game with a walk off RBI single to rightfield scoring Brian McRae.

Albero Castillo Trivia: Castillo spent four seasons with Mets (1995-1998) as a backup catcher. In 1998 he hit .205 with two HRs & seven RBIs in 38 games. 

The two teams used 36 players combined in the long game combining for 16 hits & just the one run.