May 11, 1985: Sid Fernandez, Roger McDowell combine for one-hitter against Phillies

The New York Mets entered a May 1985 weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies in a tie with the Chicago Cubs for first place in the National League East Division. New York took the first game of the series, 5-0, on Friday night behind 1984 NL Rookie of the Year Dwight Gooden’s 13-strikeout shutout.

Philadelphia was fifth in the NL East and struggling to find hits and wins. The loss to Gooden was their fourth straight. Adding to their woes, All-Star third baseman Mike Schmidt was in a slump. The 35-year-old Schmidt was batting .210 with just 2 home runs and 9 RBIs when the series began.1

Mets left-hander Sid Fernandez, who had just been called up from Triple-A Tidewater (Norfolk, Virginia), was given the start in Saturday afternoon’s game at Shea Stadium.

After making 15 starts for New York in 1984, Fernandez was expected to be the Mets’ number-four starter “until spring training wildness prompted his exile” to Tidewater.2 He had gone 4-1 with a 2.04 ERA at Tidewater, prompting the call-up. “It helped me get my rhythm together and myself together,” Fernandez said of his time at Tidewater. “I was disappointed, but when I thought about it, I wasn’t doing well and I would have done pretty lousy if I pitched the way I did in spring training.”3

Fernandez, who had fanned 17 batters pitching for Tidewater on May 2,4 struck out two Phillies in the first inning. He added two more strikeouts in the second but also showed some of the spring-training wildness, giving up two walks. Despite getting a runner in scoring position, the Phillies couldn’t capitalize, as Luis Aguayo grounded out.

Left-hander Shane Rawley, in his second year with the Phillies, was Philadelphia’s starter. After winning three games in April, the 30-year-old Rawley had lost his previous two starts. The Mets jumped on him in the first. Mookie Wilson singled. Kelvin Chapman singled him to third, then stole second. Keith Hernandez grounded out to first, scoring Wilson and getting Chapman to third.

The Mets were poised for more runs when Rawley walked Gary Carter to put runners at the corners. But Darryl Strawberry fouled out, and the rally ended when Chapman was caught stealing home.

It was still 1-0 in the top of the third when Strawberry was injured in a play that had a long-lasting impact on the Mets’ championship hopes. After Fernandez struck out Rawley for the first out, Strawberry lunged “toward the right field line to backhand a sinking liner by Juan Samuel when he hit the ground and his body rolled over his outstretched thumb.”5 The 23-year-old Strawberry, a first-time All-Star in 1984, said, “When I tried to put my glove back on, I knew something was wrong.”6 He made the catch but left the game and was sent to have his hand examined by team doctors.

New York added to its lead in the third. Wilson doubled with one out and stole third. Chapman’s sacrifice fly brought him home. The Mets were up 2-0.

Philadelphia threatened to score in the fourth. Von Hayes singled for the Phillies’ first – and, as it turned out, only – hit, stole second, and took third on Ozzie Virgil’s one-out fly ball. But Fernandez, who had struck out Schmidt for the first out, fanned Glenn Wilson, stranding Hayes.

In the fifth, Fernandez’s periodic control struggles set the Phillies up with two runners on base and none out after walks to John Russell and Aguayo. Rawley attempted to sacrifice, but catcher Carter fielded his poor bunt and threw to third for the force on Russell. Fernandez kept his shutout going by getting the next two batters to fly out.

Fernandez gave himself some breathing room by igniting a sixth-inning Mets rally. He singled with one out, and Wilson walked. One out later, Hernandez singled to right, scoring Fernandez and sending Wilson to third.

Phillies manager John Felske replaced Rawley with former Met Pat Zachry. Zachry’s first pitch to Carter was wild, scoring Wilson. After walking Carter, Zachry got Danny Heep, who had replaced Strawberry in right, to ground out to end the frame. But the Mets were ahead 4-0.

Fernandez walked two more batters in the sixth to bring his total of bases on balls to six. Two more strikeouts, against Schmidt and Russell, gave him another scoreless inning and a nine-strikeout game, the most of his career to that point.7

Peter Pascarelli, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, lamented the Phillies’ inability to take advantage of Fernandez’s wildness: “Fernandez yesterday did everything but invite the Phils to escape their misery. Though he possessed excellent stuff, little of it was in the strike zone.”8

Rookie right-hander Roger McDowell pitched the last three innings. McDowell had impressed Mets manager Davey Johnson in spring training and was added to the Mets roster after Doug Sisk struggled. McDowell had pitched 17⅓ innings out of the bullpen and entered the game with 11 strikeouts and 7 walks.

McDowell breezed through a one-two-three seventh. He walked Schmidt with two outs in the eighth before getting Virgil to fly out. He got the Phillies out one-two-three in the ninth, striking out two more, to earn his first career save and close out the Mets’ second one-hitter of the season.

The loss left Philadelphia with a 10-17 record. “Obviously we’re not making contact,” said manager Felske. “Fernandez had a good fastball. The guys said his ball was jumping. We have good hitters in the lineup, so you have to give the Mets credit. When you have 13 strikeouts, you’re only putting the ball in play 14 times. That’s not much.”9

Mets pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said of Fernandez’s return to the team, “He struggled at times but he was generally in command.”10 Fernandez told reporters, “I had command, a good fastball, and got away with a few bad breaking balls. I got out of jams when I needed to. I was relaxed, loose and stayed within myself.”11

The win was the Mets’ third straight shutout. As of 2023, the only longer scoreless stretch in team history was in 1969, when they gave up no runs in 42 innings in September on their way to the World Series.

New York put up two more scoreless innings in the series finale on May 12 before Schmidt’s third-inning RBI single snapped the streak. Still, the Mets completed the sweep with a 3-2 win behind another young starter, Ron Darling. It was Darling’s third win in four starts since the end of April.

But the weekend sweep cost the Mets Strawberry, who was out for more than six weeks with torn ligaments in his thumb. “You can’t replace Straw. He can hit, throw, run and hit for power,” said Mookie Wilson.12

Strawberry did not return to the team until June 28. By then, the Mets were 38-32 and in third place, 3½ games behind the Montreal Expos. With Strawberry back in their lineup, they went 60-33 through the remainder of the season.

New York ended the season 98-64, to that point the team’s second-best record after the championship 1969 team. The Mets finished in second place in the NL East behind the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the NL pennant before falling to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

The Mets’ young pitchers continued to pitch well, having excellent seasons and laying the groundwork for the team’s 1986 championship season. Gooden finished 24-4 with 268 strikeouts to earn his first Cy Young Award. Darling solidified his place in the starting rotation with a 16-6 record and a 2.90 ERA. Fernandez finished with a 9-9 record, but his 180 strikeouts and 2.80 ERA were second on the team behind Gooden.13 McDowell earned his place on the roster as the Mets’ closer, going 6-5 with 17 saves and a 2.83 ERA. He finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting.14

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Anthony Escobedo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for the box score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198505110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B05110NYN1985.htm

Notes

1 Schmidt batted .281 with a .571 slugging percentage from 1980 through 1984. He earned back-to-back MVP Awards in 1981 and 1982 and finished in third place in 1983. He had also had earned nine consecutive Gold Glove Awards playing third.

2 Helene Elliott, “Mets Suffer Damaging Win,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), May 12, 1985: 329.

3 Elliott.

4 Steve Marcus, “Knight Hopes to Clear up Mets’ Third Base Logjam,” Newsday, May 3, 1985: 183.

5 Elliott.

6 Elliott.

7 Later in the 1985 season, Fernandez had two starts with 13 strikeouts, including an eight-inning outing against the Phillies on August 12. In his 15-season major-league career, his personal best was a 16-strikeout game, zero-walk game against the Atlanta Braves in July 1989.

8 Peter Pascarelli, “Phils Lose to Mets for Fifth Straight,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 12, 1985: E1.

9 Associated Press, “Fernandez Returns to Help Mets Gain Third Straight Shutout,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, May 12, 1985: 4E.

10 Elliott.

11 Fred Kerber, “Straw’s Injury Casts Pall on El Sid’s One Man Show,” New York Daily News, May 12, 1985: 54.

12 Kerber.

13 Fernandez pitched 170⅓ innings, striking out more than one batter per inning for the season.

14 St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Vince Coleman won the award.