October 4, 1999: Al Leiter, Mets blank Reds in NL wild-card tiebreaker

The New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds finished the 1999 regular season with identical records of 96-66, forcing a one-game tiebreaker in Cincinnati to see who would earn the wild-card spot in the National League.1

New York had struggled several times during the season. The Mets fired three coaches – pitching coach Bob Apodaca, hitting coach Tom Robson, and assistant pitching coach Randy Niemann – on June 6, after the team lost eight consecutive games.2 On September 19 they were only one game behind the first-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East Division, but seven straight losses, including four to the Braves, dropped New York out of contention for the division title.

Going into the final weekend of the season, the Mets’ only hope for their first postseason berth since 1988 was the NL’s wild-card spot. Even that, however, depended on getting help. New York had been four games up in the wild-card race on September 19, but as play began on Friday, October 1, the Mets were two games behind the Reds and Houston Astros, who were tied for the Central Division lead. In 1998 New York had missed the wild card by one game after losing its final five games of the season.3

The ’99 Mets took care of business by sweeping three games from the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shea Stadium, including two walk-off wins. Cincinnati lost the first two games of its series against the Milwaukee Brewers, allowing Houston to clinch the NL Central by winning two of three games from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Reds needed to beat Milwaukee in their finale to tie the Mets; after nearly six hours of rain delay, Cincinnati’s 7-1 win late Sunday night forced the seventh tiebreaker in NL history.4

Less than 24 hours later, a crowd of 54,621 packed Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field5 on Monday, October 4, to see whether the Mets or Reds would extend their season. Steve Parris was given the start for the Reds. The 31-year-old right-hander had an 11-3 record and a 3.36 ERA in 22 appearances, including 21 starts. Parris had missed a month with a strained muscle but went 4-2 after his return in September. He was also the most rested of the Reds’ starters, having last pitched on September 29.6

The Mets’ Rickey Henderson led off the top of the first with a single. The 40-year-old Henderson had been signed in December 1998, promising at the time to “bring a little more excitement” to the Mets. “I can create runs, I can steal bases, I make things happen,” he said about his impact on the team.7 Batting .314 with a .423 on-base percentage, Henderson had stolen 37 bases to increase his major-league career record to 1,334.

Three pitches after Henderson’s hit, Edgardo Alfonzo hit one over the center-field wall, his 27th home run of the season, to give the Mets a two-run lead. “Alfonzo has been doing a tremendous job the whole year. The biggest thing I need to do is get on base for him,” said Henderson.8

Al Leiter started for New York. The 33-year-old left-hander was 12-12 with a 4.41 ERA in his second season with the Mets. After going 2-5 with a 6.39 ERA during the first two months of the season, he went 10-7 with a 3.55 ERA.9 In his previous start, on September 29, Leiter pitched seven innings against the Atlanta Braves to snap New York’s seven-game losing streak.

Leiter, who “tended to pitch to extremes – awful one start, unhittable the next,” 10 kept the Reds batters in check from the start. Cincinnati, which ranked fourth in the NL in runs scored in 1999, managed just four runners on base through the first eight innings, three of them on walks. Their first hit came on Jeffrey Hammonds’ single to left in the second inning.11

Leiter said he had studied videos of the Reds lineup before the game. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more focused for this start than any other this season,” he said.12

The Mets added to their lead in the third. With two outs, Parris walked Alfonzo. John Olerud followed with a double to right field. Mike Piazza was walked intentionally.

Reds manager Jack McKeon went to his bullpen, bringing in starter Denny Neagle to face the left-handed Robin Ventura. The 30-year-old left-hander had pitched three days earlier on October 1, throwing 100 pitches over six innings in a loss to the Brewers. “I knew there was a good chance I’d pitch. I told them I felt great and was ready to go,” said Neagle.13

Neagle walked Ventura to send Alonzo home, increasing the Mets’ lead to 3-0.

Parris expressed frustration with his performance, saying, “I need to throw strikes and get ahead of hitters. I didn’t do my job. When you’re playing a one-game playoff, you have to find a way to do the job. For me, this definitely tarnishes everything I’ve done all year.”14

Henderson led off the fifth with a home run, his 12th of the season, to make the score 4-0. Mets pitcher Pat Mahomes said Henderson told him before the game that New York would win, saying, “Don’t worry about it. I’m going to take care of it. I guarantee you are going to get there.”15

Danny Graves relieved Neagle in the sixth. The 25-year-old right-hander had led the Reds with 27 saves in 1999. Graves walked leadoff batter Rey Ordoñez, who moved to second on Leiter’s sacrifice.

After Henderson lined out to first, Alfonzo doubled to center field to score Ordoñez. His third RBI of the game gave the Mets a 5-0 lead. “We knew we had to do good,” said Alfonzo. “Five-zero is tremendous. You can’t lose the faith, we didn’t lose the faith.”16

Henderson made one of his “patented snap catches” on Pokey Reese’s fly ball in the bottom of the sixth. When fans threw coins at him after the catch, he “beat his chest” and screamed back at them.17

The Cincinnati Enquirer noted, “[A] pair of wayward fans … sprang from the first-base stands and dove headlong into second base in the seventh inning [doing] something that the Reds couldn’t. … Reach scoring position.”18 Additional “moments of uncertainty” came when more fans interrupted the game by running on the field in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.19

Leiter went to the mound in the ninth seeking his first complete game of 1999. Reese led off with a double to left field, just the Reds’ second hit of the game. Barry Larkin, headed for the ninth Silver Slugger Award of his Hall of Fame career, grounded out to shortstop, and Reese moved to third. After Leiter struck out Sean Casey for the second out, Casey – fourth in the NL with a .332 batting average – “slammed his bat on the ground so hard that it shattered.”20 “It’s tough. With a guy like that, when he’s on, you feel like you’re at his mercy,” said Casey.21

Greg Vaughn, whose 95 home runs in 1998 and 1999 led everyone in the NL except Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, now came to bat. The league’s Player of the Month22 for September had struck out twice and fouled out in his previous at-bats. Vaughn walked, but Dmitri Young lined out to Alfonzo to end the game, throwing down his helmet in frustration after the catch.23 It was the first time the Reds had been shut out since April 30.

“I don’t know if he’s ever pitched a better game than tonight. He had this look in his eye,” Mets manager Bobby Valentine said of Leiter. “He’s the guy. He’s in the prime of his career. He knows it’s his mantle to carry and he’s carrying it.”24

The win made the Mets only the second National or American League team to overcome a two-game deficit with three regularly scheduled games remaining.25 “We reached the lowest of lows when we lost seven in a row. Now we’ve got a good thing going. Hopefully it will continue,” said Franco.26

It was Valentine’s first time to manage in the playoffs after 1,704 games.

New York’s celebration was brief because the team had to fly to Phoenix to play the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Division Series, which began the next day. Their “good thing” continued as they won the series, three games to one, taking Game One on Alfonzo’s tiebreaking grand slam and clinching the series on Todd Pratt’s 10th-inning walk-off home run in Game Four. Leiter started the game, giving up one run and one hit over seven innings before allowing a pair of hits to tie the game in the eighth.

The Mets’ luck finally ran out in the NL Championship Series when they lost to Atlanta, four games to two. Leiter started Game Three and threw seven innings of one-run, one-hit ball in New York’s 1-0 loss. He started Game Six and didn’t get out of the first inning when Atlanta scored five runs on two hits against him on the way to a 10-9 win.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN199910040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1999/B10040CIN1999.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA0oCw6edio&ab_channel=YellsForOurselves

Notes

1 The Reds and the Mets met nine times during the regular season. The Reds were the home team for the wild-card game after beating the Mets five times during the regular season.

2 Thomas Hill, “On Hot Seat,” New York Daily News, June 7, 1999: 33.

3 The Mets lost their final five games to finish 88-74. They held the final wild-card spot before the losses. The Cubs finished 90-73 to edge out the Mets and the San Francisco Giants (89-74) for the wild card in the National League.

4 The previous tiebreaker was in 1998 when the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants for the wild-card spot.

5 The ballpark was called Riverfront Stadium from 1970-1995. It was called Cinergy Field from 1996 until 2002, when it was torn down.

6 Pete Harnisch led the Reds in wins with 16 in 1999 but he had pitched the previous day. Danny Neagle had been the best Reds’ starter in September, going 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA, but he had pitched on October 1. Two other starters, Brett Tomko and Ron Villone, had been used in relief on October 2.

7 Rafael Hermoso, “Rickey Stealing Yank Spotlight,” New York Daily News, December 22, 1998: 87.

8 Ohm Youngmisuk, “Fonzie’s Cool Under Pressure,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1999: 106.

9 Leiter said he struggled to overcome a knee injury from the previous season. The Mets coaches noticed a flaw in his landing and he worked on his mechanics. The changes made a difference and by early June Leiter was saying, “I feel good, I feel strong, and I feel like I know what I’m doing out there.” Mike Fitzpatrick (Associated Press), “Leiter’s Poor Results Baffle Ace, Manager,” Charlotte Observer, June 1, 1999: 4B.

10 Sean Keeler, “Hot and Cold Leiter at His Best Versus Reds,” Cincinnati Post, October 5, 1999: 5C.

11 Hammonds, who had played only 21 games in center field in 1999, was starting in place of Mike Cameron, who had injured his hamstring on October 2 while running down a fly ball. The speedy Cameron tied for the team lead with 38 stolen bases in 1999. McKeon noted Cameron’s loss, saying, “I hate to lose his speed and defense but that happens. Maybe somebody else will step up. Maybe (Jeffrey Hammonds) will get hot,” Hal McCoy, “Fans show up right on cue,” Dayton Daily News, October 4, 1999, 8D.

12 Keeler, “Hot and Cold Leiter at His Best Versus Reds.”

13 John Fay, “Parris Starter, Not Stopper,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 5, 1999: B2.

14 Jeff Horrigan, “Short of a Miracle,” Cincinnati Post, October 5, 1999: 1C.

15 Ohm Youngmisuk, “Rickey Gets Last Word, Drives Home Point,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1999: 106.

16 Youngmisuk, “Fonzie’s Cool Under Pressure.”

17 Youngmisuk, “Rickey Gets Last Word, Drives Home Point.”

18 Chris Haft, “The End of the Road,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 5, 1999: B1.

19 Marty Noble, “Leiter Locks,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), October 5, 1999: A74.

20 Tim Sullivan, “Reds Bats Turn as Cold as Weather,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 5, 1999: B1.

21 Scott MacGregor, “No Excuses Offered for Lack of Offense,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 5, 1999: B1.

22 Vaughn hit .295 with 16 home runs and 37 RBIs during the final month of the season.

23 Sullivan, “Reds Bats Turn as Cold as Weather.”

24 Rafael Hermoso, “Al Puts Leits Out and Mets In,” New York Daily News, October 5, 1999: 105.

25 The 1962 Giants did it when they came from behind to catch the Dodgers. The Giants finished in a tie with the Dodgers. They played a three-game tiebreaker playoff. The Giants won two of the three games to go to the World Series.

26 Jon Heyman, “Mets Like Living on the Edge,” Newsday, October 5, 1999: A75.