April 3, 2001: Robin Ventura’s two home runs help Mets beat Braves to open season

The New York Mets returned to the postseason in 1999 and 2000, taking the National League’s wild-card spot. After winning the NL Division Series over the San Francisco Giants in 2000, they beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series to earn their first visit to the World Series since the 1986 championship season. Despite losing to the Yankees in five games, hopes were high in New York that the Mets might bring the crown home in 2001.

The Atlanta Braves had reached the postseason in nine of 10 seasons heading into 2001, missing only in the strike-curtailed 1994 season. The Braves won the NL West from 1991-1993, then, after divisional realignment, had won the NL East crown every year since 1995. They represented the NL in the World Series five times during this span, including their triumph over the Cleveland Indians in 1995. In 2000 the Cardinals swept them in the NLDS.

The Mets arrived in Atlanta to open the 2001 season at Turner Field on April 3.1 Atlanta had won 18 of 22 regular-season games against the Mets since the ballpark opened in 1997. New York had been historically strong on Opening Day, winning 25 of 31 games since 1970.2 Atlanta had opened its season on the road one day earlier by beating the Cincinnati Reds, 10-4.3

The 42,117 fans who showed up for the Braves’ home opener were forced to wait more than two hours for the first pitch. As rain fell in the early afternoon, most of the opening ceremonies, such as a military flyover and a planned infield landing by parachutists, were cancelled.

When the game finally began at 3:05 PM, 35-year-old left-hander Tom Glavine took the mound for Atlanta. One of four future Hall of Famers in the starting lineups – along with Braves center fielder Andruw Jones and third baseman Chipper Jones and Mets catcher Mike Piazza – Glavine had won a major-league-best 21 games in 2000 and finished second in the NL Cy Young Award voting to Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

But Glavine tended to struggle in the first inning, with a lifetime ERA of 4.58, more than a run above his career average.4 Leadoff batter Benny Agbayani walked, then was tagged out in a rundown after Glavine’s pickoff trapped him off first. Edgardo Alfonzo, coming off successive seasons with 40 or more doubles, followed with a two-base hit to deep center.

After third baseman Robin Ventura struck out, Piazza stepped to the plate. Already with five career homers against Glavine, Piazza hit the second pitch to the opposite field and over the right-field fence to give the Mets a 2-0 lead. A walk to first baseman Todd Zeile made it four of five Mets reaching base, but Jay Payton flied out to left to end the inning.

Al Leiter started for New York. The 35-year-old left-hander’s 16 wins had led the Mets the previous season. He hadn’t given up a run during spring training, but Atlanta got on the scoreboard in the first. Rafael Furcal hit a high bouncer off home plate. It went over Zeile, who was playing in for a potential bunt. Alfonzo fielded the ball, but his toss to Leiter was late and Furcal had a single.

After Quilvio Veras lined out to third, Andruw Jones hit a shot to left for a single. Chipper Jones’ bloop single over shortstop scored Furcal to make it 2-1. Brian Jordan grounded into a double play to close the first.

Both pitchers then settled down. Glavine faced the minimum of 15 Mets from the second through the sixth innings. New York’s only baserunner was on Agbayani’s leadoff walk in the third, but Braves catcher Javy López gunned him down as part of a “strike ’em out, throw ’em out” double play. Leiter defused runner-on-second, one-out threats in the second and fourth innings, and set down Atlanta in order in the third, fifth, and sixth inning.

New York finally generated a threat against Glavine in the seventh. Zeile singled with one out, and Payton walked. They moved up on Darryl Hamilton’s groundout to first. But Glavine had reached the bottom of the order, and he intentionally walked Rey Ordoñez, a .188 hitter in 2000, to bring up the pitcher’s spot. Mets manager Bobby Valentine let Leiter bat for himself, and a groundout left the bases loaded.

Leiter’s lead lasted only two more batters. López tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out home run over the left field wall.

Still in the game to start the eighth, Glavine walked Agbayani, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo made his major-league debut as a pinch-runner. The 29-year-old Shinjo had signed with the Mets after playing 10 years for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan.

Glavine got Alfonzo to fly out to deep center with Shinjo tagging up and advancing a base on the play. Atlanta manager Bobby Cox proceeded to call on 26-year-old left-hander John Rocker to face the left-handed batting Ventura, who had struck out four times in five previous at-bats against the Braves’ reliever.

Valentine had placed Ventura in the third spot in the batting order after he drove in 16 runs in spring training. The manager hoped that moving Ventura in front of Piazza would help him return to form after he hit just .232 with 24 home runs and 84 RBIs in 2000.5

Ventura hit Rocker’s first pitch deep to center. Andruw Jones made a valiant attempt to catch the ball, but it was out of reach and over the fence.6 New York regained the lead, 4-2.

Valentine turned the game over to his veteran relief corps. Left-hander John Franco, beginning his 12th season with the Mets at age 40, was the first out of the bullpen. Dave Martinez greeted Franco with a single, then scored the Braves’ third run when Furcal’s double to left-center evaded Payton’s attempt at a diving catch. Veras’ hit-by-pitch ended Franco’s no-out appearance in favor of right-hander Turk Wendell.

The 33-year-old Wendell got Andruw Jones to pop out to short. Chipper Jones hit a grounder to first; Zeile fielded the ball and threw to Ordoñez at second for a forceout. Ordoñez relayed to Wendell covering first, but first-base umpire Brian O’Nora ruled that Wendell’s foot came off the base before he caught the ball. Instead of a double play, Chipper Jones was safe.

Jordan followed with a single to tie the game, 4-4. López popped out to end the eighth.

Rocker pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.7 Valentine called on 38-year-old lefty Dennis Cook in the bottom of the inning. Cook retired the Braves to send the game into extra innings.

Cox brought in right-hander Kerry Ligtenberg to pitch the 10th. With one out, Shinjo, who had stayed in the game in left field, got his first major-league hit, a single up the middle.8 Shinjo later said that the game was “the most memorable thing in my life.”9

Alfonzo flied out to right for the second out. This brought up Ventura. He wasted no time, connecting on Ligtenberg’s first pitch, a fastball, and sending it over the right-field wall to make the score 6-4.

“When you hear that good sound and it gets up high, his ball continues to carry. When he clicks, he has that fluid swing, and when he hits it right, there’s a lot of force behind it,” said Valentine. “You don’t see that force in the weight room, but you see it when he swings.”10

“In my mind I’m thinking that I already did it once. The odds of doing it again aren’t all that great,” said Ventura afterward.11 “They’re good pitchers. Obviously, there’s luck involved, and I’ll take it.”12

Mets closer Armando Benítez got the Braves out in order in the bottom of the 10th to give the Mets their fifth-ever regular-season win at Turner Field.

Leiter expressed the feeling in the clubhouse after the win, saying, “You don’t want to fall into, ‘How are they going to win this?’ We’ve had some pretty wacky ways of losing games here.”13 “Let them suffer once,” echoed Mets utility man Lenny Harris.14

“What I saw tonight was a situation where I can start being proud again. We just went out and played our game,” said Valentine, complimenting his team on the win.15

The win was the 26th time that the Mets had won on Opening Day.16 Atlanta won the next night, 3-2, on a fielder’s choice in the ninth inning. New York took the final game of the series, 7-1, to earn its first series win at Turner Field. The Mets won three more games there in 2001.17

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel like the playoffs. Exciting and electric,” said Chipper Jones. “I’m sure we’ll have a few more barn-burners.”18 The two teams played 19 times in 2001, with the Braves winning 10 of the games.

New York finished 82-80, third place in the NL East. Ventura hit .237 with 21 home runs and 61 RBIs, with his 105 OPS+ representing a small increase over 2000.19 The Mets would not return to the postseason again until 2006, when they lost the NLCS to the Cardinals. Atlanta continued to make the postseason for five more years but never returned to the World Series during that time.20 After losing in the NLCS to the Diamondbacks in 2001, they fell in the NL Division Series for four straight years.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Robin Ventura, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for the box score and other material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL200104030.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B04030ATL2001.htm

Notes

1 It was the second time the Braves played their home opener against the Mets. They played the Mets on April 11, 1963, when the team was still in Milwaukee.

2 The Mets lost their first eight Opening Day games from 1962-1969.

3 Atlanta opened their 2001 season with a single game against the Cincinnati Reds on April 2, at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati. MLB scheduled the game to continue the Reds’ tradition of hosting the first game of the season.

4 Glavine had a lifetime ERA of 3.54 in 22 big-league seasons.

5 Ventura batted .301 with 32 home runs and 120 RBIs in 1999.

6 It was the second time that Ventura hit a home run on Opening Day. He hit a homer on March 31, 1998, in the Chicago White Sox’s 9-2 win over the Texas Rangers. Ventura had one more Opening Day home run on March 31, 2003, when the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-4.

7 Atlanta traded Rocker and minor-leaguer Troy Cameron to the Cleveland Indians for Steve Karsay and Steve Reed on July 22, 2001.

8 Shinjo played in 123 games for the Mets in 2001. He was traded with Desi Relaford to the San Francisco Giants for Shawn Estes. He was signed by New York after the 2002 season and played in 63 games before being sent to the minors. He returned to Japan after the season, where he played three more years with the Nippon Ham Fighters.

9 Tyler Kepner, “Playoffs Start Early for Mets and the Braves,” New York Times, April 4, 2001: D1.

10 Tom Keegan, “The Return of Bat Man; It’s a New Season, But Same Old Robin.”

11 Ventura’s two-home-run game was the 19th of his career. He had two more games where he hit two home runs for a total of 21 in his 16-year career. He never hit three home runs in a game.

12 Jon Heyman, “Robin’s Rockets Spring Hope.”

13 Tyler Kepner, “Playoffs Start Early for Mets and the Braves.”

14 Marty Noble, “Power Launch in Atlanta,” Newsday, April 4, 2001: A80.

15 T.J. Quinn, “Robin Responds in Hot Spot,” New York Daily News, April 4, 2001: 58.

16 As of 2025, New York has a 41-23 (.641) record on Opening Day, the best record in Major League Baseball

17 New York had a 67-106 record at Turner Field from 1997 to 2016.

18 Marty Noble, “Power Launch in Atlanta.”

19 The Mets traded Ventura to the New York Yankees for David Justice on December 7, 2001. Ventura had a successful 2002 year with the Yankees. He hit 27 home runs with 93 RBIs and made the American League All-Star team for the second time in his career.

20 Atlanta won the 2021 World Series, 4-2, over the Houston Astros.