April 15, 2009: Mets beat Padres for first victory at Citi Field

The 2007 and 2008 seasons had ended in disappointment when the New York Mets missed the playoffs on the final day of each season. In 2008 the team also bade goodbye to Shea Stadium, its home for 45 seasons. It was hoped the opening of the Mets’ new ballpark would bring better days in 2009.

After beginning the season with road series against the Cincinnati Reds and Florida Marlins,1 the Mets opened Citi Field on April 13, a Monday night date with the San Diego Padres. Hall of Famer Tom Seaver threw the first pitch to future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, greeted by “the same kind of ovation the two of them got when they closed the doors on Shea last September.”2

When the Mets fell behind the Padres 4-0 by the second inning on their way to a 6-5 loss, the New York Daily News reported, sardonically, “[Y]ou had thought that Seaver had been pulled way too early.”3

Two days later, prior to the second home game at Citi Field, the Mets celebrated Jackie Robinson Day with the christening of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the entrance to the new ballpark.4 The rotunda extolled “the nine virtues that Robinson lived by: Justice, teamwork, determination, persistence, courage, excellence, citizenship, commitment and integrity.”5

As was baseball’s custom on April 15, every player on both teams wore Robinson’s number 42. Mets shortstop José Reyes said, “Just to see the way that he played the game, the fact that he never gave up and he was always working hard. He showed that you can never hang your head, and that you have to be strong every day.”6

Oliver Pérez took the mound for New York.7 When the Mets were introduced before the Citi Field opener, fans had booed the 27-year-old left-hander, who had re-signed as a free agent during the offseason. Perez had allowed eight runs in 4⅓ innings in his first start of 2009, a loss to the Reds on April 9.

Mets fans wondered which Pérez might show up, especially after it was announced before the game that New York starter Mike Pelfrey – charged with five runs in five innings in the Citi Field opener – had been diagnosed with forearm tendinitis. Pelfrey, whose 13-11 record and 3.72 ERA in 2008 were topped only by Mets ace Johan Santana, said he had experienced stiffness for the past month and told reporters, “It seems like the more pitches I throw, the worse it gets, the weaker it gets.”8

Pérez gave pause to the 35,581 fans in attendance when he walked the first batter he faced, Scott Hairston. But he regained his control and retired the next six batters. Luis Rodríguez got the first Padres’ hit, a single in the third, but once again Pérez recovered to get the next three batters out.

Right-hander Kevin Correia started for the Padres. A San Diego area native, Correia had posted a 14-22 record in six seasons with the San Francisco Giants before signing a minor-league deal with the Padres in the offseason. He pitched six innings in his first 2009 start, allowing five hits and three runs in a no-decision against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Correia kept the Mets scoreless through three innings, getting out of a two-on, one-out jam in the second when Brian Schneider grounded into a double play.

The Mets broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. Daniel Murphy and David Wright started the inning with singles. Carlos Delgado walked to load the bases. Carlos Beltrán hit Correia’s second pitch for a single, scoring Murphy.

Right fielder Gary Sheffield came to the plate. The 40-year-old slugger, in his 22nd big-league season and now mostly a designated hitter, had been signed on April 4 and was making his first start of the season.9 He grounded into a double play as Wright scampered home with the Mets’ second run.

Sheffield was concerned how he might fare in right. But he had no problems, fielding just two fly balls before he left the game in the eighth without a “grass stain on his pants.” Sheffield later said, “Every inning I kept going in and asking [Ryan] Church, [a Mets outfielder who was not in the starting lineup], was I in the right position?”10

The Padres closed the gap in the fifth. Rodríguez singled with one out and moved to second on Correia’s sacrifice. Hairston’s single drove Rodríguez home to cut the Mets’ lead to one run. “Pérez, who records more moments of truth than a polygraph, went to 3-and-0 on David Eckstein, before he swung over a 3-1 fastball and grounded out” for the third out, wrote Jay Greenberg of the New York Post.11

Pérez pitched a one-two-three sixth before Manuel pulled him for Bobby Parnell. On 90 pitches, Pérez had given up three hits while striking out four. “The Mets had seen the movie titled ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ollie’ before,” said the New York Daily News, but Mets manager Jerry Manuel was pleased with his performance.12

“Give [Pérez] credit,” said Hairston. “His fastball inside was effective. I don’t think that we were expecting him to throw inside that much. He did early, and by the end his changeup was effective. He didn’t make too many mistakes.”13

After Parnell dispatched the Padres in order in the seventh, the Mets “capitalized on a wild ride by the Padres bullpen”14 to break the game open with four runs in the bottom of the inning. Rookie right-hander Luke Gregerson had pitched a clean sixth inning in his fifth major-league game, but he threw 10 straight balls to open the seventh, walking Sheffield and Schneider.

With Luis Castillo at the plate and a 2-and-0 count, Gregerson was lifted in mid-batter by Padres manager Bud Black for Edward Mujica. Castillo bunted down the third-base line. Mujica couldn’t handle the ball and the bases were loaded.

Church batted for Parnell, and Mujica uncorked a wild pitch that sent the third Mets run across the plate. After Church struck out, Reyes was intentionally walked, again loading the bases. Murphy’s sacrifice fly scored another run.

Castillo took third on the play, setting up runners on the corners for Wright. On a 0-and-1 pitch, Reyes – the NL’s leader in steals each season from 2005 through 2007 – took off for second. The ball hit off catcher Nick Hundley’s mitt and rolled up the third-base line. Castillo dashed for home, sliding in safely under Hundley’s throw to Mujica.

The ball got away again, bouncing toward the first-base dugout. Reyes rounded third and continued to the plate. First baseman Adrián González picked up the ball and threw to Mujica, but his wild toss was too late, and Reyes slid headfirst across home.

“I went to steal the base and I saw the ball far from the catcher and the third base coach sent me,” said Reyes, who had spoken before the game about wanting to steal home to honor Robinson’s memory.15 Hundley was charged with a passed ball and a throwing error, and the Mets were ahead 6-1.

The Mets added a seventh run when Delgado led off the eighth with a blast that “christened the right-field overhang.” It was the 471st homer of Delgado’s career.16

As the Mets built their lead, their bullpen kept the Padres in check for most of the rest of the way to secure Pérez’s victory. J.J. Putz followed Parnell’s scoreless seventh with a scoreless eighth. The Padres scored one final run in the ninth when González hit his third homer of the season over the right-field fence off the Mets’ third reliever, Sean Green. Green struck out two of the next four batters he faced to close out the 7-2 win.

The Mets’ victory was their first at Citi Field. Reyes probably best expressed the team’s feelings when he said, “No doubt that it was exciting. We lost the first game at Citi Field and really wanted to get this one. Ollie was unbelievable. That’s what he does when he throws strikes.”17

Manuel was especially pleased with Pérez’s performance, saying, “When the concentration is not there, the mechanics go awry and the struggle really hits him. Trying to stay committed to his mechanics for 90-100 pitches is probably his biggest challenge. Once he does, everything falls in place.”18

Pérez, when asked about the booing after the game, said, “We have to forget what happened yesterday and every day.”19

The victory raised the Mets’ record to 4-4. It also snapped a five-game winning streak by the Padres. Additionally, the Mets’ win helped their fans forget the news about Pelfrey’s injury. Pérez’s performance gave them hope that the Mets’ pitching staff would not suffer.20

The Mets finished 2009 in fourth place in the NL East Division with a 70-92 record, but they had a winning home mark at 41-40.

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 the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, for box-score, player, team, and season information as well as pitching and batting game logs and other pertinent material. He also reviewed a YouTube video of the SNY television broadcast of the game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200904150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2009/B04150NYN2009.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSZrX3otNc

Notes

1 The Mets won two of three games from the Reds and lost two of three to the Marlins.

2 Mike Lupica, “For Memories, It’s a Field Day,” New York Daily News, April 14, 2009: 48.

3 Lupica.

4 Mets owner Fred Wilpon grew up in Brooklyn as a Dodgers fan and wanted Citi Field to remind people of Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Seaver was not pleased when he visited Citi Field for the first time and saw a large “42” in the rotunda. “With all due respect to Jackie Robinson, he was one of the all-time great players and trailblazers, but I don’t remember him playing for the Mets,” Seaver said. Bill Madden, Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020), 270. The Mets unveiled a statue of Seaver (who died in 2020) outside the ballpark before their home opener on April 15, 2022.

5 Tim Smith, “New Ballpark Does Right by Robinson,” New York Daily News, April 16, 2009: 62.

6 Smith.

7 Pérez started his career with the San Diego Padres.

8 Joshua Robinson, “Perez Alleviates Some of the Concern About Pelfrey’s Injury,” New York Times, April 15, 2009. Pelfrey did not go on the disabled list, but he was sidelined until April 25. He finished the 2009 season with a 10-12 record and a 5.03 ERA in 31 starts.

9 Sheffield had been used as a designated hitter with the Detroit Tigers in 2007 and 2008. This game was his first stint in the outfield since May 16, 2008. He was the Tigers’ designated hitter for the remainder of the 2008 season.

10 Robinson.

11 Jay Greenberg, “This Time, Amazin’s Saw the Good Perez,” New York Post, April 16, 2009.

12 Peter Botte, “Ollie and Mets,” New York Daily News, April 16, 2009: 62.

13 Tom Krasovic, “Opportunity Passes By,” San Diego Union-Tribune, April 16, 2009: D1.

14 Botte.

15 Botte.

16 Delgado injured himself in mid-May and required surgery to remove a bone spur and a torn labrum in his hip. It was estimated that he would be out for approximately 10 weeks but the injury persisted and Delgado was unable to return in 2009 to pursue his quest to join the 500-home-run club. Delgado tried several more times to make a comeback but injuries prevented it. He eventually retired in 2010 with 473 home runs.

17 Botte.

18 Greenberg.

19 Peter Botte, “Ollie and Mets.”

20 Pelfrey did not miss much of the season but he struggled, finishing with a 10-12 record and a 5.03 ERA. Pérez struggled in his next three starts. He was diagnosed with tendinitis in his right knee and missed two months. He returned in July but the injury persisted and he ended his season at the end of August to get surgery. His 2009 record was 3-4 with a 6.92 ERA. The Mets pitching staff finished the season with a 4.45 ERA. Only two starters, Santana (13-9, 3.13 ERA) and John Maine (7-6, 4.43 ERA), had winning records.