March 31, 1998: Mets beat Phillies on Opening Day on Alberto Castillo’s walk-off single in 14th inning

The 1998 season was baseball’s first with a full slate of regular-season games played in March.1 The New York Mets opened against their National League East Division rival Philadelphia Phillies on March 31. New York had improved in 1997, manager Bobby Valentine’s first full season at the helm, finishing above .500 for the first time in seven years.2

Terry Francona was beginning his second year as manager in Philadelphia. After the ’97 Phillies came in fifth in the NL East with a 68-94 record, several news organizations predicted little improvement in 1998. When asked about the dismal forecasts, Francona said, “All I can say is I hope they’re not right.”3

A crowd of 49,142 packed into Shea Stadium on a sunny, warm afternoon.4 Mets owner Fred Wilpon told reporters it would be “very disappointing” if the team, seeking its first postseason appearance since 1988, did not make the playoffs in 1998.5 “Our professional guys are very optimistic about our chances this year,” he said.6

Valentine named Bobby Jones to start. The right-hander led Mets starters with 15 wins in 1997. He finished second on the team with 125 strikeouts. Jones had been the Opening Day starter for the Mets in 1995 and 1996.7

Jones breezed through the first inning, getting the Phillies out in order while throwing just nine pitches. With two outs in the second, Philadelphia got a pair of singles on line drives to left field. Jones struck out Desi Relaford to end the threat.

Right-hander Curt Schilling started for Philadelphia. The 30-year-old Schilling led the NL with 319 strikeouts in 1997.8 He also led Phillies starters with 17 wins and a 2.97 ERA. Schilling had started the Phillies’ opener in 1997, pitching eight innings and striking out 11 in a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

During spring training, Schilling had been concerned that he was not throwing well. Pitching coach Johnny Podres told him at the time, “Everything will be fine when you get into a big-league stadium in front of a big-league crowd.”9

Schilling validated Podres’ optimism as he got the first six Mets batters out. Then catcher Tim Spehr, playing for the injured Todd Hundley, singled to lead off the third.10 After Rey Ordoñez flied out, Spehr moved to second on Jones’s sacrifice. Brian McRae’s fly out to left ended the frame.

Philadelphia threatened in the fifth. After Mark Lewis walked to start the inning, Bobby Abreu singled to right. Lewis intended to take third but slipped and held at second.

“The infield was really bad,” Lewis said after the game. “There was a lot of dirt and it was giving way. There were potholes out there.”11

Relaford hit a groundball to second baseman Carlos Baerga, who threw to Ordoñez at second for the force on Abreu. Ordoñez – who had received his first of three consecutive Gold Gloves at shortstop in 1997 – turned and quickly threw to third. Lewis was caught in a rundown between second and third and was tagged out by Ordoñez for the second out. Schilling’s groundout to first ended the half-inning.

Spehr singled with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but Ordoñez grounded into a force for the third out. Schilling pitched three more scoreless innings, allowing just a leadoff walk to Bernard Gilkey in the seventh. He threw 121 pitches in eight innings, striking out nine, walking one, and allowing two hits.

Jones stranded runners at the corners with two outs in the sixth, and Valentine called on Greg McMichael to pitch the seventh.12 The right-hander threw a scoreless frame, then gave up consecutive one-out singles in the eighth to put a runner in scoring position. Mike Lieberthal lined out for the second out, and Valentine brought in left-hander Dennis Cook, a former Phil, to face former Met Rico Brogna. Cook struck out the left-handed Brogna, keeping the score tied. He then retired the three Phillies he faced in the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Francona summoned right-hander Jerry Spradlin, who retired New York on nine pitches to send the game into extra innings.

John Franco took over pitching duties for the Mets in the 10th. The 37-year-old left-hander had been the Mets’ closer since 1989.13 Franco walked pinch-hitter Kevin Sefcik to start the frame. Sefcik moved to second on a sacrifice but was stranded on a fly out and strikeout.

John Olerud led off the Mets’ half of the 10th with a single against Billy Brewer, just entering the game. Valentine sent Luis López to run for Olerud, but a fly out to right and a double play kept the score tied.

Neither team managed a baserunner in the 11th.

Relaford led off the 12th with a single against Mel Rojas.14 Rojas struck out pinch-hitter Alex Arias. After Relaford stole second, Doug Glanville grounded out and Scott Rolen flied out.

Francona called on Ricky Bottalico to pitch the bottom half. Bottalico led the Phillies with 34 saves in 1997. McRae led off with a single but two groundouts and a strikeout kept the game scoreless.

There were no baserunners in the 13th. Right-hander Turk Wendell, who had been traded from the Chicago Cubs to the Mets with Rojas in 1997, was now on the mound for New York. He pitched two innings, allowing just a two-out walk in the 14th.

Valentine praised his bullpen afterward, saying, “One after another they came. Greg McMichael and Dennis and Johnny and Mel and Turk. Bang, bong, bing, bang, bong.”15

With Bottalico still on the mound in the bottom of the 14th, Matt Franco led off with a single. McRae walked. Edgardo Alfonzo tried to bunt both runners forward, but Bottalico threw out Franco at third.

Gilkey then singled to left and McRae was waved home but he slipped as he rounded third and was forced to stay there. “I don’t know what I did. I felt a sharp pain in my hip and I went down,” McRae said later. “I knew it was going to be a close play at the plate.”16

López, who had stayed in the game at second base after pinch-running, popped out to third for the second out. Valentine called on 28-year-old backup catcher Alberto Castillo, the last position player on his bench, to pinch-hit for Wendell. Castillo had been in the bullpen, getting a hot chocolate, when bullpen coach Randy Niemann told him he needed to get ready.

Castillo, known mostly for his defense, worked the count full. Bottalico threw a fastball. Castillo lined it to right field and McRae scored. The Mets won, 1-0.

“He’ll have some ugly at-bats. But I always said he’ll get a good one when you need it,” said Valentine of Castillo, who had hit .192 in 54 games with the Mets over the previous three seasons.17

“Everybody thinks I can’t hit, but I get hits. I was expecting a fastball. If you don’t hit a fastball at this level, you should pack up and go home,” said Castillo. “I believe I can be a good hitter, but sometimes I try to do too much.”18

Francona complimented his starter, saying, “He was great. For Opening Day, he didn’t give them anything. It was just like he picked up right where he left off.” Schilling said of his mound work, “It was a really good feeling. I’ve kind of been searching for it. After the first out, everything clicked.”19

The press criticized Francona for allowing Bottalico to pitch into his third inning. “As far as we’d gone, I preferred to win or lose with him,” the manager asserted. “When you’ve gone that long, you don’t have a lot of options left.” He also noted that Bottalico was scheduled to lead off the 15th.

“I think there might have been a lot of emotion out there today,” said Valentine. “The emotion of the home opener, the emotion of a big crowd, the emotion [of facing] Schilling. It’s a new year. And there was obviously the emotion of running out on the field after Albert’s hit,” said Valentine, who was the first one out of the dugout after Castillo’s hit.20

The 14-inning game tied the longest opener in NL history.21 The Mets played the last NL Opening Day game to go 14 innings, on April 26, 1995, against the Colorado Rockies in Denver. It was an 11-9 loss that Jones also started.

Castillo started 29 games for the Mets in 1998, most of them before the addition of Mike Piazza in a trade on May 22, 1998. Castillo was a free agent after the season and signed with the Phillies.22

The Mets ended the season with an 88-74 record, a distant second in the NL East behind the Atlanta Braves. The Mets finally made the playoffs in 1999, when they reached the NL Championship Series, losing to their division rival Braves in six games.

The Phillies improved in Francona’s second year as manager, finishing in third place in the NL East. Francona remained their manager for two more years before being replaced by Larry Bowa. His record with the Phillies was 285-363.

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN199803310.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1998/B03310NYN1998.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSpm4e3T0l0&ab_channel=PheniaFilmstheMLBarchivesOriginalBroadcasts

Notes

1 The major leagues added two teams in 1998. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined the National League and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays joined the American League. One team, the Milwaukee Brewers, moved from the American League to the National League. The only major-league game played in March before 1998 was the Sunday night season opener between the Seattle Mariners and Chicago White Sox on March 31, 1996.

2 Valentine was hired to replace Dallas Green with 31 games left in the 1996 season. He went 12-19 in 1996. Under Valentine’s leadership the Mets finished 88-74, in third place in the NL East, in 1997.

3 Jayson Stark, “Upbeat Phils Await Northern Exposure,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 30, 1998: B3.

4 The temperature in New York reached 86 degrees, a record that still existed as of 2024.

5 New York had a remarkable Opening Day record. After losing its first six Opening Day games, the team was 21-9 through 1997.

6 Ian O’Connor, “Future Dim Without Stars,” New York Daily News, April 1, 1998: 53. The Mets pitching staff featured several new faces for 1998. Masato Yoshii and Dennis Cook were signed as free agents. Al Leiter arrived in a trade with the Florida Marlins. The Mets later added Hideo Nomo in a midseason trade with the Dodgers.

7 Jones earned a no-decision after pitching 4⅔ innings and giving up five runs in the Mets’ 11-9 loss to the Colorado Rockies on April 26, 1995. He fared no better when he started the Mets’ opener on April 1, 1996. He pitched 3⅔ innings, gave up six earned runs and picked up a loss when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets 7-6.

8 Schilling’s 319 strikeouts broke the previous Phillies record of 310, set by Steve Carlton in 1972.

9 Jim Salisbury, “Phils Ace Pumped to Pitch, as Usual,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1998: F1.

10 Spehr had been signed as a free agent in January 1998. Hundley had elbow surgery and was expected to miss the first two months of the season. Valentine said he planned to platoon Spehr and Alberto Castillo until Hundley returned. When Hundley’s injury persisted, the Mets acquired Mike Piazza in a trade on May 22, 1998. Thomas Hill, “Castillo Hopes to Stick,” New York Daily News, March 29, 1998: 95.

11 Paul Hagen, “Lewis Wants to Forget Bad Trip,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1998: 84.

12 McMichael arrived in a trade with Atlanta in 1996 and went 7-10 with 7 saves for the Mets in 1997. The Mets would trade him to the Dodgers in June 4, 1998, but he returned to the Mets in another trade a month later. He played another year for the Mets before being traded again in 1999. He finished his career in 2000 with the Atlanta Braves.

13 Franco led the team in saves every year since 1990 except for 1993, when his 15 saves tied with Anthony Young.

14 Rojas had averaged 33 saves in his final two years with the Montreal Expos. He signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs on December 10, 1996. The Cubs struggled in 1997 and so did Rojas. When he was traded, Rojas had just 13 saves and a 4.42 ERA. The Mets also acquired Turk Wendell and Brian McRae in the trade while the Cubs received Lance Johnson, Mark Clark, and Manny Alexander.

15 Kit Stiers, “Mets Stellar Start,” White Plains (New York) Journal News, April 1, 1998: 1D.

16 Thomas Hill, “Mets Pick Up McRae After Fall,” New York Daily News, April 1, 1998: 54.

17 Valentine was possibly thinking about Castillo’s walkoff hit on September 27, 1997. His double off Mark Wohlers gave the Mets a 2-1 win against the Atlanta Braves.

18 Richard Sandomir, “For Castillo, a 3-2 Fastball Had His Name on It,” New York Times, April 1, 1998: C6.

19 Rich Hofmann, “The Thrill of Schill is Back,”Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1998: 85.

20 Kit Stiers, “Mets Stellar Start.”

21 Six other NL games went to 14 innings before the Mets’ victory. The longest Opening Day game as of 1998 came in 1926 when the Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 1-0, in 15 innings. That record was surpassed when the Toronto Blue Jays needed 16 innings to beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-4, on April 5, 2012.

22 Castillo never played for the Phillies. The Cardinals drafted him in the 1998 Rule 5 draft one month after he signed his contract.