September 20, 1991: David Cone pitches his second 1-hitter against the Cardinals in a week

New York Mets pitcher David Cone was back on the mound facing the St. Louis Cardinals for the second time in a week. Six days earlier in St. Louis, on September 14, Cone and reliever Jeff Innis had combined for the 19th one-hitter in the Mets’ 30-season history, but the Cardinals beat the Mets, 2-1, on two walks, a wild pitch, and their only hit, Ray Lankford’s two-run fifth-inning single.

It was the second time Cone pitched a one-hitter for the Mets,1 who stood with the San Diego Padres as the only major-league teams without a no-hitter.2

The 28-year-old right-hander began his second shot against the Cardinals with a 12-13 record and a 3.63 ERA while leading the National League in strikeouts with 198. Cone had faced St. Louis four previous times in the season and was 1-2 against them. He was scheduled to pitch a day earlier against the Chicago Cubs, but the game was rained out.

Mets manager Bud Harrelson said before the game, “I just hope (Cone) has a good outing. He kind of needs it. Six of his last eight decisions have been losses. For his sanity, he needs a good game that he wins.”3

A crowd of 15,683 showed up at Shea Stadium on a chilly Friday evening. New York entered with a 70-76 record. The Mets were in fourth place in the NL East Division, and it was looking as though they might finish with their first losing season since 1983.

The Cardinals arrived in New York in second place in the NL East. The team was 11½ games behind the division-leading Pittsburgh Pirates after losing back-to-back games in Pittsburgh on walk-off hits. The previous night, right-hander Omar Olivares – the winning pitcher in Cone’s September 14 one-hitter – had taken a two-hit 1-0 lead into the ninth. He ended up with the loss after the Cardinals bullpen gave up a grand slam to pinch-hitter Curtis Wilkerson.

Cone was perfect through the first 14 batters. With two outs in the fifth, he walked Milt Thompson. “You don’t know what to look for. He throws so many pitches – fastball, forkball, curve, slider. And he gets them all over,” said Thompson, who had grounded out in the first.4

The walk to Thompson turned out to be the only blemish on Cone’s record through seven innings. He retired the next seven batters he faced, striking out five.

Rookie Rhéal Cormier was making his eighth start for the Cardinals. Four of them had come against the Mets. Five days earlier, on September 15, Cormier had thrown his first career complete game in the Cardinals’ 7-2 win over the Mets.

The 24-year-old left-hander struck out leadoff batter Keith Miller. Kevin Elster singled but was caught stealing after Howard Johnson struck out. After a one-two-three second inning, Cormier walked Chris Donnels to start the third, but two fly balls and a force out left Donnels stranded at first.

The Mets put a runner in scoring position in the fourth after a pair of two-out singles by Kevin McReynolds and Gregg Jefferies, but Mark Carreon’s fly ball to center kept New York from scoring. The Mets’ fourth hit, Charlie O’Brien’s single in the fifth, failed to produce a run after Cone’s sacrifice attempt led to a force out and Keith Miller struck out.

New York broke the scoreless tie in the sixth. Elster drew a leadoff walk. With two outs, he reached second when Cormier committed a balk after dropping the ball on the rubber.5 “That’s the first time I’ve done that in my pro career. It’s tough to take,” said Cormier later.6

Jefferies then hit a weak grounder to Ozzie Smith at shortstop. Headed for his 12th consecutive Gold Glove and commonly regarded as the standard for defensive excellence at his position, Smith failed to handle the ball. Jefferies was safe at first on the error and Elster reached third.7 This brought up Carreon. The left fielder lined Cormier’s second pitch in the hole between shortstop and third. Third baseman Todd Zeile just missed making the catch and Carreon’s single sent Elster home. “I probably should have caught the ball,” said Zeile afterward. “My hands were about as cold as they’ve been all year. But that’s no reason.”8 Donnels grounded out to end the sixth but the Mets were ahead, 1-0.

When Cone returned in the eighth, “[t]he fans at Shea, many huddled in blankets or buried underneath sweaters, started to rouse in earnest,” wrote Joe Sexton of the New York Times. “In a season of excruciating ineptitude and numbingly regular failures, there existed the chance at a genuinely magical and thoroughly diverting moment.”9

Felix José led off the top of the eighth. He hit Cone’s second pitch to left-center. Marty Noble of Newsday wrote that Carreon “began his pursuit, recognized his predicament – lack of sprinter’s speed and a 20-foot glove – and cursed to himself” as the ball landed safely.10 “I hauled my rear end after it,” said Carreon. “But it was well-placed and well-hit.”11

José, when asked about his single, said, “(Cone) was throwing good and he was throwing strikes. I was going to be up there hacking.” He said he expected a fastball because “that’s what he threw me all night.” “I smoked that ball. There’s no bull with him. He comes right at you.”12

Cone retired the next six batters, three of them on strikeouts. His 11 strikeouts in the game brought his season total to 209 to maintain his NL lead. One of his victims was Lankford. Cone struck him three times, perhaps getting “revenge” on him for breaking up his no-hitter on September 14. The win was Cone’s first shutout of the 1991 season and it raised his record to 13-13.

It was the third one-hitter for Mets pitchers in September.13 Pete Schourek had pitched the first one on September 10 when the Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 9-0.

“I’m kicking myself now but my game plan was to stay aggressive and not pitch carefully,” said Cone. “I’ve watched Nolan Ryan pitch in these situations and I’ve learned not to become too careful because that’s how you usually lose them.” He added, “It takes some luck to pitch a no-hitter. When you get down to the nitty-gritty maybe Felix José hits that ball right at somebody and I catch a break.”14

Asked if he considered pulling Cone after the hit, Harrelson replied, “I was worried about his pitches toward the end. But he was so into it he said ‘Nope, I could finish this sucker.’”15 Cone added, “I wanted to treat these fans to something special. They’re the real ones, the ones coming out now.”16

Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi complimented Cone, commenting, “He’s the guy I’d like least to face. He starts that slide at our hips and we’re not sure if it’s a slider or a heater. When it’s a slider you’ve already bailed and when it’s a heater, it’s already by you.”17 Cardinals manager Joe Torre also praised Cone. “I guess we should feel fortunate. He’s given us two hits and we won a game,” Torre said.18

Cone continued to pitch well in his next three starts. In his final start, on October 6, Cone struck out 19 batters as the Mets closed out the season with a 7-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He finished the season with 241 strikeouts to lead the NL for the second consecutive year.19

The Mets continued to struggle and finished fifth in the NL East with a 77-84 record. Harrelson was fired on September 29 and replaced by third-base coach Mike Cubbage for the remainder of the season.20 New York did not have a winning season again until 1997. The Mets did not return to the postseason until 1999, when they lost to the Braves in the NL Championship Series.

Cormier, who also went the distance, took the loss. The rookie struck out five and allowed six hits. “He didn’t get distracted by everything going on around him. He just did his business,” said Torre. “He should have come away with a much better fate than that.”21

Cormier played three more years with the Cardinals. He was not as successful against the Mets during the rest of his tenure with the Cardinals as he was in 1991. He was 1-5 against the Mets over the next three seasons before being traded to the Boston Red Sox before the 1995 season.22

It was the fourth time the Cardinals had just one hit in a game in 1991. On May 27 in St. Louis, Pittsburgh’s Doug Drabek allowed only Bernard Gilkey’s sixth-inning single in an 8-0 Pirates win. Two days later, Zane Smith of the Pirates whitewashed the Cardinals, 6-0, limiting St. Louis to José Oquendo’s third-inning triple.

St. Louis finished in second place with an 84-78 record, 14 games behind the Pirates. It was their best finish since 1987, when they won the NL East and lost in the World Series to the Minnesota Twins.

Acknowledgments

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

Photo credit: David Cone, 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/NYN/NYN199109200.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1991/B09200NYN1991.htm

Notes

1 Cone’s first one-hitter came on August 29, 1988, when the Mets beat the San Diego Padres 6-0 at Shea Stadium.

2 The Mets got their first no-hitter when Johan Santana beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-0 at Shea Stadium on June 1, 2012. The San Diego Padres got their first no-hitter when Joe Musgrove beat the Texas Rangers 3-0 at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, on April 9, 2021.

3 Howard Blatt, “No Cone No-No Again,” New York Daily News, September 21, 1991: 28.

4 Rick Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 21, 1991: C1.

5 Associated Press, “Mets Cone Fires One-Hitter at Cards,” Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, September 21, 1991: 28.

6 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

7 The error was Smith’s eighth of the 1991 season.

8 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

9 Joe Sexton, “A Last Fling for  ’91: Cone Nearly Gets No-Hitter,” New York Times, September 21, 1991: 27.

10 Marty Noble, “Heartbreak for Cone,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), September 21, 1991: 99.

11 Sexton, “A Last Fling for  ’91: Cone Nearly Gets No-Hitter.”

12 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

13 Cone eventually pitched a no-hitter on July 18, 1999, as a New York Yankee. He threw a perfect game for a 6-0 win against the Montreal Expos at Yankee Stadium. Several Mets pitchers threw no-hitters after leaving the team: Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Mike Scott, Dwight Gooden, Hideo Nomo, and Philip Humber.

14 Mike DelNegro, “Cone Just Misses No-No,” White Plains (New York) Reporter Dispatch, September 21, 1991: D4.

15 DelNegro, “Cone Just Misses No-No.”

16 Noble, “Heartbreak for Cone.”

17 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

18 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

19 Cone also led the majors with 261 strikeouts in 1992. He played for the Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays that season.

20 Harrelson became manager after the Mets fired Davey Johnson on May 29, 1990. The Mets were 20-22 when Harrelson became manager. They were 71-49 for the rest of the season. New York was 74-80 in 1991 when Harrelson was fired.

21 Hummel, “Cone One-Hits Cards Again.”

22 Cormier pitched against the Mets as a relief pitcher later in his career. He had a 3-3 record with 2 saves in 47 relief appearances against New York until his retirement after the 2007 season.