September 28, 2008: Mets lose to Marlins in final game at Shea Stadium

On the final day of the 2008 season, the New York Mets were wrapping up their time at Shea Stadium and preparing to move to Citi Field, which was under construction in the parking lot behind left field. Besides commemorating their 45 seasons at Shea, the Mets had a tangible purpose as they hosted the Florida Marlins on Sunday, September 28: a shot at the National League’s wild-card spot.

For the second year in a row, the Mets entered their season finale hoping to make the playoffs. New York had missed the postseason in 2007 when the Marlins scored seven runs off Tom Glavine in the first inning en route to an 8-1 victory. The loss was the culmination of a tailspin in late September when the team went 7-10 down the stretch to blow a 3½-game lead in the NL East Division to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Once again New York had squandered a divisional lead as the 2008 season wound down. The Mets had led the Phillies by 3½ games on September 10 before going 7-10 to fall two games back.

Now the Mets’ only hope was the wild card. Heading into the final day, New York was tied with the Milwaukee Brewers at 89-72. Milwaukee, which sought its first postseason berth since 1982,1 was hosting the Chicago Cubs with ace CC Sabathia on the mound. If the Mets and Brewers finished the day tied, they would play a tiebreaker to see who would face the Phillies in the playoffs.2

A crowd of 56,059 poured into Shea Stadium to see if the Mets could make it to the postseason. As in 2007, the Mets concluded their schedule with a home series against the Marlins. The teams had split the first two games of the series. A night earlier, Johan Santana, pitching on three days’ rest, had thrown a three-hit shutout to keep the Mets in contention.

Mets lefty Oliver Pérez would also be asked to work on short rest. The 27-year-old Pérez had struggled in September, going five innings just three times and winning only one of his five previous starts.

Pérez retired the Marlins in order in the first and began the game with five scoreless innings. Florida’s only hit during that span was Dan Uggla’s single in the second. Uggla reached second on a two-out walk to Cody Ross but was stranded when Alfredo Amézaga lined out to center. Pérez, who led the majors in walks allowed in 2008, walked just two Marlins and struck out six through the first five innings.

Meanwhile Marlins left-hander Scott Olsen was doing the same to the Mets. The previous day Olsen was walking through Times Square dressed as a bunch of grapes, part of a team-bonding costume parade. When he was stopped by some Mets fans, he told them “I’ll be on the mound tomorrow. It’ll be sour grapes for you guys tomorrow.”3 Through the first five innings, Olsen allowed just two hits, singles by Carlos Delgado in the first and Ramón Castro in the third.

Pérez had set down eight Marlins in a row entering the sixth, but 21-year-old Cameron Maybin – Baseball America’s sixth-ranked prospect entering the 2008 season and a September call-up from Double A – led off with a ground-rule double. Maybin scored four pitches later when fellow rookie John Baker lined a single to center.

Jorge Cantú followed with another single to put runners at first and second, and they moved up a base on Mike Jacobs’ fly ball to left. An intentional walk to Uggla set up a possible double play. With right-hander Josh Willingham up next, Mets manager Jerry Manuel replaced Pérez with Joe Smith, who walked Willingham on a 3-and-1 pitch to score Baker and give the Marlins a 2-0 lead.

Olsen didn’t enjoy the lead for very long. He opened the bottom half of the frame by walking pinch-hitter Robinson Cancel. One out later, Carlos Beltrán hit his 27th home run of the year, over the left-field wall. Brian Heyman of the White Plains (New York) Journal News wrote that Beltran was trying to tell his teammates it was time “to hit the way that we know we can do.”4

But Beltran’s bat was the only one making any noise as Olsen struck out Delgado and got David Wright to hit an easy grounder to shortstop.

With the score tied, it was time for the Mets’ bullpen to hold the Marlins. Florida had scored six runs in the first game of the series and four of them had come off Mets relievers in just three innings. (The Marlins were shut out in the second game.)

New York right-hander Brian Stokes pitched the seventh. After veteran Luis Gonzalez, batting for Olsen, grounded out,5 Maybin singled and stole second, but Baker struck out and Cantú flied to left to strand Maybin.

The Mets’ reliever to start the eighth was left-hander Scott Schoeneweis, making his 73rd appearance of the season. Leadoff batter Wes Helms sent the third pitch into the left-field bleachers to put the Marlins in front, 3-2.

After the game Schoeneweis was asked if this was the worst thing that could happen to a pitcher. He replied, “There’s more important things in life sometimes” before turning back to his locker where he broke down crying. It had been a difficult week for Schoeneweis, whose wife delivered their child prematurely.6

Manuel went back to his bullpen, bringing in right-hander Luis Ayala. The first batter Ayala faced was Uggla. With the count full, Uggla hit the ball over the left-field fence for his 32nd homer of the season. The run left the Marlins up 4-2.

“This was my first ever homer at Shea. I’m glad to finally hit one before they tore it down,” Uggla said afterward.7

The Mets had two more chances to tie the game. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, José Reyes doubled off right-hander Kevin Gregg and Beltrán walked, bringing up Delgado, who had hit 38 home runs so far in the season.

In Milwaukee, Sabathia was closing out the Cubs for his 17th win of the season. Marlins manager Fredi González walked to the mound to summon lefty Arthur Rhodes, as “the ‘9’ beside the MIL/CHI on the scoreboard changed to ‘F,’ signifying ‘Final,’ and everyone in the cranky old ballpark – players, fans, former greats who gathered to say good-bye to Shea – knew the Mets needed a win to stave off elimination,” wrote the New York Times.8 Everyone was on their feet but when Delgado lined out to deep left field, the stadium went quiet.

Marlins reliever Matt Lindstrom came in from the bullpen to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He had finished 10 games for Florida in September and entered the game with a 1.93 ERA for the month. Wright popped up and Endy Chávez hit a weak groundball back to the pitcher. There were two outs.

Damion Easley pinch-hit and drew a walk. Ryan Church stepped up the plate. Church had struck out in his previous three at-bats, but he ripped Lindstrom’s second pitch toward center.

Maybin tracked it down and after it nestled in his glove, the “Mets stood paralyzed in disbelief,” wrote the New York Times’s Ben Shpigel.

Easley said, “When he hit it, the way the ball took off, part of me wanted to believe it had a chance to go out.”9

Wright expressed the frustration of his teammates when he said, “We missed two golden opportunities. We failed.” Mets pitcher Pedro Martínez was equally disappointed, saying, “It’s the second year in a row I stood waiting for the next day. And the next day never came.”10

After the Marlins played the spoiler for the second year in a row, the team “disappeared into the visitors dugout to some obscene gestures and chants of ‘Off Our Field.’” Cody Ross said, “We weren’t trying to show anyone up. It’s tough for them the last couple of years we’ve done this.”11

Florida manager González said, “It’s fun. I’m not going to lie to you.”12 The Marlins finished in third place with 84 wins, the third best in team history. Helms, whose home run pushed the Marlins into the lead for good, said, “I could probably eat all the cheese I want in Milwaukee next season. If they win the World Series, I might even get a big old cheese basket.”13

Although the crowd was heartbroken to see their team fail again, they took solace in the video tribute projected on the scoreboard. Former Mets crossed the plate one last time with Mike Piazza and Tom Seaver being the last ones to do so.

Finally, as Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” played, Seaver stood on the mound and delivered the final pitch to Piazza in his crouch behind home plate. Then the two players took a slow walk toward center field. When they got to the fence, they stopped and waved to the crowd one last time before they closed the doors, symbolically closing Shea Stadium.

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.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200809280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2008/B09280NYN2008.htm

Notes

1 In 1982 Milwaukee won the American League pennant but lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers moved to the NL in 1998.

2 The tiebreaker game would be played in New York since the Mets had won the series between the two teams, 4 games to 2.

3 Joe Capozzi, “Marlins Play Spoiler Again,” Palm Beach (Florida) Post, September 29, 2008: C1.

4 Brian Heyman, “Marlins Spoil Another Party,” White Plains (New York) Journal News, September 29, 2008: C1.

5 It was the final plate appearance of Gonzalez’s 19-season major-league career, which included five All-Star appearances, a Silver Slugger Award, and the game-winning hit in Game Seven of the 2001 World Series.

6 Adam Rubin, “Sad Farewell,” New York Daily News, September 29, 2008: 48.

7 Capozzi, “Marlins Play Spoiler Again.”

8 Ben Shpigel, “Bitter Repeat on Stadium’s Final Day,” New York Times, September 30, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/sports/baseball/29mets.html.

9 Shpigel. It was the final game of Easley’s 17-season major-league career, which included an All-Star selection and a Silver Slugger Award.

10 Sam Borden, “Mets and Shea History,” White Plains Journal News, September 29, 2008: C1.

11 Juan Rodriguez, “Shea It Ain’t So – Mets Done,” South Florida Sun Sentinel, September 29, 2008: 37.

12 Capozzi, “Marlins Play Spoiler Again.”

13 Rodriguez.