Delgado's Two Bombs Save The Day

    With two outs in the top of the eighth inning it looked like the Mets would leave Philadelphia last night with their collective tail between their legs.  Brad Lidge, who still hasn't blown a save all season, was warming up in the Phillies' pen, and the New York offense had only mustered two runs and 12 hits in the previous 16.2 innings, going back to the fifth inning of Tuesday's game.  But Carlos Delgado, who had homered in the sixth to cut Philly's lead to 3-2, sliced a liner over the left field fence to tie the game at three and spark the Mets's offense.  Carlos Beltran followed with an infield hit, and stole second.  With first base open, Brad Lidge walked Ryan Church intentionally, but Daniel Murphy made him pay, doubling down the right field line to bring home Beltran with the go-ahead run.  The hit parade continued with Brian Schneider's flare to left, which put the icing on the cake.  New York's four-run eighth inning clinched a two-game split in Philadelphia, and catapulted the Mets back into first place by a half game.

    This was the latest of several wins the day after a brutal defeat for this Jerry Manuel-led Mets team.  If certain players were simply not playing hard for Willie Randolph, then that's a shame, and it's inexcusable on the part of those players.  But since the managerial change the Mets have shown a newfound resiliency, and an ability to get up off the mat after being hit hard.  Tuesday's extra-inning loss was devastating, but the Mets stayed in last night's game from a mental perspective and bounced back.

    One player in particular who embodies the Mets' bounce-back ability is Johan Santana.  Granted, he is one of the best pitchers in baseball and he is being paid handsomely, so he certainly should be the stopper in New York's rotation.  But even within his starts, it is noticeable that he bears down and reaches deep inside for that extra something when he needs to.  After giving up three runs, on two home runs, through the second inning last night, Santana battled through the next four, and kept the Mets in a position to come back.  And did anyone notice that the bullpen pitched three scoreless innings?  Brian Stokes, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith and Luis Ayala all did their jobs last night, and for that they deserve credit.

Thought of the Week:  Pitchers Only Known for Giving Up Big Home Runs

    Despite his pedestrian career record of 10-13, and his mere 216 innings pitched over the last eight years, Mike Bacsik's name was immortalized last summer when he served up Barry Bonds' 756th career home run, the shot which passed Hank Aaron on the all-time list.  If not for that fateful pitch, Bacsik's name would have faded into obscurity, just like his career statistics someday will.  But Bacsik is not alone; there are several pitchers throughout baseball history whose names are associated with one event--pitchers who regardless of their major league resume are known forever for giving up one big home run.

    Mike Bacsik's predecessor was Al Downing.  On April 9, 1974, Downing let up one of the most momentous home runs in baseball history:  the 715th of Hank Aaron's career.  To that point, Babe Ruth's record of 714 had stood for  39 years, since the Bambino slugged his last dinger in 1935.  Although Downing was on the other side of his prime as a 33-year-old in 1974, he actually had put together a fairly impressive career with the Yankees and Dodgers before that.  He led the American League with 217 strikeouts in 1964, and made the AL All-Star team in 1967, en route to a 14-10 season.  A 20-game winner in 1971, Downing retired in 1977 after a 17-year career in which he was 123-107 with a 3.22 ERA. 

    Ralph Branca, who gave up Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to clinch the 1951 National League pennant, was a three-time All-Star in his 12-year major league career.  He led the league in starts with 36 in 1947, and compiled a 21-12 record with a 2.67 ERA.  Although he at first shied away from the publicity surrounding Thomson's homer into the Polo Grounds stands, he later embraced the memorable moment and has since appeared at autograph signings with Thomson.

    The goat of the 1960 World Series, and arguably the pitcher who stamped Bill Mazeroski's ticket to Cooperstown, was Yankees starter Ralph Terry.  However, Terry's World Series career was not marked just by the series-winning home run he allowed to Mazeroski--he won two games in the 1962 series against the Giants and was named series MVP.  He had made the All-Star team that year, going 23-12, and was on the mound in the ninth inning of game seven when Willie McCovey smoked a liner into second baseman Bobby Richardson's glove to end the series.  Willie Mays was on second and Mattie Alou was on third with the Yankees up 1-0, so had McCovey's shot gotten through, San Francisco would have won the World Series.

    Tracy Stallard, the man who gave up Roger Maris' 61st home run in 1961, didn't have too great a major league career.  He lost 37 games over two seasons for the woeful Mets in 1963 and '64, and retired with a career 30-57 record.  But he did have some success against some of the game's best hitters.  Willie Mays was a career .200 (6-30) hitter against Tracy, Willie McCovey was just five for 33, for a .154 mark, Roberto Clemente hit .138 (4-29) off him, and Frank Robinson was just six for 28, for a .214 batting average.

    Last but not least, Mitch Williams gave up a series-clinching gopher ball to Toronto's Joe Carter in the bottom of the ninth inning in game six of the 1993 World Series.  The Wild Thing had saved a career-high 43 games for Philadelphia that year, and was one of the premier closers in the league to that point in his career.  In Philadelphia's series victory over Atlanta in the NLCS, Williams recorded two wins and two saves.  In his lone All-Star season in 1989, he had 36 saves and a 2.76 ERA for the Cubs, and finished the year 10th in MVP voting and ninth for the Cy Young Award.  But he was never the same pitcher after giving up Carter's home run, posting ERAs of 7.65, 6.75 and 10.80 in three seasons after that series, and retired after the 1997 season.

*Statistical information and gamelogs derived from www.baseball-reference.com and www.mlb.com