This was my first live game. Sat in the upper deck green seats. Mays hit a triple but scored on an error. Forever I thought he hit an inside the park Homer till I saw it years later in the box score on the internet. It was great. I'll forever remember that day

I was 19, waiting tables that summer out on Long Island. I came into town for the weekend and decided at the last minute to go to the game. I sat down the left field line way up in the upper deck, and still have visuals of this game in my head. After taking the 7 back into Manhattan--I was staying at my dad's place-- I still remember the mixed feelings of ALMOST seeing a perfect game, the excitement of beating the Cubs and maybe getting close enough to them to contend. What an exciting night that was!

The Pirates pinned the loss on Ray Sadecki with a tie-breaking run in the ninth inning. It was the 563rd and final game for Sadecki in his 18-year major league career.

The day the King died, Elvis Presley died :'( and I was devastated. So glad the Mets won today :)

Mike, this game was actually played one day before the death of Elvis Presley. The Mets built up a 7-0 lead over the first five innings on this night in St. Louis. John Milner led the scoring attack with a pair of two-run doubles. Craig Swan pitched scoreless ball over seven frames before the Cardinals got to him in the eighth. Bob Apodaca then struck out the side in the ninth to close it out.

Due to the impending strike later in the year, this was the Mets only visit to Florida in 1994. This was also the first time that Fernando Vina played LF, as the team was trying to keep his bat in the lineup.

As for the game, this very well could be the least watched broadcast in modern Mets history. This was the same night as the OJ car chase, the Knicks playing in the NBA finals and the Rangers parade during the day. All of that during a pretty mundane month for the Mets in which the team was playing poorly. I wish there was a way to find out the ratings for this kind of stuff.

Indeed, Franco became the second in ML history to reach 400 saves by striking out the side in the 9th (with a bloop double that Edgardo Alfonzo failed to catch off the bat of Kevin Orie mixed in). He joined Lee Smith in the club, a group that has now reached 8, with the additions of Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel, and two other former Mets, Francisco Rodriguez and Billy Wagner. We're not likely to see a 9th member for quite some time, however. The closest active player is Aroldis Chapman (322 as of this writing), but he's no longer a closer. After him, you have go all the way down to our own Edwin Diaz at 209.

However, Dunwoody was Franco's first strikeout victim of the inning. It was actually former Met catcher Jorge Fabregas who made the final out.

Ventura's homer was his first at Shea. Also, Orel Hershiser, who retired the first 11 batters before allowing a hit, got his first win as a Met. It was his first win at Shea since being a member of the Dodgers in 1993. The number 11 also popped up as the number of times the Mets walked in this game, which tied a season high. But outside of a pair of doubles in the 2nd inning and Ventura's homer in the 7th, the Mets didn't have any other hits, which is why Franco was given the save chance instead of this being a Mets blowout.

Terrence Long also made his ML debut in the game, striking out on 3 pitches as a pinch hitter. I thought home plate umpire Kerwin Danley did him dirty, though, calling strikes on pitches 5 inches outside. Poor T-Long would go 0-for-3 in his career with the Mets, with 2 strikeouts and a double play, before getting traded to Oakland in July.

The Mets won their 6th in a row, tying their longest streak of the season. Rick Reed came back from the disabled list and held a good Astros offense mainly in check through 6 innings to get the win. Spotted to a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning, Reed gave up an RBI single to the pitcher in the 2nd but settled in after that, retiring 11 in a row. A 2-run homer by future Met Richard Hidalgo in the 6th tightened the lead to just 1 run, but the Mets added an insurance run in the bottom of the 6th and coasted from there as Turk Wendell and John Franco faced just 1 over the minimum over the remaining 3 innings.

This is the first time I noticed two new things about the 1999 season: 1) The Mets aren't wearing their names on the back of their home jerseys (a look I did not like), and 2) Shea got a bit of a facelift behind home plate, as the seating now completely envelops the area, whereas previously there was a windowed area where I believe the grounds crew would assemble.

Not mentioned by Lee was that this was Bonilla's first time back in the lineup after missing 18 games while on the DL. Also, Lee's memory might be a bit fuzzy, as Bonilla hit one into the second deck but foul on the pitch before he connected for his home run, which was a mammoth shot that sailed over the Mets bullpen. Brian McRae then went back-to-back with Bonilla, which gave the Mets a 3-1 lead that unfortunately didn't last very long.

That's because Leiter, who had his last start skipped to help him recover from a cranky knee, gave up 2 runs in the 3rd, and then allowed home runs to Vaughn in the 5th and Pokey Reese in the 7th. It was his 5th straight start giving up at least 5 runs as he ended the month of May with an ERA of 9.00. A far cry indeed from the pitcher we saw in 1998.

Meanwhile, after Mike Piazza doubled with 2 out in the 3rd, the Reds yanked starter Brett Tomko, and Ron Villone and Brian Williamson combined to hold the Mets hitless the rest of the game. Villone got the win by throwing 4 no-hit innings, his first in the majors since 1997. Robin Ventura had a particularly rough day, earning the golden sombrero by going 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts. It was his only 4-strikeout game as a Met, and he was the only Mets position player to strikeout 4 times in a game in 1999 (pitcher Octavio Dotel also did it later on in August).

And thus ends perhaps one of the most beloved and unique Mets season of all time. Had they made the comeback against Atlanta, and then beaten the Yankees, this team would have won the heart of Mets fans probably over 1969 and 1986

I always found it fascinating how the vast majority to this day blame Kenny Rogers for this loss. Most of the blame should go to Franco and Benitez for not holding onto the lead late in the game in the bottom of the 8th and then again in the bottom of the 10th, that would have forced the game 7

I don’t blame Leiter that much, since Leiter was great in that game 163, and in game 4 against Arizona, and even in game 3 against Atlanta. And Leiter was pitching on 3-days-rest this game 6.

I really wanted the Mets to face the Yankees in 1999 since both teams were just so elite; I actually did not want to face the Yankees in 2000 since both teams just weren't as strong in 2000 like they were in 1999. I really wanted the Mets to face the Mariners in the World Series in 2000