As Bob mentioned, this win seemed to spur the Reds into a hot streak, as they only lost 9 of their next 50. They hit 3 home runs in this game, including the first for Doug Flynn in his Major League career. The future Met would only hit 7 in over 4,000 career plate appearances.

For some Mets trivia, Bob Gallagher tallied his first hit as a Met with a 7th-inning pinch-hit double. Bud Harrelson also made his last appearance in the starting lineup until September in this game, as injuries limited him to just 34 games all year. I also noticed that Don Hahn got released by the Phillies on this day. It sure didn't take the Phils long to sour on one of the players the Mets traded to them during the offseason in the Tug McGraw deal. Hahn signed with the Cardinals on the same day, but only lasted a little over a month with them before finishing his big-league career with the Padres.

The Candy Man started the game tossing 5 no-hit innings before Seaver broke it up with an infield single to lead off the 6th. The only run he allowed was from an RBI sac fly by pinch-hitter Jack Heidemann in the 8th.

Seaver matched him through 8 innings, though, only allowing a 7th-inning home run to Willie Stargell. But then Tom Hall surrendered 3 consecutive singles to begin the 9th to allow the Pirates to score the go-ahead run. Bob Apodaca then came in and almost escaped the jam without any other runners scoring, but Rennie Stennett hit a bases-clearing triple with 2 out, and from there the Pirates were well on their way to their 8th win in their last 9 games. It was the 5th straight time the Mets lost to Pittsburgh with Seaver as the starter.

I mentioned this in a previous post during the 1973 NLCS, but Hall is just awful. It seemed like he had absolutely nothing left from his earlier seasons of success with the Twins and Reds. This marked his 15th appearance as a Met, and his ERA stood at 6.41 following this game. The Mets seriously had NOBODY better they could have called up from the minors??

In the top of the 7th inning, there was some excitement when Seaver uncharacteristically hit two batters in a row, with the second being Manny Sanguillen. Sanguillen took serious exception and started walking out towards Seaver with his bat still in hand. Benches cleared, but cooler heads prevailed and no punches were thrown. An inning later, Seaver hit another batter, making this the only time in his career he hit 3 batters in the same game.

Lou Brock walked to begin the game, then proceeded to steal second and third. With 2 outs, Ron Fairly hit an RBI single, and that would be the only run to score all game. The Mets did muster 7 hits off St. Louis starter Ron Reed, but couldn't string any together as they suffered their second straight shutout loss. As Tom alluded to, they'd make it three in a row in Game 2.

Hank Webb started for the Mets, his first start since May 10. He looked decent enough and even collected his first Major League hit with a single in the fifth, but still took the loss.

John Milner also had a memorable game with a two-run homer and his third grand slam of the season. The three runners on base for Milner's slam were Matlack, Lee Mazzilli and Felix Millan. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this could be the only grand slam ever in which all four players involved had surnames that started with the same letter of the alphabet.