Base Pincher

A player whose only role in a game is as a pinch runner can only do so much. When such a player manages to steal two bases, that's pretty much as close to a perfect game for a pinch runner as he is likely to get. The game being played is probably an exciting one -- when a team sends a player in to pinch run, and he's stealing two bases, it's likely that there is much at stake. No Met pinch runner has ever stolen two bases as pinch runner (Bob Bailor and Pepe Mangual each stole 2 bases for the Mets after entering a game as a pinch runner, but in both cases stole one of those bases after staying in the game and taking a position in the field). But there have been four cases where a pinch runner coming in against the Mets stole two bases in his pinch running role (Davey Lopes actually once stole 3 bases against the Mets after entering the game as a pinch runner, but again only one of those was as a pinch runner):

On June 28, 1979, Matt Alexander, who was essentially a professional pinch runner by trade (168 career major league ABs, 103 career major league stolen bases, 42 career times caught stealing), pinch ran for Phil Garner after Garner singled in the bottom of the 9th inning with the Pirates trailing the Mets 3-2 and the Met's Ed Glynn pitching for the save. With one out and Rennie Stennett at the plate, Alexander stole second and then third (John Stearns was behind the plate for the Mets) but then got thrown out at the plate trying to score on Stennett's grounder to Frank Taveras at short.

On July 22, 1986, in a famous thriller against the Reds, the Mets watched Eric Davis pinch run for Pete Rose (who himself had pinch hit for John Franco) in the top of the 10th inning of a 3-3 tie. With Eddie Milner at the plate Davis stole second, and then third as Milner struck out. On arriving at third base, Davis got into a shoving match with Ray Knight, who threw a punch and a brawl broke out. Davis and Knight were thrown out of the game, along with Kevin Mitchell, who himself had come in after Darryl Strawberrry was tossed earlier after arguing with an ump (oh, those '86 Mets!). Running out of players, Davey Johnson pulled one of the most famous managerial moves in Mets history, bringing Roger McDowell in to pitch, and moving Orosco from the mound to right field, allowing Orosco and McDowell to "platoon pitch". McDowell got the third out, and McDowell and Orosco switched off the rest of the game between pitching and playing the outfield. The Mets finally won after Orosco walked in the top of the 14th, Howard Johnson homered to put the Mets up by two, and McDowell got the Reds three up, three down (with sinkerballer McDowell pitching, three ground balls of course) in the bottom of the 14th. The Mets bullpen pitched 9 innings of shutout ball in this wacky game.

On May 6, 1988, Eric Davis did it again, coming in as a pinch runner for the Reds in the top of the 9th inning of a 2-2 game, Doc Gooden having gone the whole way for the Mets. Davis replaced Jeff Treadway after Treadway's two out single, then stole second with Lloyd McClendon at the plate. After McLendon walked, bringing up Barry Larkin, Davis stole third as well. But Larkin grounded out to end the inning, and the Mets eventually won in the bottom of the tenth on a walkoff homer hit by Darryl Strawberry, John Franco on the mound for the Reds. This was one of only 11 homers Franco gave up to left-handed hitters in his twenty-one season career, two of them to Strawberry and two to Bobby Abreu. The winner for the Mets in this game was Randy Myers, who the Mets traded to the Reds for Franco the following year.

The fourth and most recent two-SB pinch runner game against the Mets occurred on May 11, 2003. Jake Peavy for the Padres and Pedro Astacio for the Mets had pitched well at Shea but the Mets had 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 9th, and brought Armando Benitez in to try to preserve the lead. Xavier Nady flied out to start the inning fo San Diego, but Dave Hansen walked and young Shane Victorino came in to run for him. With Lou Merloni up, Victorino stole second and Merloni walked. With Ramon Vazquez now at the plate, Victorino stole third. Vazquez popped out to short. With Mark Loretta at the plate, Merloni stole the Padres third base of the inning, and put the lead run in scoring position. But Loretta popped out to the catcher, and Benitez had his save -- no runs, no hits, no errors in the nonetheless adventurous inning.

All told, the four multi-stolen base pinch hitting appearances against the Mets (two of them by Darryl Strawberry's buddy Eric Davis) resulted in no runs for the pinch runner's team, and the Mets won all four games.