April 23, 1965: Mets Rally to Beat Giants
From The Met Wiki
| Date: April 23, 1965 |
| Mets starter: Gary Kroll |
| Mets: 9 |
| Giants: 8 |
| Winning pitcher: Dennis Ribant |
| Key player(s): Jim Hickman, Charley Smith |
| Key play: Mets' 6 runs in 8th & 9th |
The Mets played the Giants on a Friday night in San Francisco. The teams battled for nearly four hours through an eleven-inning game. The Mets came out with a 9-8 victory after coming back from a six-run deficit.
In the top of the first inning, the Mets got a run against Giants' starter Gaylord Perry. Johnny Lewis led off with a double and later came home on Joe Christopher's two-out single. In the bottom half, Willie Mays and Jesus Alou got back-to-back RBI singles off Mets' starter Gary Kroll. Against reliever Jim Bethke, Jim Ray Hart hit a three-run homer for a 5-1 San Francisco lead.
Jesus Alou hit a sacrifice fly off Galen Cisco to bring home Matty Alou for another Giant run in the second inning. From the third inning to the fifth, Cisco held San Francisco scoreless on four hits. Meanwhile, Perry shut down the Mets with only one hit allowed.
The Mets and Giants each scored in the sixth on RBI doubles by Jim Hickman and Willie McCovey, respectively. Perry followed up with a perfect top of the seventh inning. In the bottom half, Jim Davenport singled off Mets' reliever Tug McGraw to score Hart and increase the San Francisco lead to 8-2.
Ed Kranepool singled off Perry with one out in the top of the eighth inning. After moving to second base on a ground out, Kranepool scored on Hickman's second double of the game. Charley Smith followed with a single to bring home Hickman to make the score 8-4. Perry then struck out Bobby Klaus to end the inning.
McGraw shut down the Giants in the bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, Ron Swoboda and Jesse Gonder began the inning with back-to-back homers to cut the Giants' lead to 8-6. Perry was replaced by reliever Bob Shaw, who watched third baseman Hart make a throwing error that allowed Lewis to reach second base. Shaw issued a walk to Roy McMillan and got Kranepool to fly out. Christopher followed with a single to score Lewis and make it a one-run game. Shaw was then removed as Frank Linzy came in to pitch for San Francisco.
Linzy got Hickman to hit a ground ball to shortstop Jose Pagan. After taking Pagan's throw for the out on Christopher, second baseman Davenport threw the ball past first baseman Willie McCovey for an error. Pinch-runner Billy Cowan came around to score, tying the game at 8-8. Linzy then got Smith on a grounder to Pagan to end the inning.
For the Mets, Larry Bearnarth and Dennis Ribant shut down the Giants in the ninth and tenth innings. San Francisco's Jim Duffalo walked Christopher to lead off the top of the 11th. After reliever Ron Herbel retired Hickman, Christopher stole second base and advanced to third on catcher Tom Haller's wild throw. Smith followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Christopher and put the Mets in front. Herbel then gave up a single to Klaus and got Ribant on a ground ball for the third out.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, Hart led off with a single to center field. Pinch-hitter Harvey Kuenn's sacrifice bunt moved Hart to second base. Ribant got Davenport on a pop-up to catcher Gonder and struck out Haller to end the game. After trailing by six runs, the Mets had an amazing come-from-behind win.
