Editor’s Note: Apologies for the unscheduled break. Between illness and a computer that suddenly borked, it made sense to just skip last week. Now we’re back with fresh We Can Pod It Out as well as the new Willets Pod that dropped this morning, our college football “preview” with the Sickos Committee.
Hey, Tim Locastro is back healthy after hurting his thumb in April. Just in time for the Mets’ stretch r—okay, here’s Tim’s home run chain.
Tim Locastro hit his first home run off Nestor Cortes Jr., 7/31/19
Nestor Cortes Jr. gave up his first home run to Josh Reddick, 4/3/18
Josh Reddick hit his first home run off Brian Bass, 8/2/09
Brian Bass gave up his first home run to Casey Kotchman, 4/1/08
Casey Kotchman hit his first home run off Doug Waechter, 8/5/05
Doug Waechter gave up his first home run to Josh Phelps, 9/9/03
Josh Phelps hit his first home run off Jason Johnson, 7/17/02
Jason Johnson gave up his first home run to Mike Piazza, 8/27/97
Mike Piazza hit his first home run off Steve Reed, 9/12/92
Ten years after that, Reed, who debuted with the Giants, and Piazza, who of course was a Dodger to start his career, were united as Mets, with the reliever working in 15 games where Piazza was his batterymate. They worked together to record 10 strikeouts, with Reed allowing no home runs to any of the 63 batters he faced with Piazza behind the plate.
By that time, Piazza had homered three more times off Reed: at Coors Field in 1995 and Dodger Stadium in ‘95 and ‘96 while Reed was on the Rockies. Piazza was the only batter that Reed allowed more than two homers to in his career, and after the 2002 Jason Bay-Bobby Jones trade that brought Reed and Jason Middlebrook from San Diego to the Mets, Reed returned to Colorado. In 2004, he faced Piazza one last time, at Shea Stadium, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the seventh inning.
The real drama that day involved Piazza on the other side of the ball, as Tom Glavine was working on a no-hitter, having allowed just a walk to Denny Hocking in the top of the seventh. After Jeromy Burnitz flied out and Matt Holliday struck out to start the eighth, Kit Pellow spoiled the bid for history with a double.
We Can Pod It Out 166: Because