According to Stathead’s data, last night’s home run by Mark Vientos off Aroldis Chapman was the 98th time in Mets history that they’ve gotten a solo shot with two outs in the ninth inning, and the third time this season.
It’s the second time this season that a rookie has saved the Mets from being shut out this way, as Francisco Álvarez also did it on July 5 in Arizona. The difference there was that the Mets were only down 1-0, so it was a game-tying home run — one of 13 out of these 98 when the Mets were one swing of the bat from getting even, and got even with the one swing of the bat.
The Mets went on to win that game on Mark Canha’s triple to score Brett Baty later in the ninth, and a 1-2-3 bottom of the frame by David Robertson. They did not win the other game when they got a solo shot with their last gasp, as Eduardo Escobar only got the Mets within 9-8 against Atlanta on May 1, the final score of that one.
The most recent walkoff on a two-out solo shot by a Met was nearly five years ago, September 13, 2018, as Todd Frazier ended the first game of a doubleheader moments after Michael Conforto had also homered off Kyle Barraclough for one of those 13 game-tying solo shots.
There have been 58 of these homers when the Mets have been behind in a game, including Vientos last night. His dinger followed Escobar into a more exclusive club, the 24th solo home run in Mets history when down to their final out at home.
Only three of those have been tying homers: Conforto in 2018, Jerry Buchek off Atlanta’s Dick Kelley in 1967, and Gus Bell in the fifth game in Mets history, off Jim Golden of the Houston Colt .45s at the Polo Grounds. Herb Moford gave up a three-run homer to Don Buddin in the 11th inning and the Mets would need to wait another six days to get their first-ever win.
Vientos’ homer saving the Mets from being blanked at home puts him in a club that only started in 1976, when Ron Hodges went deep off Pittsburgh’s Doc Medich, followed like last night by the final out of a 2-1 game. On August 27, 1985, Darryl Strawberry ended Jerry Reuss’ bid for a complete game shutout, but Tom Niedenfuer came out of the Dodgers bullpen to strike out George Foster and notch another 2-1 verdict.
The disappointment was not as stark, nor as important, the following September 8, when Strawberry denied Bob Sebra a shutout at Shea. Sebra got the complete game win, and did shut out the Mets three weeks later in Montreal, on just two hits — a Gary Carter double in the second, and an infield hit by Lenny Dykstra in the sixth.
There was even less drama on October 2, 2001, when Jay Payton denied Bronson Arroyo what would’ve been his first career shutout. He still got his first complete game and a 10-1 win, but had to wait until 2006 to twirl the first of his six career shutouts.
Strawberry and Hodges are the only ones there with Vientos in homering to get the Mets one more chance in a game they trailed 2-0. The last time before last night that the Mets broke up a shutout at home this way, it would’ve taken a lot more chances: Brandon Nimmo got the best of Danny Barnes on May 16, 2018, and Wilmer Flores followed with a double, but Barnes managed to compose himself and get Conforto to ground out and lock down the Blue Jays’ 12-1 triumph.
Earlier that year, on April 15, Flores tagged Matt Albers of the Brewers for a two-out solo shot that was a walkoff. He also did it on July 22, 2017, off Oakland’s Simon Castro. That ties Flores for the team record for a career, but not a single season, because Cleon Jones turned two 1-1 ties into 2-1 wins, just one week apart, in 1971 — August 21 off San Diego’s Dave Roberts and August 28 against the Dodgers and Jim Brewer.
Other than Flores, Jones, and Frazier, the Mets’ walkoffs on solo shots, one out from extra innings, belong to Rusty Staub on May 9, 1982 off San Francisco’s Greg Minton, and Mike Cameron off Danny Patterson to beat the Tigers on June 18, 2004.
Cameron walked off Patterson and the Tigers the next night, too, delivering the decisive base hit in the 10th inning.
We Can Pod It Out 178: Across The Universe