October 16 - Mets pull off the miracle

This Day in Baseball - The Daily Rewind

October 16th 2004 The Yankees lead the ALCS two games to none

over the Red Sox with Game 3 in Fenway Park. As in the first two games, the

Yankees began by scoring in the first and quickly building a 3-0 lead. The Red

Sox answered in the second inning with a leadoff walk by Jason Varitek and a

Trot Nixon home run to right field. A double by Bill Mueller, an infield hit by

Johnny Damon (his first hit of the series), and a Derek Jeter error led to two

more runs. The Red Sox led for the first time in the series, 4–3. This lead was

short-lived as ARod led off the third inning with a home run over the Green

Monster and the Yankees would build a 6-4 lead. By the end of the third, the

Sox would even things up at 6 apiece off a double by Orlando Cabrera. That was

as good as it would get for the Sox for the rest of the night. When it was all

over, the two teams combined for 37 hits and 20 extra-base hits, both

postseason records. At four hours and twenty minutes, the game was the longest

nine-inning postseason game ever played. The Yankees destroyed Boston, 19 -8 ,

amidst chants from Yankee fans of

“Nine-teen -Eight-teen”...the last time the Red Sox won a World Series. With a

3 game to none, lead things looked bleak for the Red Sox.

October 16, 1969 - The New York Mets win their

fourth straight game from the Baltimore Orioles with a 5 - 3 triumph behind

pitcher Jerry Koosman, who throws a five-hitter, to take the World Series in

five games. In the third inning, Baltimore takes a 3 - 0 advantage after home

runs by pitcher Dave McNally and outfielder Frank Robinson. After a strong

argument by Mets manager Gil

Hodges in the bottom of the

sixth inning, Cleon Jones is awarded first base when shoe polish on the ball

proves he was hit by a pitch, and Jones scores on a home run by Donn Clendenon.

An inning later, Al Weis ties the game 3 - 3 with a solo home run, and in the

eighth, Ron Swoboda's double and two Baltimore errors give New York two more

runs and the World Championship. Clendenon is named Series MVP.