NEW YORK (AP) — Darryl Strawberry hit 335 career homers, made eight straight All-Star teams and won four World Series rings.
Yet one October loss still haunts him.
“I never got past ’88,” the former slugger said.
Strawberry, of course, was recalling the memorable 1988 National League Championship Series, when his heavily favored New York Mets were upset by a plucky Los Angeles Dodgers team in seven tense games.
It was a gut-wrenching defeat for Dwight Gooden and an ultra-talented Mets juggernaut that had been threatening to build a dynasty under manager Davey Johnson after winning the 1986 World Series.
On the opposite coast, it became the penultimate chapter in a Cinderella story penned by Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson and Hall of Fame skipper Tommy Lasorda when those underdog Dodgers also stunned the powerful Oakland Athletics in the Fall Classic to cap one of the most celebrated seasons in franchise history.
“We had a little bit of magic that we just fell on, you know?” said Mickey Hatcher, a corner infielder and outfielder for Los Angeles.
Meeting again 36 years later to decide another pennant, the Mets and Dodgers were set for Game 6 of the NLCS on Sunday evening in Los Angeles. Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers held a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The winner faces the New York Yankees in the World Series beginning Friday.
Strawberry was on hand last Wednesday at Citi Field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Gooden before Game 3 against the Dodgers.
“I hope the Mets get revenge back and beat them for the ’88 season,” said Strawberry, who also played for his hometown Dodgers from 1991-93 and helped the Yankees win three World Series crowns from 1996-99.
With several of baseball’s biggest stars on display representing two large media markets, the 1988 NLCS featured a little bit of everything — including Dodgers reliever Jay Howell getting ejected in Game 3 at Shea Stadium and then suspended for having pine tar on his glove.
The turning point came in Game 4, when Gooden took a 4-2 lead into the ninth inning with New York three outs from opening a 3-1 series lead. But he issued a leadoff walk to free-swinging John Shelby, who finished his 11-year career with a .281 on-base percentage, and gave up a tying homer to catcher Mike Scioscia, who had 68 home runs in 1,441 regular-season games.
“I don’t know how Doc walked T-Bone Shelby,” Strawberry said as Gooden laughed in the seat next to him at a news conference. “All he had to do was bounce one up there.”
Gibson, who topped Strawberry for NL MVP honors that year, broke the tie with a 12th-inning homer. Hershiser, the NL Cy Young Award winner who ended the regular season by throwing a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, retired Kevin McReynolds with the bases loaded to save a 5-4 victory.
Hershiser had pitched seven solid innings on three days’ rest in Game 3 the day before, but the Mets rallied to win that one after he exited. The right-hander also threw 8 1/3 innings during a low-scoring duel with Gooden in the series opener.
“I think Game 4 just decided the series for us,” Hatcher said. “With Mike Scioscia hitting that home run — I mean, it was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re back in this game.’ And the shock of everybody on our team and even our manager to see Orel Hershiser walk out of the bullpen and come out there and close that game for us, that was big.”
Gibson hit a three-run homer as Los Angeles won 7-4 in Game 5 the next afternoon, before 20-game winner David Cone pitched the Mets to a 5-1 victory in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium.
Hershiser, however, punctuated his heroics with a five-hit shutout to beat an ineffective Ron Darling 6-0 in the decisive Game 7 — even though Gibson left early with a leg injury.
“We thought we had the advantage on them, but we let them off the hook,” Gooden said. “They got hot at the right time.”
During the ’88 regular season, New York won 100 games and went 10-1 against the Dodgers — outscoring them 49-18.
But after losing to LA that October, it took 11 years for the Mets to get back to the playoffs — with a 41-year-old Hershiser on their pitching staff.
This time, it’s the wild-card Mets trying to upset Mookie Betts and the powerhouse Dodgers, who led the majors with 98 wins during the season.
“I think the teams are reversed,” Hatcher said Saturday in a phone interview. “I thought the Dodgers are more dominant than the Mets, where back then, the Mets were more dominant than the Dodgers.”
New York has been outscored 36-21 in the NLCS and blown out three times by at least eight runs. Pete Alonso and the Mets are still alive, though, following a 12-6 victory Friday in Game 5 at home.
“They’re a little gnat that’s hanging in there,” Hatcher said. “The Dodgers won Game 4, but the Mets came back in Game 5 and you wouldn’t think that they were the underdogs the way they reacted to winning that game. They’ve got a little bit of momentum.”
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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick contributed.
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