1986 NLCS=NO RESPECT

• Question; why doesn’t anyone talk about the 1986 NLCS when discussions of great playoff series arise? Houston Astros vs. New York Mets. To me the blatant answer is that no one remembers this series because of the ensuing World Series. I know that all of the Red Sox fans remember that. Some people will say that the NLCS was decided in only 6 games, clearly lacking that edge of your seat 7th game. Whatever the excuse, this could be the most underrated playoff series in the history of professional sports. Let me take you through it.
  
  1986, the Mets, 108-54, won the NL East by 21.5 games over the Phillies. 21.5 games! That’s ridiculous and they were the best team in baseball by 12 games over the Astros. 13 games better than the Red Sox. The Astros, 96-66, 10 games better than the Reds.
  
  The Mets were led by Davey Johnson, who even then was a veteran manager. The Astros were led by Hal Lanier, a rookie manager who won NL Manager of the Year by improving his team by 13 games from the season before.
  
  The Mets lineup was stacked. Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez (and his mustache), Lenny Dykstra, Mookie Wilson, Wally Backman, and Ray Knight. Not to mention a couple of young guys (Kevin Mitchell and Howard Johnson) and a wily veteran (George Foster) coming off of the bench. I think that stacked would be an understatement for this lineup. But even more unbelievable was the pitching staff.
  
  Maybe not so much the names but the fact that three starters had career years in 1986. Start at the top with an obvious name; Dwight Gooden. Doc was coming off his unbelievable rookie year of 1985. Though he wasn’t nearly as untouchable in 1986, he was still good (17-6, 2.84, 200K). Now the three career year guys: Sid Fernandez (16-6, 3.52, 200K), Ron Darling (15-6, 2.81, 184K), and Bob Ojeda (18-5, 2.57, 148K). Now obviously these guys benefited from having a great offense, but look at their ERAs. That’s just ridiculous. Throw in a young Rick Aguilera as the #5 guy (10-7, 3.88, 104K) and that’s one hell of a rotation. And then there’s the bullpen. Basically you had some solid no names in the setup roles and a two headed monster as the closer. Maybe I should call it a two-armed closer. Roger McDowell (pride of BGSU) went 14-9 with 22 saves and a 3.02 ERA. And he had a team high 75 appearances and 128 innings out of the pen. The left-handed closer was the ageless Jesse Orosco. Even then Jesse was a seven-year vet at the spry age of 29. He went 8-6 with 21 saves and a 2.33 ERA in 58 appearances. A fairly stacked team, I think that it’s safe to say that the Mets were heavily favored in this match up.
  
  Now the Astros. From top to bottom not nearly as impressive. But at the top they matched up well with the Mets. Their lineup was nowhere near as potent but they benefited from guys having career years or close to it. Glenn Davis was the rock of the lineup. The hard-hitting first baseman hit 31 bombs and drove in 101 runs (the only Astro to drive in over 80 runs that season, the Mets had three). Kevin Bass pretty much had a career year hitting .311 with 20 homers and 79 RBI. Denny Walling was really the only other threat in the lineup. The third baseman hit .312 with 13 homers and 58 RBI. This every day lineup included Dickie Thon for Pete’s sake. And don’t forget a 38-year-old Jose Cruz. Really the only thing that saved this team’s offense was the pick up it got from the bench. Phil Garner was 37 and winding down his career and Craig Reynolds was a former first round pick that had flopped and was now 33. Well Garner and Reynolds both drove in 41 runs in ’86 giving the Astros one of the deepest benches in baseball. So the offense obviously wasn’t the strength of this team, it must have been the pitching staff.
  
  Led by the Cy Young winner Mike Scott, the Astros staff was rock solid. Scott was lights out in 1986. His number rivaled Gooden’s of 1985. Scott won the Cy Young with solid numbers (18-10, 2.22, 306K) over Fernando that year. It’s hard to think of a rotation that included Nolan Ryan wouldn’t list him as their number one starter. Ryan was 39 in 1986 but was still very productive (12-8, 3.34, 194K) and finesse guys complimented these two power pitchers. Bob Knepper was a vet who by far had his career year in 1986 (17-12, 3.14, 143K) and a rookie, Jim Deshaies, who came out of no where to put up great numbers (12-5, 3.25, 128K). The Astros struggled all year to find a 5th starter and never really did. But their lead four was good enough to carry them. Now the bullpen was solid. Led by closer Dave Smith (33 saves, 2.73), the bullpen was a big contributor to the NL’s second best staff (Mets #1). Larry Andersen (38G, 2.78) and Charlie Kerfeld (11-2, 61G, 2.69) were arguably the best setup men in the NL.
  
  So there’s the setup, now let me get to the series.
  
  The Astros had home field because the Championship Series were operating on the same rotation system that the World Series was. Baseball at least has corrected the LCS, but the best team not having home field for the WS is still a crock.
  
  Game 1: Astros 1, Mets 0
  
  Mike Scott pitches a 5 hit gem and out duels Gooden in the process. Glenn Davis’s 2nd inning homer was all the help that Scott needed.
  
  Game 2: Mets 5, Astros 1
  
  Bobby Ojeda showed why he finished 4th in the Cy Young voting by out pitching Ryan. He gave up 10 hits, but continually pitched out of trouble. The Mets chased Ryan after 5 innings but Ojeda had them off balance the entire night.
  
  Game 3: Mets 6, Astros 5
  
  At this point the series is in the Mets hands. This is the first of three at Shea where they were 55-26 on the season. Ron Darling gutted through 5 innings (4R) but was picked up by Aguilera, Orosco, and the offense. Aguilera actually gave up the go ahead run in the 7th, but the Mets came back with 2 in the bottom of the 9th to win it.
  
  Game 4: Astros 3, Mets 1
  
  Mike Scott again showed why he won the Cy Young. He dominated the NL’s best offense for a second time. Scott gave up just 3 hits and struck out 5. Sid Fernandez was overmatched from the start, but hung in for 6 innings. Too bad he gave up homers to Allan Ashby (light hitting catcher) and the aforementioned Dickie Thon. The Mets scored their lone run on a pinch hit by Danny Heep that drove in Darryl Strawberry.
  
  Game 5: Mets 2, Astros 1 (12 innings)
  
  Ryan and Gooden duel in a battle of then and now pitchers. Gooden appeared to be in the beginning of a sure fire HOF career, Ryan appeared to be in the sunset of his own HOF career. Ryan threw nine innings giving up two hits and striking out 12. The lone run was a homer to Strawberry in the 5th. Gooden was up to the challenge. He pitched ten innings, scattered nine hits and struck out four. While not as overpowering as Ryan, he managed to keep the Astros at bay in what ended up being a horribly wasted opportunity for the Astros. The only run Gooden gave up was on a double play in the 5th. The Mets won it in the 12th when Backman scored from 2nd on a Carter single. Backman was actually picked off after he singled but Kerfeld misplayed the ball in the rundown and Backman ended up on 2nd. Hernandez was walked, and Carter made them pay for the mistake.
  
  Game 6: Mets 7, Astros 6 (16 innings)
  
  The Astros had this game won. Knepper was dominant for eight innings. The Astros led 3-0 going into the 9th. If they had won, Scott throws Game 7 at home, and the Astros probably go to the World Series. But this is where Hal Lanier’s inexperience comes into play. Instead of bringing in Smith to close out the game, he leaves the vet Knepper in. Big mistake. Dykstra hits a pinch-hit triple to lead off the inning. He scores on Wilson’s single. Mitchell then grounds out, but Mookie makes it to 2nd. Hernandez then doubles him home. All of a sudden it 3-2, 1 out and the tying run on 2nd. Lanier finally pulls Knepper for Smith, but too little too late. Smith in turn walks Carter and Strawberry to load the bases. Ray Knight hits a sac fly to tie the game. The Astros get out of the inning when Heep strikes out. But at this point all of the momentum is on the Mets side. At least you would have thought that. But they didn’t capitalize on it until the 14th when Backman singled home Strawberry. But the Astros weren’t dead yet. In the bottom of the 14th Billy Hatcher hits a one out homer (signs of things to come for the playoff hero). Now in the 16th the Mets score 3 runs off the bottom of the Astros bullpen barrel. So it’s over right? Not without a fight. The Astros get two in the bottom half of the 16th and had the tying run at 2nd when the team’s leading hitter, Bass, struck out against Orosco.
  
  A classic series that never gets mentioned on any list. Mike Scott was series MVP even in a losing effort (you don’t see that too often). Billy Hatcher tried to be the team’s hero with his only two RBI of the series coming in the extra innings of Game 6, but it wasn’t meant to be. It was really a pitching dominated series. Dykstra led the series in hitting at .304, but was only one of two players to hit over .290 (Bass, .292). And Strawberry was the only player to hit more than one homer (Mets 3, Astros 5). Those final two games should go down as two of the greatest of all times. And when you throw in the fact that four of the six games were decided by one run (and Game 4 was 3-1) this has to be considered one of the greatest series of all time.
  
  Interesting Facts
  
• Jesse Orosco went 3-0 in the series
  
• Mike Scott had a 0.50 ERA in 18 innings
  
• Gooden had a 1.06 ERA in 17 innings but went 0-1 in his two starts
  
• Strawberry led the series in homers and RBI (2, 5), but also struck out a series high 12 times
  
• This was Billy Hatcher’s first post-season series (.280, 1 HR, 2 RBI). He’d go on to hit .404 for his career in the playoffs, including .750 in the ’90 World Series. Not bad for a .264 lifetime hitter.