The King had rented a car for a week so he drove us to Citi Field where we went to see the Mets host the Marlins in an abbreviated two series that was shortened by the rain. Upon arrival, we entered through the Rotunda entrance where we were greeted by our pal, Sam Citron. After we exchanged pleasantries with him we went inside and up to section 516 where we met up with David Sack who was there with his friend Andrew. We also had Phil Butleman, Rich Wolber, Frank Anichiarico and Michael Carson who were present & accounted for. In addition, Bryan Gilligan along with Ralph & Vincent Ascanio were there as usual.
As for the game we saw, the Mets and the Marlins showcased their young pitchers. For the Marlins, they started Jose Fernandez who made his major league debut against the Mets back on April 7th when the Marlins made their first visit to Citi Field. He went five innings that day and he didn't get a decision. We also saw him pitch again on May 4th in Philadelphia where he threw seven shutout innings en route to his first major league win. This time he was matched up with Matt Harvey, the Mets' rising star who came into the game with a 5-0 record.
The Mets managed to score a run off of Jose Fernandez in the bottom of the second inning to take a 1-0 lead thanks to a run scoring double by center fielder Juan Lagares. The Marlins got the equalizer in the top of the fourth inning when center fielder Chris Coghlan hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one. Little did we know that this game wasn't going to have an end in sight. As a result, we didn't get to see this game decided. We were planning to go to a second game that night since the King rented a car and he wasn't going to leave it parked on the street. With that being said, we decided that at 5PM it was time to leave. We saw eleven innings. We hated to leave but we had to make a decision. We were originally planning to go to Scranton, Pennsylvania to see a minor league game but as the game went on the King decided to go to Allentown, Pennsylvania instead because their game started a half hour earlier and it was closer than Scranton. He wound up driving Frank Anichiarico, Vincent Ascanio and I there while Bryan Gilligan went on his own. With that being said, we went to Coca Cola Park, which is the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Philadelphia Phillies' Triple A affiliate. They were playing the Charlotte Knights, the Chicago White Sox farm club. We arrived late as we walked in the ballpark at 7:05PM with the game in the top of the second inning. Upon arrival we were greeted by a fellow road warrior named Brad. He drove a few hours to join us because he wanted to meet the King. He had read and heard so much about him. It should be noted that the Met game we were at was still going on. It finally ended in the 20th inning with the Marlins finally got the winning run thanks to shortstop Aveiny Hechavarria who hit a single to left centerfield that drove in the winning run to give the Marlins a 2-1 victory after they played a six hour twenty five minute marathon. The Mets were horrible. They wound up leaving 22 runners on base. In addition, they were 0 for 19 with runners in scoring position. With that being said, we didn't really miss anything except for the fact the game went 20 innings.
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| Brad with the The King & I at Coca Cola Park |
The real highlight of the night was being able to catch up with Brad who has traveled to different parts of the World as well as the United States. We all felt bad leaving the Met game early especially since it went as long as it did but at least we got a nice consolation prize instead thanks to Brad.
Sunday the King and I went back to Citi Field for game two of the series with the Marlins. This time we were joined by Phil Butleman, David Sack who stayed for the whole game on Saturday, Alan Gimpel, Al Linderman, Frank Anichiarico and Rich Wolber.
As for the game we saw, the Mets got off to a fast start as they build a 4-1 lead after three innings against Marlins' rookie starter Tom Koehler who got his first major league hit with the bat. He also wound up pitching seven innings despite the shaky start. The Marlins chipped away scoring a few runs in the sixth inning to get within a run at 4-3. In the eighth inning, they got a lead off home run from Derek Dietrich which tied the game at four. The Mets failed to score in their half of the eighth inning. Neither team could score in the ninth either. With that being said, we had extra innings for the second day in a row. This time they didn't prolong the agony, the Marlins wound up taking advantage of a costly error by Mets' second baseman Daniel Murphy which opened the flood gates as the Marlins scored four runs, two were courtesy of a home run by Miguel Olivo as they went on to beat the Mets again, 8-4 in ten innings.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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