But he is still troubled by a loss in October.
According to the former slugger, “I never went past ’88.”
Naturally, Strawberry was thinking back to the iconic 1988 National League Championship Series, in which his strongly favoured New York Mets lost seven agonising games to a tenacious Los Angeles Dodgers club.
Dwight Gooden and the incredibly talented Mets juggernaut, who had been threatening to establish a dynasty under manager Davey Johnson following their 1986 World Series victory, suffered a heartbreaking loss.
As the underdog Dodgers also shocked the dominant Oakland Athletics in the Fall Classic to cap one of the most illustrious seasons in franchise history, it became the penultimate chapter in a Cinderella tale written by Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, and Hall of Fame captain Tommy Lasorda.
“You know, we simply fell on a little bit of magic.” Mickey Hatcher, a Los Angeles corner infielder and outfielder, said.
The Mets and Dodgers were scheduled to play Game 6 of the NLCS on Sunday night in Los Angeles, 36 years after their first meeting, to decide another pennant. The Dodgers, led by Shohei Ohtani, were ahead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. Starting on Friday, the victor will play the New York Yankees in the World Series.
Before Game 3 against the Dodgers last Wednesday, Strawberry was present at Citi Field to toss Gooden the ceremonial first pitch.
Strawberry also played for his hometown Dodgers from 1991-93 and helped the Yankees win three World Series from 1996-99. “I hope the Mets get revenge back and beat them for the ’88 season,” he said.
The 1988 NLCS featured a little bit of everything, including Dodgers reliever Jay Howell being ejected in Game 3 at Shea Stadium and later penalised for having pine tar on his glove. This was because two major media markets were represented by some of baseball’s biggest personalities.
In Game 4, Gooden carried a 4-2 lead into the ninth inning with New York three outs from taking a 3-1 series advantage. That was the pivotal moment. However, he gave up a game-winning home run to catcher Mike Scioscia, who had 68 home runs in 1,441 regular-season games, and a leadoff walk to free-swinging John Shelby, who ended his 11-year career with a.281 on-base percentage.
At a news conference, Strawberry remarked, “I don’t know how Doc walked T-Bone Shelby,” while Gooden smiled beside him. “He only needed to bounce one up there.”
Gibson broke the tie with a home run in the 12th inning, and he went on to win NL MVP that year, surpassing Strawberry. In order to rescue a 5-4 victory, Hershiser, the NL Cy Young Award winner who finished the regular season with a record 59 straight shutout innings, retired Kevin McReynolds with the bases loaded.
The day before, in Game 3, Hershiser had pitched seven strong innings on three days’ rest, but the Mets came back to win the game after he left. In the series opener, the right-hander also pitched 8 1/3 innings in a low-scoring duel with Gooden.
According to Hatcher, “I think Game 4 just decided the series for us.” “I mean, it was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re back in this game,’ when Mike Scioscia hit that home ball. And it was a huge shock to our manager and every member of our team to see Orel Hershiser emerge from the bullpen and go out there and win that game for us.”
The following afternoon, Gibson blasted a three-run homer to help Los Angeles win Game 5 7-4 before David Cone, the 20-game winner, led the Mets to a 5-1 victory in Game 6 at Dodger Stadium.
However, despite Gibson leaving early due to a leg injury, Hershiser accentuated his heroics with a five-hit shutout to defeat an ineffective Ron Darling 6-0 in the pivotal Game 7.
Gooden stated, “We let them off the hook even though we felt we had the advantage over them.” “They heated up just perfectly.”
New York outscored the Dodgers 49-18 and went 10-1 against them during the 1988 regular season, winning 100 games.
However, it took the Mets 11 years to return to the postseason after their October loss to LA.
The wild-card Mets are attempting to upset Mookie Betts and the dominant Dodgers, who finished first in the majors with 98 victories this season.
In a phone interview on Saturday, Hatcher stated, “I believe the teams are inverted.””Although the Mets were more dominant than the Dodgers at the time, I believed the Dodgers were more dominant now.”
In the NLCS, New York has been blown out three games by at least eight runs and outscored 36-21. However, when the Mets won Game 5 at home on Friday, 12-6, Pete Alonso and the team are still in the game.
Hatcher remarked, “They’re a little gnat that’s hanging in there.” “The Dodgers prevailed in Game 4, but the Mets rallied in Game 5, and their reaction to winning that game made it hard to believe they were the underdogs.They are gaining some momentum.
Shohei Ohtani’s “brain cramp” in the costly NLCS error is criticised by Dave Roberts.
Everyone makes mistakes, as the Dodgers’ dual-threat squad demonstrated.
As the Dodgers prepare to play a winner-take-all Game 6 in the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts wasn’t holding back when he criticised Shohei Ohtani for a mental slip-up that could come back to haunt Los Angeles.
With Ohtani on third base and no one out, the Dodgers had a great chance to score early in Friday night’s Game 5. However, Roberts became enraged when the two-way sensation hesitated for a moment.
In the first inning, Teoscar Hernández grounded a standard pitch to shortstop Francisco Lindor with runners on second and third. Lindor, playing deep, probably would have let the Dodgers score if Ohtani had simply run home. But Ohtani paused, and the opportunity to leap ahead vanished with that hesitation.
Ohtani’s expensive error
Roberts was interviewed in-game by Fox’s Ken Rosenthal, and the manager wasn’t sugarcoating his annoyance: “Yeah, I don’t know.” There was a ball to the middle of the field and a corner right there. I believe he simply locked up there after having a mental breakdown.
The Mets had life in that one-second pause, and they made the most of it. Pete Alonso of New York hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first after avoiding the early scoring threat. The game was blown open by the Mets’ five runs in the third inning, despite the Dodgers’ comeback to 3-1 in the second.
At the end of the game, the Mets easily defeated the Dodgers 12-6, shattering their dreams of winning the series. Los Angeles will now have to regroup for a nerve-racking Game 6 back at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, rather than celebrating a trip to the World Series.
The Dodgers must reorganise.
The expensive error served as a discouraging reminder to Roberts that even famous people like Ohtani make mistakes. Roberts continued, “They generated momentum, and hopefully we can weather it,” but the outcome of Game 5 indicates the Dodgers may need more than hope to stave off the advancing Mets.
Now that the series is on line, everyone will be watching Ohtani and the Dodgers to see how they react in the upcoming crucial matchup.