A Look to the Past: 1988 NLCS Part 1

Every week, I look through the weekly match-ups and find one that is a postseason rematch. This week, the Mets travel to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers.

1988 National League Championship Series

Los Angeles Dodgers 4 New York Mets 3

At first glance, the 1988 NLCS looked like a complete mismatch. The Mets were huge favorites as they won six more games than the Dodgers and, most importantly, had beaten them in 10 of 11 games head to head in 1988. However, the Dodgers had the league MVP in Kirk Gibson and a pitcher on an incredible roll. Orel Hershiser hadn’t given up a run since August which included a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. 

Hershiser started Game One against Mets’ ace Dwight Gooden. Hershiser was dominant as always, taking a 2-0 shutout into the ninth inning. Everything was set up perfectly as far as Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda was concerned. He had his ace on the mound with a lead and the possibility of bringing him back on short rest in Game Four. However, Mets battled back. Darryl Strawberry doubled home Greg Jefferies for the first run. Hershiser was removed for Dodger closer Jay Howell. Howell walked a batter but then got an out. Gary Carter hit a medium fly ball that dropped just out of the reach of a desperation dive by center fielder John Shelby. Perhaps he was playing too deep as the hit turned into a two-run double that gave the Mets a 3-2 win.

The Game One loss was very disappointing to the Dodgers, but they came into Game Two angry for a very different reason. Game Two starter and twenty-game winner David Cone was writing a column in the New York Daily News during the NLCS which was ghost-written by Klapisch. In his column following Game One, he insulted the Dodgers by saying:

"Orel was lucky for eight innings…I’ll tell you a secret: As soon as we got Orel out of the game, we knew we’d beat the Dodgers. Knew it even after Jay Howell struck out HoJo [Howard Johnson]. We saw Howell throwing curveball after curveball and we were thinking: This is the Dodgers’ idea of a stopper? Our idea is Randy [Myers], a guy who can blow you away with his heat. See Howell and his curveball reminded us of a high school pitcher."

That was certainly enough motivation for the Dodgers who scratched out five runs off of Cone in the first two innings and won 6-3. The Mets looked like they might be able to come back again in the ninth, but Alejandro Pena was able to shut down the rally.

Cone wisely decided to give up journalism, noting that, “This is my first-and I’m announcing today-my last attempt at tabloid journalism.”

The series moved to Shea Stadium for Game Three, but was delayed a day due to rain. The series probably should have been delayed another day the field and weather conditions were awful. Orel Hershiser was given the ball again on three days rest and was his usual dominant self early. The Dodgers had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth when the field conditions took over. Keith Hernandez led off with a single and Darryl Strawberry followed with a hit of his own to left. Hernandez saw Gibson mishandle the ball in left and tried to go to third. On his way, he slipped and fell to his stomach and could never regain his footing. Instead, he tried crawling toward the bag, but was tagged just before he got there. Kevin McReynolds then reached on grounder that the first base umpire ruled was never handled by the first baseman. Carter and Backman responded with RBI hits that tied the game.
The Dodgers took the lead on the eighth when Randy Myers walked home the go-ahead run. With the lead, Tommy Lasorda elected to go to Jay Howell. Howell immediately went to a 3-0 count on McReynolds. Then, he threw two strikes. At that point, Met manager Davey Johnson walked to the home plate umpire and asked him to check Howell’s glove. The umpire did so and found pine tar inside. Howell was immediately ejected. The Mets obviously knew that Howell was doing something wrong, or they would have noted it earlier, but they waited until Howell had a two strike count to get him thrown out of the game.

What followed was a horror show as far as the Dodgers were concerned. Alejandro Pena, Jesse Orosco and Ricky Horton combined to give up five runs and the Mets took a 2-1 series lead with an 8-4 victory.

The Dodgers had their ace start both Games One and Three and had seen him pitch well. However they had lost both games in gut-wrenching fashion and now their ace closer was suspended. Everything looked looked lost for the Dodgers, but the series was far from over.

Check back soon for part two.