#11- 1986 Mets Rewatch- Oh My Darling, What A Brawl! (May 27)
A great pitching performance was overshadowed by a fight with the Dodgers
It was the best of times and the worst of times for Tommy Lasorda on May 27, 1986
The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans with “Nuclear Vision” (you’ll have to read to get the reference).
How you remember the May 27 game between the Mets and Dodgers depends on your baseball-watching perspective.
On one hand, there's the story of a fight between Mets third baseman Ray Knight and Dodgers reliever Tom Niedenfuer that followed Knight getting plunked immediately after a George Foster grand slam.
The other way to remember this one is that Ron Darling pitched one of the best games of his career on this day.
Let's start with that.
Ron Darling's excellence
By Wins Above Replacement, 1986 was Ron Darling's best season. And also by WAR, Ron Darling was the Mets best pitcher. And this game was Darling at his best. I watched his innings almost in their entirety. He had a Grade-A fastball, curveball, and splitter.
Innings Pitched | 9 |
Runs | 1 |
Hits | 5 |
Strikeouts-Walks | 12-2 |
Darling threw 130 pitches, matched a career-high with 12 strikeouts, and allowed 1 run and 5 hits. The win improved his record for the season to 6-0.
"That's the way he's supposed to pitch," said Davey Johnson after the game. Johnson was known for being tough on Darling.
Said Darling afterwards "All I feel … is like I have nuclear vision or something. There's you, the hitter, and the catcher. With (Gary) Carter, it's more like you and the catcher."
We know that throwing 130 pitches in a game doesn't happen anymore. No Met has done it since Johan Santana threw 134 in his no-hitter in 2012. The last four instances of a pitcher doing it in a regular season game were all pitchers going for no-hitters (Alex Cobb the last for the 2023 Giants). The last to do it in a non-no-hitter situation was A.J. Burnett in 2014.
This closed a month in which Darling went 5-0 with a 1.63 ERA. He had both the most wins and lowest ERA for any NL starting pitcher that month He lost out on Pitcher of the Month to former Met Jeff Reardon, then the Expos closer, who had a 1.25 ERA, 10 saves and 3 wins in 13 appearances, but pitched 17 fewer innings than Darling.
Darling did win NL Pitcher of the Month in June 1984, when he went 5-0 with a 2.83 ERA. He was more deserving in May 1986. I'm of the opinion that he got robbed this time.
By the way: Darling is one of four Mets pitchers with multiple 5-0 months along with Dwight Gooden (2), David Cone (3), and Tom Seaver (4).
Lowest ERA, 5-0 Calendar Month by Starting Pitcher – Mets History
Pitcher | Month | ERA |
David Cone | May 1988 | 0.72 |
Tom Seaver | Sept/Oct 1969 | 0.83 |
R.A Dickey | June 2012 | 0.93 |
Bobby Jones | May 1997 | 1.15 |
Rick Reed | May 1998 | 1.49 |
Ron Darling | May 1986 | 1.63 |
The fight
The Mets scored six runs in the sixth inning to turn a 1-1 tie into a 7-1 lead. The big blow in the inning was Foster's grand slam against Niedenfuer.
Niedenfuer's next pitch hit Knight in the left elbow and Knight wasted no time in slamming the bat down and charging Niedenfuer. Niedenfuer, ducked, grabbed Knight around the butt and the back of his leg and executed what broadcaster Steve Zabriskie described as "a double-leg takedown."
That’s what a double leg takedown looks like
Knight was able to land 3 punches around the back of Niedenfuer's head and then in a full-scale scrum, someone dinged Niedenfuer just below his eye. I'm thinking he got it during the takedown when his head landed on Knight's stomach.
As you can see, it got pretty crazy. Even George Foster, who hated brawls was out on the field (he felt they set a bad example).
And for some reason no one was ejected from the game!!!
The whole thing lasted about five minutes. Niedenfuer then allowed a single and botched a bunt by Darling before being removed from the game. The Mets first nine hitters in the inning reached base though no one scored after the HBP.
The aftermath was doubly painful to the Dodgers. This from Gordon Edes of the Los Angeles Times:
When the Dodgers returned to their positions, the crowd jeered. Some patrons did more.
“I was doused with beer,” Dodger reliever Ken Howell said. “They were throwing beer, apples and fruit. I had a sudden urge to warm up in the bullpen and heave some of those apples right back at them.
“And (Franklin) Stubbs said somebody threw a jackknife at him and almost hit him.”
I don't even know what a jackknife is, but yikes!
Oh by the way, as Daily News reporter Jim Naughton noted the first Met off the bench running towards the fight was … their starting pitcher, Ron Darling.
The bizarre thing about this was that it was the Dodgers' second dispute of the day. Second baseman Steve Sax and first baseman Greg Brock had to be separated by teammates after some sort of issue that may have been related to Sax hitting Brock in the back with a throw during infield practice.
And one of the Dodgers to play peacemaker, per Gordon Edes, was Niedenfuer. Small world.
Other stuff
- Bob Welch entered having won 6 straight decisions against the Mets, his last loss to them coming in 1982. But he was a mortal against the 1986 Mets (that.
- When talking about Welch's hitting skill, Ralph Kiner dropped a little historical knowledge. Apparently Don Larsen once got 7 hits in a row.
- In 1985 Dodgers catcher and Mets villain Mike Scioscia had 21 strikeouts and 77 walks!! (not a typo)
Broadcasters who played in the 1980s often romanticize Tony Gwynn's strikeout and walk numbers, but 21 strikeouts and 77 walks is otherwordly.
No one's had a season with that few strikeouts and that many walks since then. Scioscia was the first to do it since Elmer Valo in 1952. Absurd!
- George Foster had 39 home runs against the Dodgers entering the day. Only three players had more at the time. Good company
* Move over Chipper Jones and let's wish a happy birthday to Erinn Shea Knight, daughter of Ray Knight and Nancy Lopez who was born the day before this game was played. However, Chipper's child was deliberately named Shea. Erinn's middle name had apparently been chosen years before Ray played for the Mets.
* A sign that it was a different time. With Gary Carter at-bat, WOR ran a graphic of an all-Presidents team and they included someone with the last name of "Davis" on it (think about that for a second if you don't realize it immediately).
* And lastly, with Memorial Day having just passed, and the Mets having not played, Ralph Kiner said it was the first time he didn't spend Memorial Day at the ballpark since 1945 when he was in the military during World War II. A good excuse.
* Don't forget to order your Mets yearbook!
