Keeping Score: Carlos Beltran’s First Mets Game

Tuesday, Carlos Beltran played his final Mets game in Cincinnati. Just over six and a half seasons ago, Beltran played his first game for the Mets in Cincinnati. I guess there’s something to be said for symmetry.

Beltran went 3-for-5 to start his Mets career on Opening Day in 2005. He had a home run and a double off of Reds’ starter Paul Wilson, then added a single off reliever David Weathers in the seventh inning.

The Mets took an early 1-0 lead as Kazuo Matsui hit a first inning home run. Matsui also hit a home run in his first at bat of the season in 2004, making him the first Met to accomplish that feat since Darryl Strawberry did it in 1987 and 1988 (or so the note on my scorecard says.)

The Reds took a 3-1 lead on Adam Dunn‘s three-run homer off of Pedro Martinez in the bottom of the first. Martinez, who was also making his Mets debut, dominated the Reds for the next five innings. He struck out 12 batters over six innings, a record performance for a Mets pitcher on Opening Day.

Beltran’s homer tied the game in the third inning, and his single off Weathers drove in Jose Reyes as the go-ahead run in the seventh. The Mets added two more runs in the inning on Cliff Floyd‘s homer to go up 6-3.

Reliever Manny Aybar gave back one run in the bottom of the seventh, but Dae-Sung Koo pitched a perfect eighth. The Mets took a 6-4 lead to the bottom of the ninth inning and new Mets manager Willie Randolph called on closer Braden Looper to try to pick up the save.

Looper allowed a leadoff single to Austin Kearns, who was batting cleanup that day. Then Dunn came up and hit his second home run of the game to tie the score at 6-6. Then Joe Randa hit a walk-off home run, and a day that had started out with such promise became one worthy of remembering only for the individual accomplishments.