Regular Season
The Mets opened up the season in Cincinnati against the Reds on April 6. The Mets collected the victory, improving their win-loss record on opening day. The first home game at Citi Field was on April 13, 2009 against the San Diego Padres, who spoiled the opener with a 6–5 win against the Mets. In that game, Jody Gerut of the Padres became the first player to open a new ballpark with a leadoff home run.
On April 17, Gary Sheffield hit his 500th home run against the Milwaukee Brewers. On May 10, José Reyes stole his 300th base against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite an injury depleted roster, the Mets finished May with a 19–9 record and trailed the Philadelphia Phillies by a half game for the NL East lead.
After finishing April and May with a combined record of 28–21, injuries hurt the Mets in June and they went 9–18, their worst month since September 2003, but lost only 2½ games in the standings, as the Phillies were having their own struggles. Injuries continued to hurt them Mets in July, as they went 12–14, quickly falling to 4th place in the National League East and out of playoff contention.
On July 10, the Mets sent outfielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Jeff Francoeur.
However, the Mets did set a team record during the 2009 season. They had a team-record 10 hits in the fourth inning on August 18 against the Atlanta Braves. They scored eight runs in that inning, on their way to a 9–4 victory.
On August 23, the Mets became the first team in National League history to fall victim to a game-ending unassisted triple play, turned by Eric Bruntlett of the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field in the bottom of the 9th inning.
The 2009 Mets season will be remembered as a season marred by injuries. On August 25, it was announced that ace Johan Santana would undergo season-ending elbow surgery on his pitching elbow, and was added to the long list of injured players. Including Santana, the Mets' had 20 players see time on the Disabled list at some point during the 2009 season, including David Wright, John Maine, Jon Niese, Fernando Nieve, J. J. Putz, Billy Wagner, Brian Schneider, Carlos Delgado, Ángel Pagán, Gary Sheffield, Óliver Pérez, Ryan Church, Ramón Martínez, Jose Reyes, Alex Cora, Carlos Beltrán, and Fernando Martinez. Mets players spent more than 1,480 days in the Disabled list in 2009, more than any other team in the majors. However, second-half turnarounds of Francoeur and Daniel Murphy helped the Mets finish the season with the best batting average in the National League, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On August 25 the Mets traded former all-star closer Billy Wagner to the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Chris Carter and minor league first baseman Eddie Loria.
Pat Misch earned his 1st Major League Baseball win on September 3 in his 12th start.
Read more about this topic: 2009 New York Mets Season
Famous quotes containing the words regular and/or season:
“He hung out of the window a long while looking up and down the street. The world’s second metropolis. In the brick houses and the dingy lamplight and the voices of a group of boys kidding and quarreling on the steps of a house opposite, in the regular firm tread of a policeman, he felt a marching like soldiers, like a sidewheeler going up the Hudson under the Palisades, like an election parade, through long streets towards something tall white full of colonnades and stately. Metropolis.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“She, O, she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again
And salt too little which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)