 |
 Programming
Skip to main content
|
 |
|
|
 |
October 16, 1969
1969 World Series | Game 5
Koosman, Miracle Mets complete upset over mighty Orioles |
  |
|
SHEA STADIUM, QUEENS, NEW YORK -- Slugger Donn Clendenon and light-hitting Al Weis each homered to back the five-hit pitching of Jerry Koosman as the "Miracle Mets" closed out their first-ever World Series championship with a 5-3 victory over the heavily favored Orioles.
 |
Orioles |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
| Mets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
X |
5 |
7 |
0 |
Starters: Dave McNally vs. Jerry Koosman
WP: Jerry Koosman LP: Eddie Watt
HR: BAL: Dave McNally (3rd), Frank Robinson (3rd); NYM: Donn Clendenon (6th), Al Weis (7th)
|
The Orioles, boasting the Majors' best pitching staff and a powerful offense, rolled to a league-best and franchise-record 109 wins before sweeping the Twins in the first-ever American League Championship Series. The Mets won the inaugural National League East Division title with an even 100 wins and swept the Atlanta Braves to reach the World Series, in only their eighth season of existence.
The Orioles easily won Game 1 of the seeming mismatch, but the Mets' young pitchers dominated the next three games, holding the Orioles to a total of two runs in three straight wins. Game 5 featured a rematch of the Game 2 starters, as the Orioles sent veteran Dave McNally to the hill against the Mets' young lefty, Koosman.
McNally blasted a homer in the third inning to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead, and Frank Robinson extended it to 3-0 two outs later with a solo blast. The lead stood into the sixth inning, when the Mets scored a pair of disputed runs to get back into the game.
Cleon Jones, the Mets leading hitter during the regular season, claimed to be hit on the foot by a McNally pitch, but the home plate umpire refused to award Jones first base. Mets manager Gil Hodges retrieved the ball and pointed out the telltale shoe-polish on the ball from Jones' cleat as proof, and Jones was awarded the base. Rattled by the controversy, McNally yielded a two-run homer to Clendenon, the next batter, as the Mets pulled within a run.
The Mets tied it in the seventh on a solo homer by Weis, an especially unlikely hero who had only .215 in the regular season but hit .455 during the series. With McNally out of the game, eighth-inning doubles by Jones and Ron Swoboda off reliever Eddie Watt gave the Mets their first lead of the game, and errors by Watt and first baseman Boog Powell allowed an insurance run to score.
Koosman finished up from there, holding the Orioles to five hits and walking only one while striking out five, as the Miracle Mets completed their improbable championship.
Copyright 1969 by the Office of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball
|
|
| Game 1 - October 11, 1969 |
 |
Mets |
1 |
6 |
1 |
| Orioles |
4 |
6 |
0 |
| Game 2 - October 12, 1969 |
|
Mets |
2 |
6 |
0 |
| Orioles |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| Game 3 - October 14, 1969 |
|
Orioles |
0 |
4 |
1 |
| Mets |
5 |
6 |
0 |
| Game 4 - October 15, 1969 |
|
Orioles |
1 |
6 |
1 |
| Mets |
2 |
10 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Watch the TV broadcast
Listen to the radio broadcast