Posts Tagged ‘Jim Palmer’
AGEE AMAZIN’ IN GAME THREE, METS BEAT ORIOLES 5-0 TO TAKE SERIES LEAD
Tuesday, October 14, 1969
Superman came to Shea Stadium for the World Series, and his name is Tommie Agee.
The Mets centerfielder led off the bottom of the first in Game 3 with a home run off Baltimore’s Jim Palmer. More importantly, Agee made not one but two sparkling plays in the field to prevent at least five potential runs in New York’s 5-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
The underdog Mets now lead the Orioles 2-1 in the series.
Mets no. 3 starter Gary Gentry cruised through the first three innings and New York led 3-0 after Gentry struck a two-run double in the second to score Jerry Grote and Bud Harrelson.
But with two outs in the fourth inning, Baltimore’s Frank Robinson singled for his team’s first hit of the game, and Boog Powell followed with a single of his own. After Gentry got Brooks Robinson on strikes for the second out, Elrod Hendricks drove a ball deep into the left-centerfield gap in Shea. (After the game, he would describe it as the hardest ball he’d ever hit.) But Agee raced into the gap and nabbed the sinking drive with an amazing backhanded “ice cream cone” catch just in front of the wall.
Jerry Grote’s sixth-inning double scored Ken Boswell to make it 4-0. Then, Agee came to the rescue once again. Gentry again fell into two-out trouble in the seventh when he walked the bases loaded. Gil Hodges called to the bullpen for Nolan Ryan, and the Orioles’s Paul Blair greeted him with a line drive into right-center. Agee got on his horse, pounded his glove just before diving, and gathered it in for the third out. The home crowd erupted as he jogged in from centerfield, realizing that Agee, the former A.L. Rookie of the Year, was responsible for stranding a total of five Baltimore runners on base.
From there, Ryan closed things out and Ed Kranepool’s solo shot in the eighth ended the day’s scoring.
WORLD SERIES GAME THREE: Mets 5, Orioles 0. W: Gentry (1-0) L: Palmer (0-1) SV: Ryan (1)