D-Whit - It Was 45 Years Ago Today...Saturday August 23rd 1969

August 23^rd

The Mets remained a rude host to their West Coast visitors, edging Los Angeles 3-2. They were now 7-2 on this home stand. Don Cardwell was outstanding on the mound-allowing just 5 hits and 1 ER but didn’t walk away with the W in this one. 

Thanks to an RBI single by Jerry Grote and Art Shamsky’s 11^th longball of the season, in the 2^nd and 4^th innings respectively, New York led 2-0 going into the 8^th. Cardwell retired the first two batters on groundouts but Manny Mota singled and then Willie Davis followed with triple and scored on Cleon Jones throwing error. Ron Taylor relieved and picked up the victory after Grote’s double to left-center scored Donn  Clendenon with the winning run in front of over 40,000 Shea faithful.

Chicago (78-48) beat Houston 11-5 so the 2^nd place Mets (70-52) remained 6 games back in the division with 40 games to play.