September 22nd
 |
| Seaver wins 24th, Mets edge closer to NL East title |
The back-to-back NL pennant winning St. Louis Cardinals
visited Shea to kick off the final week of the 1969 season. The Mets could
clinch the NL East against the defending NL champ and 1967 World Series winning
Cardinals with the right combination of New York wins and Chicago losses. A
franchise formed because two other New York teams headed west just over a decade
earlier and a proposed rival league to MLB, the Continental League, was going
to put a team in the city, now stood on the brink of a Division Crown.
Ace Tom Seaver was on the mound looking for his 24th
win of the season-he would find it. A scoreless affair into the 6th,
New York put the first run on the board when Art Shamsky’s single to CF drove
in Tommie Agee. An inning later they
added two more on Seaver’s run-scoring single and Agee’s fielder’s choice. The
Cards put two on with one out in the 8th but Bill White’s RBI groundout
and Lou Brock’s bouncer to SS ended the threat. The final-New York 3, St. Louis
1.
The Mets (94-61) tacked another half-game on their NL East
lead over the idle Cubs (89-66).
Cardwell was a crafty pitcher who pitched real well down the stretch in 1969, including two excellent starts vs. the hard hitting Bucs in a single week.
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