Septmber 20, 1986 at Shea stadium
Mets 9, Phillies 5 (97-51)
The Mets finally figured out the Phillies and ended their six game skid against the team. The Mets scored their runs in bunches. They got three in the first inning to give them a nice lead, but then Ron Darling gave that away when he gave up three in the sixth. The Mets answered in the bottom half of the inning with five runs, four of which were unearned because of an error by Phillies shortstop Steve Jeltz.
Ron Darling improved to 14-5 by going seven innings and giving up three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts. Roger McDowell was shaky in two innings of work, and Davey Johnson had to be concerned about his struggling bullpen as the playoffs approached.
Rookie Stan Jefferson hit his first major league homerun with a three run shot in that big sixth inning. Rookie backstop John Gibbons also hit his first (and only) career homerun as he went four for four with the homerun, two doubles, two runs and an RBI. Gibbons had a grand total of eleven hits in his career spread over two seasons, and four of them came in this one game.
