'67 and '79 split

Lafayette High School in Brooklyn has become famous for producing star lefties like Sandy Koufax and John Franco. Unfortunately for the 1979 Mets Pete Falcone wasn't one of them. The only 2 things he had in common with the other two gentleman was the fact that they were all southpaws and all attended the school next to the El Train. Besides fighting lack of talent Falcone had the bad luck to be matched against Tom Seaver, who gave up only 3 earned runs in almost 7 innings of work. Falcone gave up 9 in 6 innings and his successor Andy Hassler (2 runs in 3 IP) didn't fare much better. Rocky Swoboda had 4 hits including a homer off of Falcone in the 2nd. Bobby Heise and Ken Boyer each had 3 hits, as did Joel Youngblood in a losing effort.
Craig Swan rebounded from a shakey start (3 runs in the 1st) pitch 8 innings of 4 (earned) run ball. Swanny couldn't find his control in the first and walked the first two batters (Harrelson/Johnson), who scored on a Tommy Davis double. Davis later scored as "the Glider" Ed Charles singled him home. The '79 boys scored 3 of their own off of '67's starter Cal Koonce in the 4th. Maz led off with a double and Youngblood singled him home. Grave digger Hebner doubled Youngblood home and Montanez scored Hebner on a sac fly. '79 took the lead in the 5th as Maz doubled home Frank Taveras who had a lead off single and stolen base. In the top of the 8th the '67 team took the lead as Johnson singled and Tommy Davis doubled him over to third. Steady Eddie Kranepool singled them both home off of a tiring Swan to take the lead at 5-4. Dick Selma came on board for the '67 team and promptly surrendered a run in the 8th as pinch hitter Elliot Maddox singled home Hebner. As good ole Bob Murphy would have said, "sit back and fasten your seat belts for exciting Mets baseball", the bottom of the 9th provided all the excitement one could want. Maz led off with a single. Youngblood layed down a perfect bunt and moved Maz over to second. Hebner, who had been killing the '67 team all series wasn't allow a chance to hit and was given a free pass to 1st. with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out the "dude" John Stearns lifted a weak fly to center. With 2 outs Willie Montanez fought off an inside fastball and sliced one down the left field line to score Maz with a walk off single. Neil Allen, who pitched 1 scoreless inning in relief got the win and Ron Taylor who came on with 1 out in the 9th took the loss.
The 3rd and 4th games of the series were complete blow outs. Don Cardwell got rocked in game 3 and Kevin Kobel was equally ineffective in game 4 as the teams split the series. Interesting side note. After torching the '67 team in the first 3 games Rich Hebner got drilled and had to leave for a pinch runner. Hebner's sore ribs forced him to miss game 4, although there was a good chance he was not going to start since '67 had lefty Bob Hendley on the hill and Hebner has had trouble against southpaw's.