1965
From The Met Wiki
The Mets took a step backwards in 1965. While finishing in tenth place for the fourth consecutive year, the team compiled a .309 winning percentage (50-112) which was eighteen points lower from that of the previous season. During the summer, Casey Stengel stepped down as team manager and Wes Westrum took over as skipper. Meanwhile, all-time lefthanded wins leader Warren Spahn joined the Mets’ pitching staff and Ron Swoboda set a team rookie record with 19 home runs.
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April
After starting the season with two losses, the Mets recorded a 5-4 win in 10 innings over the newly-renamed Houston Astros on April 15 at Shea Stadium. In the game, the Mets’ defense turned a triple play. At San Francisco on April 24, Stengel recorded his 3,000th win as a professional manager in [[April 24, 1965: Napoleon's Bases-Loaded Triple|the Mets’ 7-6 victory over the Giants. The Mets ended the month with a 6-10 won-lost record.
May
The Mets won 11 games in May. They also had 19 losses and doubleheader nightcap at Chicago’s non-illuminated Wrigley Field that ended in a 3-3 tie after nine innings due to darkness. At Shea on May 8, Swoboda homered twice in a 4-2 Mets win over the Braves. The team chalked up 6-2 and 8-5 victories over the Reds for a doubleheader sweep on May 16 at Shea. To end a six-game losing streak, the Mets swept a doubleheader, 6-2 and 4-1, at Philadelphia on May 24. They concluded the month with the tie in Chicago and in tenth place, twelve games behind the National League-leading Dodgers.
June
Despite starting June with three wins, the Mets staggered with a 9-21 record for the month. The team endured a ten-game losing streak and two other five-game skids while sinking deeper into the cellar. After being swept by the Giants and Dodgers in a seven-game home stand, the Mets pulled out an amazing win at Cincinnati. On June 14, the team was held hitless by the Reds’ Jim Maloney for 10 innings, but came away with a 1-0 victory on Johnny Lewis’s home run in the 11th. They recorded a 1-0 triumph at Los Angeles on June 21 on a ninth-inning home run by Billy Cowan. The Mets swept a doubleheader, 5-2 and 6-3, against the Braves at Shea on June 28. The team ended the month with at 26-50 for a .342 winning percentage on the season.
July
Things did not get any better for the Mets in July. The team had another ten-game losing streak and went 8-20 for the month. The Mets’ last wins before the streak came in a doubleheader sweep, 3-2 and 3-0, over the Cubs on July 5 at Shea. At Pittsburgh on July 21, a two-hit shutout by Al Jackson gave the team a 1-0 win over the Pirates that ended the skid. The Mets defeated the Phillies, 3-2, in 10 innings at Shea on July 23 for what turned out to be their final win under Stengel. In Westrum’s debut on July 25, they came out with an 8-1 win over the Phillies in a doubleheader opener at Shea. The Mets also had a 14-0 win over the Cubs in the first game of a twinbill at Chicago on July 29. At month’s end, their 34-70 season record left them 26 and one-half games behind the first-place Dodgers and 11 games in back of the ninth-place Astros.
August
The Mets reached the 20-loss mark once again in August. The team was defeated in each of its first 11 games during the month. This streak came to an end with a 1-0 victory in 10 innings at Houston on August 14. The team swept a doubleheader against the Cardinals, 7-5 and 4-2, on August 22 at Shea. The Mets won three consecutive games against the Dodgers at Shea from August 24 to August 26. This series ended with a 5-2 Mets triumph in which they defeated Sandy Koufax for the first time ever. The Mets ended up with nine wins for the month.
September
In September, the Mets had a 7-19 won-lost record. At no time during the month did they win consecutive games. Following a 6-3 win at St. Louis on September 3 in which Jim Hickman hit three home runs, the Mets had an eight-game skid that brought them to the 100-loss mark for the fourth year in a row. The string of defeats ended with a 1-0 win in 10 innings over the Braves at Shea on September 12. The Mets ended a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win in a doubleheader nightcap at Philadelphia on September 25. They also had a 1-0 win in 12 innings over the Pirates on September 28 at Shea.
October
The Mets concluded the ’65 season with a series against the Phillies at Shea. In a doubleheader on October 2, the Mets were held scoreless for 27 innings. They lost the opener, 6-0, before playing to an 18-inning 0-0 tie that was stopped by a curfew. Having to play season-closing twinbill the next day, the Mets suffered a pair of 3-1 defeats to the Phils with the nightcap going 13 innings. For October, the Mets had 49 innings played and a won-lost record of 0-3.
