1978
From The Met Wiki
The Mets had a lowly-productive season in 1978. For the second year in a row, the team finished at the bottom of the National League Eastern Division. Their won-lost record of 66-96 placed them 24 games behind the division-winning Philadelphia Phillies.
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April
The Mets started the ’78 season with four wins in their first five games. In the season opener on April 7, they chalked up a 3-1 victory over the Montreal Expos at Shea Stadium. The team defeated the Expos again the next day, 6-5, on a two-run homer by Ed Kranepool in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Mets won five of nine games on their first road trip of the season. At Shea from April 24 to April 29, they lost five straight games to the Pirates and Reds. The Mets closed out April with a 6-4 victory over the Reds at Shea on April 30. The team had 10 wins and 12 losses at the end of the month.
May
In May, the Mets had another month in which they lost two more games than they won. They went 13-15 for a .464 monthly winning percentage. On a ten-game road trip to open the month, the Mets won four times. They split eight games on a home stand between May 12 and May 21. In a pair of three-game series at Pittsburgh and Houston, the Mets recorded two wins in each series. The team finished May with three losses in a four-game series against the Cardinals at Shea. The Mets stood in fifth place, four games behind the division-leading Chicago Cubs at month’s end.
June
The Mets’ season got dismal in June. They won 10 games while losing 18 during the month. The team had a 4-5 record against the Padres, Dodgers and Giants at Shea between June 2 and June 11. On an ensuing west coast trip, they won twice and lost six times. On June 20, the Mets recorded a 3-0 win over the Expos at Shea. They defeated the Pirates, 3-2, in 11 innings on June 23. The Mets were defeated in five of their next six games before a 6-5 win at Pittsburgh on June 30. They ended the month in fifth place with a 33-45 record and 10 and one-half games behind the first place Phillies.
July
The Mets had another losing month in July. The team posted only 12 wins in 29 games played and stayed in fifth place in the N. L. East. In the opening game of a July 4 doubleheader at Shea, the Mets came out with a 4-0 win over the Phillies on Lee Mazzilli’s grand slam in the eighth inning. To begin a road trip on July 13, they defeated Tom Seaver for the first time ever with a 4-2 victory at Cincinnati. The Mets lost six of their next seven games before winning five in a row at Shea from July 19 to July 22. The team recorded 9-2 and 12-3 triumphs over the Reds at Shea on July 25 and July 26, respectively. The Mets then closed out July with four consecutive losses at Houston and Philadelphia.
August
The Mets continued their downward spiral in August. An 8-17 record for the month dropped the team into the division basement. The month started well for the Mets with a 5-1 win at Philadelphia on August 1. However, the team had three 3-game losing streaks between August 5 and August 18 and a four-game skid from August 20 to August 23. At San Diego between August 24 and August 27, the Mets split a four-game series with the Padres. They followed up with a split of two games at San Francisco. The Mets were 19 games in back of the front-running Phillies at the end of the month.
September/October
To close the book on the ’78 season, the Mets won 13 of their last 30 games. They ended up 24 games behind the division-winning Phils. The Mets lost six of nine games on the road to start September. The team followed up by sweeping a three-game series against the Pirates at Shea from September 8 to September 10. At Shea on September 14, the Mets posted a 7-6 comeback victory of the Expos. They recorded their second win of a three-game series at Philadelphia with a 2-0 triumph over the Phillies on September 17. The Mets stopped a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 win over the Cardinals on September 26 at Shea. They chalked up a 5-3 win at Chicago in the season-closer on October 1.
