1988

From The Met Wiki

Before the season started, the Mets took part in a three team trade with the Dodgers and Athletics. The Mets gave up Jesse Orosco and acquired Jack Savage, Kevin Tapani and Wally Whitehurst.

The Mets also traded Victor Garcia and Rafael Santana to the Yankees for Darren Reed, Phil Lombardi and Steve Frey.

None of these trades would make a particularly big difference -- except that Orosco did come in for a key out against the Mets in the playoffs.

After missing the playoffs the year before, the Mets were looking to return to their 1986 form. Led by Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling and David Cone on the starting staff and Darryl Strawberry, Kevin McReynolds and Howard Johnson on offense, they ran away with the East, riding a 100-60 record to finish 15 games ahead of the Pirates.

The Mets and Dodgers met in the NLCS, and unfortunately ran into one of the hottest pitchers and hottest hitters in history. Orel Hershiser had just broken the consecutive scoreless inning streak, and was on his way to winning both the Cy Young Award and the World Series MVP. Kirk Gibson was on his way to winning the MVP and hitting one of the most memorable home runs in World Series history. The pair's performance in the NLCS is not as well remembered outside of New York, but Hershiser had 4 strong outings including a save in game 4, and a complete game shutout the Mets in game 7. Gibson's most memorable moment was a game winning extra inning home run in game 5. The Dodgers beat the favored Mets in seven games and went on to win the World Series.

At the end of the season Keith Hernandez won his 11 consecutive Gold Glove to break a record for Most Gold Gloves by a First Baseman. Strawberry and McReynolds finished second and third in MVP voting, behind Kirk Gibson.