On August 6, 1975, the Mets stepped onto the field at Shea Stadium for their first game without Yogi Berra, and they walked off with a win that felt like a jolt after a rough stretch. Roy McMillan, newly installed as interim manager the night before, got his first victory in the dugout as the Mets snapped a five-game losing streak with a 9-6 comeback against the Expos.
A small crowd of 9,001 watched Montreal jump out early against George Stone, who was making a return from rotator cuff surgery and would appear in only 13 games that season before his career ended. Stone was tagged for solo home runs by Pete Mackanin in the second inning and Pepe Mangual in the third, then watched Gary Carter score on Jose Morales’ double as the Expos built a 3-0 lead. Stone was done after three innings, charged with four runs, three earned, on five hits.
The Mets finally got to Steve Renko in the fourth. Rusty Staub singled, and Wayne Garrett followed by driving a two-run homer to right, cutting the deficit to 3-2. Garrett’s blast was his fourth of the year and gave the home team a foothold.
The real damage came in the sixth, when the Mets turned a shaky inning into a flood. Garrett reached on Mackanin’s error, and after Jerry Grote’s forceout, Renko walked Mike Phillips and John Milner to load the bases.
Del Unser then cleared them with a double to left, Felix Millan followed with another double to left to score Unser, and Ed Kranepool made it three straight RBI doubles with one of his own. Renko’s night ended there.
Fred Scherman entered and the Mets kept pouring it on. Dave Kingman was intentionally walked, Staub was hit by a pitch, and then Scherman issued back-to-back walks to Garrett and Grote.
By the time the inning ended, the Mets had sent 13 men to the plate, scored seven runs, and flipped the game into a 9-4 lead despite collecting only three hits in the frame. Montreal helped along the way with five walks, a hit by pitch, and an error.
Hank Webb had earlier given the Mets three scoreless innings after Stone exited, and Bob Apodaca finished the middle stretch before running into trouble in the ninth. The Expos opened the inning with hits from Larry Parrish and Mackanin, then a Mike Phillips error brought in a run. Apodaca also walked Pepe Mangual before closing it out and securing the 9-6 win for McMillan.
The next afternoon, after Yogi Berra came back to say goodbye to his players, the Mets made it two straight under McMillan. Tom Seaver blanked the Expos 7-0 on a three-hitter for his 15th win, part of a season that also brought him his third Cy Young Award.
The Mets stayed inconsistent from there, getting swept by the Dodgers, then taking two of three from the Padres and three of four from the Giants to finish the home stand. Under McMillan for the rest of the season, they went 26-27 and finished third.
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