Mets Sweep Dodgers, Make a Bubbly Mess of Their Visiting Clubhouse

The Mets broke out the brooms on October 7, 2006, sweeping the Dodgers out of the playoffs with a victory in Game Three of the NLDS. Manager Willie Randolph used the same winning formula he employed in the first two contests: pull his starting pitcher at the first instance of trouble, play the match ups with relievers, then wait for the batters to do something. Seven Met hurlers combined to give up 16 hits and let five Dodgers score, but the offense roughed up Greg Maddux for four, Jonathan Broxton for three, and Brett Tomko for two runs respectively for a 9-5 triumph.

Birthdays

• Jose Cardenal (1979-80) is 69. The Mets acquired Cardenal from the Phillies between games of a doubleheader...with the Phillies. The outfielder sat in the visiting dugout for game one, then switched sides and uniforms for the nightcap.
• Sammy Drake (1962) would have been 78. Prior to joining the Mets, Sammy and his brother Solly became the first set of African-American siblings to play at professional baseball's highest level since Fleetwood and Welday Walker before the turn of the century.

Game of Note
One day after Tom Seaver opened the 1973 NLCS by fanning 13 Reds in a tough luck 2-1 loss, the Mets looked to Jon Matlack to even up the series. The lefty responded by turning in the greatest postseason pitching performance by game score in team history: a complete game, two-hit shutout of one of the league's most prolific offenses. Matlack limited the Reds to a pair of measly singles, both off the bat of right fielder of Andy Kosco and didn't allow a Cincinnati runner to reach as far as third base. As for the Mets, they tallied the only score they would need on a Rusty Staub homer in the fourth, though they'd pad the lead with a quartet of runs in the game's final frame. Final score: Mets 5, Reds 0.

Amazin'-ly Tenuous Connection
According to the archives of Toronto's Globe and Mail, on this date in 1992, Canadian politician Michael Wilson initialed the North American Free Trade Agreement, a major step in making NAFTA the law of the land when it comes to inter-country commerce on this continent. Not sure how NAFTA works, but if there's a baseball team in the Great White North (or Mexico, for that matter) that wants Jason Bay for free, the Mets can make that trade happen.