Behind in the series 3 games to 2, the Mets and Red Sox took their World Series matchup back to Queens and Shea Stadium on this date in 1986. The Mets, looking to capture their 2nd title in franchise history, had a tough mountain to climb as the Sox sent 23-year old phenom Roger Clemens to the mound to match up with Mets lefty and former Red Sox farmhand Bobby Ojeda. The game got off to quite an unusual start when a Mets fan parachuted into Shea Stadium with a "Let's Go Mets" sign during the first inning.
After the commotion cleared up, the teams settled in for a back and forth affair that saw the scoring start with a Red Sox run in each of the first two innings. The Mets would tie it up with a pair of runs in the fifth inning but Roger McDowell would allow the go-ahead run to score two innings later in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, Gary Carter's sacrifice fly evened the game up once again, this time at 3-3, and that's how it would stay until the top of the 10th inning when Rick Aguilera served up a solo home run to Dave Henderson. With a 4-3 advantage, the Sox weren't done and they added a 5th run on Marty Barrett's single.
Down to their final three outs in the bottom of the 10th, Wally Backman and Keith Hernandez made the first two, putting the Mets on the brink of a World Series loss with Gary Carter the team's final hope. Amazingly, Carter singled and was followed by pinch hitter Kevin Mitchell, who also singled. Ray Knight stepped up and smacked the third straight single for the Mets, getting them a run closer at 5-4. With the tying run at third, Mookie Wilson worked an incredible at bat against Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley, fouling off a number of balls. On the eighth pitch, Stanley threw one way inside that forced Wilson to dive out of the way. The ball rolled all the way to the backstop and allowed Mitchell to score the tying run, giving the Mets season just a little more life.
With the game now tied, Wilson stepped back up to the plate and after fouling off Stanley's next two offerings, Mookie poked a little groundball up along first to Bill Buckner that would go down as one of the franchise's most defining and oft-cited moments on the way to their second World Series victory two nights later.
If you'd like to watch the bottom of the 10th inning in its entirety, click this link or start the video linked up above and fast forward to the 3 hour, 15 minutes, 50 seconds mark.