Sponsored by Shea Stadium Remembered
Shawn Estes will always be remembered by Mets fans as a one-hit wonder. He was the one Met who had a chance to take revenge on Roger Clemens in the batter’s box and he missed him in June of 2002. Never mind that Estes won that game, humiliated Clemens by homering off him, and was far from the reason the Mets had a lousy year.
On this day in 2002 Estes throws his lone complete game as a Met with a 1-0, one-hit gem against the Brewers at Shea. And he beats the man whose spot he took in the rotation, Glendon Rusch, who also tossed a complete game for Milwaukee. Estes is perfect for six innings, but Eric Young (father of the future Mets speedster of the same name) singles for the only hit of the game in the seventh. Estes walks only one and fans eight. Jay Payton provides all the offense with a home run. It is the 23rd Mets one-hitter in history and the first since Rusch combined with Armando Benitez for one in 2001.
With the Mets irretrievably out of the race on August 15, just two weeks after they traded Jay Payton and future All-Star (though not as a Met) Jason Bay to shore up the pitching staff, GM Steve Phillips sends Estes to the Brewers and got back Pedro Feliciano, among others. Though pitching just 23 games as a Met, the name Estes conjures up plenty of Mets memories. One-hit wonder indeed.