This Day at Shea: 6/10/1986: The Teufel Shuffle Gets Grand

Sponsored by Shea Stadium Remembered (a great Father’s Day Gift–wink, wink)

The ’86 Mets were already up by eight games with June just a third of the way through. The Mets were torturing opponents, especially divisional foes. The Phillies took an eighth-inning lead when Ron Roenicke homered and they brought in Steve Bedrosian, one of the game’s top closer and who would win the Cy Young a year later. He was not Cy Young material this night as Gary Carter tied the game with his second home run of the night. The Mets toyed with the Phillies until the 11th inning when they loaded the bases with one out against Randy Lerch. With the lefty Lerch on the hill, Davey Johnson opted for righty swinging Tim Teufel. The Phillies countered with righty Tom Hume to face Teufel, hitting .234 with just one home run since coming over from the Twins in a trade that winter. The Mets just needed a long fly—and Teufel did that and then some. His grand slam lifted Shea into ecstacy and pushed the 38-16 Mets Mets into the .700 stratosphere.