ST. LOUIS-There are times before, during and after a baseball game when Jay Payton stops and reflects about how grateful he is just to be playing in the big leagues. Two reconstructive arm surgeries cost him four years of playing time and made him wonder if he would ever fulfill his dream of playing in the majors.
“I’d come to the conclusion that if I played, I would have to play with a lot of pain in my elbow,” Payton was saying before Game 2 of the NLCS last night. “But I was going to keep playing until my arm fell off or somebody didn’t want me.”
It’s a story that has been well chronicled, but no less meaningful. Those struggles are making what’s happening with the Mets and Payton these days all the more special. If playing a full regular season wasn’t reward enough, Payton emerged as the hitting hero of Game 2, driving in the Mets’ go-ahead run in a 6-5 victory that gave his team of 2-0 lead heading back to Shea for Games 3, 4, 5 over the weekend.
Payton was 0-for-3 with two strike outs in the game when he came up in the ninth inning with one out and pinch-runner Joe McEwing, who was running for Robin Ventura, at second. Ventura had reached on a error by first baseman Will Clark to start the inning and a sacrifice bunt by Benny Agbayani, his first of the season, put McEwing into scoring position.
It was opportunity knocking and Payton delivered in dramatic fashion. “I just wanted to get a hit,” Payton said. “That’s all I was thinking. I’d had a couple of chances early in the game to do something and didn’t come through. I just tried to get a pitch to hit. He threw me a curve ball and I got it pretty good.”
Payton hit a clean single to center off a curve ball from reliever Mike Timlin, a looper that bounced in front of center fielder Jim Edmonds and took a high hop off his glove and rolled toward the wall. McEwing scored easily from second and Payton hustled all the way to third. It was ruled a single and RBI for Payton and a two-base error for Edmonds, who didn’t exactly bust his tail to get to the ball.
Payton was stranded at third, but closer Armando Benitez made the one-run lead hold up, retiring the Cardinals in order in the ninth.
“It’s just nice to be in a position where you can come through for your team,” Payton said. “I spent the whole game watching (Edgardo) Alfonzo come through time after time and then Benny (Agbayani) got down his first bunt of the season. It was a great bunt. I’m just glad I could do my job.”
Payton isn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball this post-season. He batted .176 in the Division Series and was 1-for-4 in Game 1 of the NLCS. But his hits have had impact. He drove in the winning run in the 10th inning of the Mets’ 5-4 victory over the Giants in Game 2 of the NLDS. And he had a two-run home run in Game 1 of the NLCS to give the Mets 6-0 lead.
“It’s just great to be a part of this,” Payton said. “There nothing like it.”
This was a game the Mets could have won easily had they gotten more runs early. Cardinals starter Rick Ankiel was as wild as a little leaguer with 5 of his first 20 pitches hitting the backstop. He would last just two-thirds of the inning, but the Mets managed just two runs in the top of the first. Except for a solo home run by Mike Piazza in the third, they were shut down by the Cardinals bullpen until scratching out two runs in the eighth. But the Cards tied it with two runs of their own in the eighth, setting the stage for Payton’s heroics in the ninth.
“It was one of those great ball games, you want to be a part of,” Payton said. “We just wanted to win. Home-field advantage didn’t mean much here since we were able to win two. But now we can go home and play in front of our 10th man and hopefully it will help us.”
Now all the those elbow surgeries and doubts about whether his career would take root are a distant memory. In the quiet of a disappointed Busch Stadium, Payton was being ushered from television network to television network to talk about his game-winning hit. They called him a hero. It’s the kind of stuff kids dream about.
“I’m on cloud nine,” he said. “It’s one thing to be playing and it’s another to be playing and winning. This is what’s baseball is all about and this what I love to do.”