The 1969 Mets' Pitchers Had Amazin' Stats In A 44 Game Late Season Stretch That Gave Them The NL East Title (like allowing just 11 HRs in 44 games)

The Mets were 10 games out at the close of play on Aug. 13. They clinched on Sept. 24. They went 34-10 over that time period after being 62-51.

Here is what their hitters did over the 34-10 stretch and what they did in the first 113 games. Not much difference.

34-10)  .662 OPS 170 runs.

First 113 games)  .664 OPS  445 runs.

But the pitching did a lot better. Much lower ERA, few hits, HRs, BBs per game and more GDP per game

34-10)  ERA 2.08. 11 HRs. 303 hits. 122 walks. 294 NonHR hits.  36 GDP.

First 113 games)  ERA 3.40. 105 HRs. 884 hits. 377 walks. 779 NonHR hits. 77 GDP.

So they lowered their ERA by 1.32 and went from giving up nearly 1 HR per game to just 11 in 44 games. And other hits and walks per game went down and GDP per game went up.

The table below shows their percentage changes in these stats. These are all per game.

Stat	First 113	34-10	% Change
ERA	3.40	2.08	-38.824%
Hits	7.823	6.886	-11.973%
HRs	0.929	0.250	-73.095%
BBs	3.336	2.773	-16.892%
Non-HRs	6.894	6.636	-3.734%
GDP	0.681	0.818	20.071%
ROE	0.496	0.409	-17.451%
HBP	0.159	0.250	56.944%

A 73% drop in HRs per game is incredible. Then GDPs per game still went up 20% even though BBs and non-HR hits were down. Fewer base runners yet alot more DPs. Great pitching (and maybe fielding, too) were the reason the Mets turned things around.

The Mets were 62-51 up through Aug. 13. They had outscored their opponents 445-425. In the stretch through Sept. 24 they outscored their opponents 170-116.

On the pitching side, strikeouts went from 6.31 per game to 6.8.

Update Aug 22: Tom Ruane of Retrosheet and SABR sent me some data on the Mets' GDP rate. In their first 113 games, the Mets turned DPs in 10.6% of their opportunities. In their next 44 games it was 13.8%. So that was a 30% increase (the entire NL increased 7.5% over that time).

Maybe if the Mets were giving up alot fewer HRs it meant fewer fly balls and more ground balls.

In the first half of the season (92 games), the Mets actually had a -.006 OPS differential (.674 - .680) but still had a 53-39 record. They would finish with a .017 differential for the entire season.

In the first half of the season (98 games), the Cubs had an excellent .090 OPS differential (.747 - .657). .090, if they finished with that, would have put them in the top 6% of all teams from 1908-2018. So they were far superior to the Mets up to that point. They were 61-37. They would finish with just a .037 differential for the entire season.