ABSTRACT:
TOKYO – Nearly 7,000 miles from home, Mike Hampton’s location was off by several inches this morning (New York time). The bases were as crowded with Cubs runners as the Tokyo streets are with cars at rush hour, yet somehow, in what had to feel like one of his worst performances, Hampton showed why the Mets are going to love him….
In five long innings, Hampton, 0-1, allowed 14 runners to reach base, nine by way of base on balls, four on hits, one after being drilled on the hip. Only two of those runners cored in a surreal Opening Day won by the Cubs, 5-3……
Japanese crowds are famous for the restraint they show from booing, but boos flowed out of the stands when Hampton walked Sosa in the third and again in the fifth. Flashbulbs popped throughout the Dome every time Sosa walked to the plate. The crowd’s response was a loud for his two singles as it was for the two-run home run hit by Andrews and the solo homer by Mark Grace. Piazza’s two-run home run well into the right field seats that brought the Mets within 5-3 in the eighth drew the biggest rise out of the crowd.