If there was a better circumstance in which Gary Sheffield could have hit his 500th career home run, he couldn’t think of it last night.
It was the perfect storm: a crucial at-bat, playing for the Mets — whom he rooted for as a kid when his uncle, Dwight Gooden, pitched for the team — and facing the Brewers, the team with which he broke into the major leagues in 1988.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Sheffield said after his pinch-hit, game-tying homer in the seventh inning helped the Mets beat the Brewers 5-4 at Citi Field.
“There’s a reason why I hit 19 home runs instead of 20 last year,” Sheffield said. “I could have hit it then [with Detroit], but there was a reason why they had me get released and come here and do it on the biggest stage.”
Sheffield became the 25th player in major league history with 500 homers, but the first to reach the plateau with the Mets. He also became the first player to reach No. 500 in a pinch-hitting appearance.
Sheffield hooked reliever Mitch Stetter’s full-count pitch around the left-field foul pole in the seventh for a solo homer that made it 4-4.
The ball was caught by 22-year-old Chris Matcovich of Suffern, N.Y. Matcovich, who attended the game with four friends, traded the ball for five signed jerseys and said he’ll also receive some bats and balls from Sheffield.
Though he doesn’t have a job and says he’s broke — he’ll graduate from St. Thomas Aquinas College in three weeks — Matcovich said he never seriously considered selling the ball.
“I respect the game too much to sell it or keep it,” Matcovich said. “That’s [Sheffield’s]. He worked so hard for it. If I hit a 500th home run, I’d wish somebody would do that for me.”
Sheffield clearly appreciated Matcovich’s gesture.
“A couple of guys on the team said, ‘It’s going to cost you about a hundred thousand to get that ball back, are you willing to pay it?’ ” Sheffield said. “I was like, ‘I don’t think my wife is going to let me.’ But to give up jerseys to him and all his friends, that was definitely special for him to do that. He didn’t have to do that.”
mpuma@nypost.com