Al Leiter doesn’t always get the credit he deserves. He was never the best pitcher in baseball and hardly ever worth putting in the Cy Young conversation. During his years with the New York Mets, he was still a consistent starter they could trust to win a big game. In 1999, he won a huge one.
Long before MLB scheduled a one-game playoff between the two Wild Card teams, it would take a tie at the end of the year for a sudden death matchup. In 1999, the Mets and Cincinnati Reds both finished with 96 wins after 162 games.