HOUSTON — It was another Astro, in another time, flummoxing another New York baseball nine, that caused a similar amount of disquiet.
His name was Mike Scott. He beat the Mets twice in the 1986 NLCS, Game 1 and Game 4, and he was looming in Game 7 if the Mets hadn’t found a way to escape the 16-inning torture chamber of Game 6.
He was the best pitcher in baseball that year, and he credited his former pitching coach, Roger Craig, with teaching him the split-finger fastball, which tended to duck under bat after bat all season long, and time after time in the NLCS.