June 4, 1976: One month before America was to celebrate its bicentennial, the Mets went to Los Angeles for a weekend series with the Dodgers. On Friday night June 4th, a huge crowd of over 52,000 packed Dodger Stadium to see Tom Seaver go against Burt Hooton. The Mets were approaching the .500 mark 10 ½ games back, in third. They did make a nice summer run but fell short. The Dodgers were one game back but had no chance catching the Big Red Machine. It was all Mets tonight as Seaver was masterful pitching a 3 hit shutout. He walked only one and struck out 8 along the way, besting his record above .500 to 5-4. 
As great as Seaver was, Dave Kingman stole the show. Kong blasted three HRs that night, one longer than the next, and drove in a Met record eight runs.(Broken in 2008 by Carlos Delgado) His 1st HR was in the 4th inning off Burt Hooton, with John Milner aboard. His 2nd was also off Hooton in the 5th inning, with Wayne Garrett & Mike Phillips aboard. His 3rd HR was off Al Downing (the man who gave up Hank Aarons 715th) with Philips & Milner aboard. The three HRs already gave Kingman a total of 20 on the season, people were talking about a record breaking season. Due to injury he ended up with 37 on the year, second in the NL. The Mets won the game 11-0, Ed Kranepool also homered in the game his 4th.
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