six runs to carry the Expos to an 8–3 victory. In the second game, he drove in a seventh run to establish a club record for RBIs in a doubleheader. The next day, he drove in four runs against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Expos won a franchise best 95 games in 1979 to finish two games back of the Pittsburgh Pirates. For his part, Valentine batted .276 with 21 home runs and a career high 82 RBIs. Shattered cheekbone On May 30, Valentine was hit in the face with a pitch by Roy Thomas of the St. Louis Cardinals. His cheekbone cracked in six places, and he was forced to miss over a month of action. At the time of the incident, Valentine was leading his team with 27 RBIs, and was batting just under .300. With slugging third baseman Larry Parrish also out of the line-up with a wrist injury, the Expos did surprisingly well in Valentine's absence; they went 21–16 to take a half-game lead in the National League East over the Phillies. When Valentine finally returned on July 10, he began wearing part of a football face mask on his helmet. Though it looked strange, it briefly caught on with other players who were worried about similar injuries. He batted .331 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs over the rest of the season, as the Expos found themselves in a three-way race with the Pirates and Phillies in the NL East. Valentine played hurt through much of his team's stretch drive toward the pennant, but he was sidelined for much of it with a pinched nerve, a hip injury and a hand injury. On September 21, Valentine injured his wrist, ending his season. The Expos surrendered first place in the division to the Phillies on the second to last day of the season. New York Mets Valentine got off to a slow start in . He was batting .211 with three home runs and fifteen RBIs when he was sidelined by a pulled hamstring in his left leg on May 19. He was still on the disabled list when the Expos dealt him to the New York Mets for Jeff Reardon, Dan Norman and a player to be named later. Valentine's first season at Shea did not go as well as planned. It did, however, have an interesting side effect on the Mets' line-up. Dave Kingman,