First aid for Mets’ apple after Travis HR
That’s one bruised apple. A night after Travis d’Arnaud hit a mammoth home run against Jon Lester that hit the apple behind the centerfield fence at Citi Field, a bandage was place atop the giant plastic fruit as a gag.
The bandage, forming an ‘X’ was placed near the spot d’Arnaud’s ball landed. The homer was d’Arnaud’s second this postseason, with both coming at home. The apple avoided further damage in the Mets’ 41 victory over the Cubs in Game 2 on Sunday night.
With temperatures in the mid40s as first pitch approached, manager Terry Collins was asked if the cold weather concerned him.
“You saw two guys [Saturday] that pitched under tough conditions,” Collins said, referring to the cold. Cold weather changes the game, but that is October baseball and everybody knows it.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, just two of the previous 20 teams to take a 20 lead in the NLCS have failed to advance to the World Series. The 1984 Cubs and ’85 Dodgers are the only two teams that failed to advance.
Kevin Long can relate to Jeff Pentland, who was let go as hitting coach by the Yankees.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Long said before Sunday’s game. “I was satisfied with the work I did and sometimes it’s not going to be enough. I don’t have any hard feelings for the Yankees. I’m just pleased we’re still playing.”
This marks the second straight year the Yankees have changed hitting coaches.
“It’s easy to point fingers at hitting coaches, pitching coaches, managers,” Long said.
Asked if you can blame a hitting coach for an offense’s struggles, even when it finishes second in the league in runs, Long replied: “Obviously, you can. There’s times where there’s got to be somebody who falls, somebody takes the blame. Look at us early in the year. We were probably one of the worst offenses in baseball. We trusted the process and it worked out.”