MIKE’S ALL RIGHT
Conforto breaks out of slump with a two hits and two RBI as Met head out on 10-game road trip
A REGRESSION was inevitable for Michael Conforto after a torrid first couple of months, but June had been quite difficult for the 24-year-old outfielder. He entered Sunday’s game batting .163 with just two RBI in 43 at-bats in June and was 1-for-8 in two games since returning to the starting lineup Friday from a stiff back, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg presenting enormous challenges
Conforto came through on Sunday in the Mets’ 5-1 win over the Nationals, giving the team a boost as it embarks on a 10-game road trip through Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami. He started in center and finished 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI singles, one in the fourth and one in the sixth. He also stole a base.
“He’s gonna be a good hitter,” Terry Collins said of Conforto. “You’re gonna have ups and downs in this game. As it happens, he raised the bar so high with what he did for two months and the expectations for him to stay up there — this is the big leagues. Those other teams, they make adjustments. What he’s got to do is
return, kind of back off and say, ‘OK, I’m gonna make some changes too.’ But he’s back. I think when we get he and (Yoenis Cespedes) in the lineup at the same time, we get Jay (Bruce) swinging good, that’s a formidable top of the order, for sure.”
Conforto is hitting .289 with a .979 OPS with 38 RBI for the season. He struggled much worse last season compared to his recent rough patch, when he had a tremendous first month but regressed so badly he had to be sent down to Triple-A twice.
“I’ve been through it before in this game,” said Conforto, who said his back feels good after three straight starts. “It’s not hard to think it’s gonna come back. It’s just the nature of the game: Some days the hits aren’t falling, some days they are. You’ve just got to keep grinding, keep working and eventually it’ll come back.”
Pitchers are trying to get him to chase out of the zone, Conforto said, noting he needs to evolve as pitchers make adjustments to him. He’ll have a lot on his plate against Clayton Kershaw on Monday, assuming he’s in the lineup against the southpaw.
“I have to expect to play,” he said. “I can’t think I’m not playing and then all of a sudden be in there. So I’m definitely expecting to be in there, and if not we’ll put a good lineup together and I’ll come off the bench, whatever I need to do.”