BATTLE LINEUP
Maligned offense showing fight with d’Arnaud back in mix
Travis d’Arnaud returned to the Mets lineup Wednesday. They scored five runs in his first two games, and again Friday when he got the night off.
Coincidence? Manager Terry Collins doesn’t think so.
“I don’t think there’s any question when you start to get some of your better hitters back in the lineup, it gives everybody a boost,” the Mets manager said. “There’s always a difference when you add another good bat to your lineup. Everybody has a little bit more confidence.”
It’s just three games, but the Mets lineup has hit the ball better against three quality pitchers: Giants right-handers Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum and Braves southpaw Alex Wood.
In his two starts, d’Arnaud had three hits in eight at-bats, an RBI and two runs scored. His presence lengthens the lineup. But Friday night, when he didn’t play, the Mets got production from other areas. John Mayberry Jr. hit a tworun homer, Wilmer Flores also went yard and struggling third baseman Eric Campbell drove in a run with a groundout.
Outfielder Michael Cuddyer has come alive of late, winning Thursday’s game against the Giants with a walk-off single, and his average is now up to .270, having hit safely in 15 of his last 16 games.
Five runs doesn’t sound like much, but the Mets have yet to score that many runs in four straight games this season. And when they have scored four runs or more, the Mets are 26-4 on the year.
“Scoring four or five runs with our pitching staff, it’s going to be a make a difference,” hitting coach Kevin Long said.
This sudden outburst came after a low point for the offense, getting no-hit by Giants 27-yearold rookie Chris Heston when the Mets struck out 11 times and didn’t even threaten to get a hit.
"He made a lot of good pitches and we swung at them, and they weren’t pitches we could handle. That’s why we didn’t hit the ball very good,” Collins said. “It goes back to the same stuff, that is being able to lay off some pitches and let them have strike one. ... There was a philosophy we had in spring training, and that was it’s better to be 0-1 than 0-for-1. You know what, if the pitcher make a quality pitch for strike one, so be it. But still have the patience and the confidence to know you can with two strikes if you have to.
“What we’re doing right, I think, when we’re getting our pitch, we’re hitting it.”
Despite being 13th in the National League in runs scored, with a team batting average of .242 and an OPS of .680 that is 12th in the NL, Long said he feels like the Mets have hit into a lot of bad luck. Their batting average on balls in play is .289, which is 20th in baseball, according to SportingCharts.com.
"There are some things we're doing OK," Long said. "I think we just need to trust the process, and trust the at-bats and quality we’re having and it will pay off.”
Injuries have factored heavily into their season-long struggled, with key pieces like David Wright, Daniel Murphy and d’Arnaud missing time.
With d’Arnaud and second baseman Dilson Herrera back, the lineup does look better, less automatic outs to point to.
“It’s a better lineup,” Long said. “When you get better players, you’re lineup is going to look better. We lost David, we lost Murphy, we lost Travis, we lost Dilson. Those are some quality players. So when they’re not in the lineup, it’s going to be tougher to score some runs.”