HIT FEELS SO GOOD!
The reaction from Mets manager Mickey Callaway was wellthought out and complex. What do you see in Jeff McNeil that is so impressive? “A lot of hits.” OK, maybe it wasn’t that complex.
McNeil completed his second four-hit game with an RBI double in the eighth inning and Michael Conforto later added a backbreaking three-run homer as the Mets rallied for a 6-3 victory over the Giants Tuesday at Citi Field.
“The success tonight was just putting the ball in play,” said McNeil, hitting .522 (12-of-23) on a six-game hitting streak. “I got two strikes early a few times and just kind of battled. Put the ball in play good things happen.”
Good things, like lots of hits since his July 24 call-up.
“It’s his ability to get hits. It’s not a ball finding his barrel and things like that,” Callaway said. “He’s going and getting pitches, even good pitches and putting the barrel on them.”
For much of the night, the Mets offense generally made as much noise as a collection of mimes. But when it got loud, it became absolutely thunderous.
The Giants went up, 2-0, in the first when Evan Longoria blasted a 3-0 fastball off Steven Matz, who settled in superbly after that. But the Mets were shut out for six innings by Giants starter Chris Stratton.
The Mets got two in the seventh to tie with Conforto lifting a sac fly to score McNeil and Austin Jackson singling home Wilmer Flores. In the eighth the Mets hammered Giants lefty reliever Tony Watson (4-5).
Jose Reyes led off and tripled. But Mets fans groaned as pinchhitter Todd Frazier popped to shallow right and Amed Rosario struck out. Up came McNeil. So much for working the count. He went after the first pitch for a double the opposite way to left.
“I was looking out over the plate. I faced him yesterday and he threw me three sliders so I’ve seen that pitch,” McNeil said. “I got a hit off it yesterday, so yeah I was kind of expecting a fastball there and I got it.”
Flores was intentionally walked before Conforto blasted his 18th homer to ensure a win for Corey Oswalt (3-2), who gave up one hit in three shutout innings. Seth Lugo surrendered a run in the ninth.
The Mets saw what they hoped for from Matz whose previous effort went two innings (five hits, six runs, four earned) in a 9-6 defeat at Philadelphia. That was his first start after spending two weeks on the disabled list with a left flexor pronator strain. The start before the DL was worse (two-thirds of an inning, eight hits, seven earned runs).
“I had a little better fastball command. Still a lot of room for improvement but definitely a step in the right direction,” said Matz, who threw 87 pitches and surrendered two hits in five innings of his career-high 23rd start and said the early homer didn’t faze him. “It’s not that easy [to relax after a homer] but you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to give your team a chance to win.”
And hope good things eventually happen.