Jeff McNeil, up until this year, was not a very well known Mets prospect, largely due to health reasons. However, he broke out in a big way this season and has found himself on the big league club with comparisons to Daniel Murphy as a hitter.

The 27-year old infielder did nothing to dispell that comparison on Saturday night as he went 4-for-4 with a double against the Atlanta Braves’ pitching. He became only the seventh Met to have a four-hit game in the span of their first 10 in the show, with the most recent one being T.J. Rivera on August 16, 2016.

A double and two singles (one that didn’t leave the infield) came off of the newly-acquired right-hander, Kevin Gausman while his final hit of the night was a single off of left-hander, Max Fried.

The double was an opposite-field shot and Rich Coutinho of MMO asked McNeil whether that is something he has focused on his whole career or something he’s had to improve on over time.

“It’s how I’ve always been. I was kind of on the plate a little bit today. I got a fastball away and kind of just went with it that way.”

Obviously, after a performance like this McNeil was very pleased as well.

“I felt really good up there. I’m finally starting to see the pitches well and getting some pitches to hit.”

McNeil also flashed the leather in the game, though, as the ball kept finding him all night and in the second inning he made a terrific leaping grab to rob Johan Camargo of a single with Nick Markakis standing on first base and nobody out in a no-score game at the time.

Coutinho asked the infielder about the trend of the ball finding him all night, including the final ground ball of the game, and McNeil seemed to pride himself on it even though it was not what he was known for in the minor leagues.

“Wheeler got a lot of ground balls today. All of the pitchers did so I was getting a lot of ground balls at second base, but I’ve been working really hard on my defense so it was good to make some plays out there.”

Since being called up, the infielder has shown his promise from the left side of the plate as he is 8-for-25 (.320 average) with one home run, two RBI, and four walks.

With the Mets sitting at the bottom of the National League right now, McNeil deserves every chance to earn himself a starting spot on this team for 2019.