While the Mets have cooled off a bit on this road trip, Francisco Alvarez has been heating up.
The 23-year-old catcher is 7-for-14 with two walks and four RBIs in the four games he started in St. Louis and Arizona. In the 5-1 loss to Arizona on Tuesday in front of 24,353 at Chase Field, he singled to right in the second inning, which led to the Mets’ only run.
He went 2-for-3, accounting for half of New York’s hits on a night where they couldn’t get much going against the Diamondbacks’ pitching. Zac Gallen threw seven innings of one-run ball.
“Never gonna be easy,” manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters. “That’s what makes the big leagues the big leagues. You gonna go through stretches where you gotta find a way, you gotta fight. And you’re gonna go through some ups and downs. And what I feel like overall, we have been right there on every game. The guys continue to compete and that’s what you want. Obviously you want to come up on top and we will.”
Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
The Mets (23-14) have been dominant at home (13-3), but fell to 10-11 away from Citi Field, including 2-3 on the current road trip. They play one more game in Arizona Wednesday before returning home for a six-game homestand with the Cubs and Pirates that starts on Friday.
Alvarez is slashing .314/.385/.429/.813 with a home run and seven RBIs in nine games since returning April 25 from fracturing the hamate bone in his left hand. He has thrown out three of nine runners attempting to steal, including Alek Thomas for the first out in the ninth inning of Monday’s 5-4 victory. Francisco Lindor made a great catch and tag on the play, too.
“Unreal, not an easy one,” Mendoza said Monday. “For Alvy, not giving up after the runner gets a huge jump. And for him to finish a play and then Lindor not only picking the baseball but sticking his nose and applying the tag there. Pretty unbelievable. It was good to see those guys execute.”
According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, Alvarez’s 1.82-second pop time on the play was his best on a caught stealing to second base in his career. MLB average pop time is 2.0 seconds.
“I think the quickness, obviously,” Mendoza said of what impressed him of the throw. “It’s easy as a catcher to give up on a play when the runner gets a huge jump. But knowing we’re only up by one, and again just finish-the-play mentality for him. To just catching and getting rid of the baseball as quick as possible and getting it there, giving Lindor a chance, yeah it’s pretty amazing.”
