When Curtis Granderson goes, so does the Mets offense. Granderson had a terrific offensive game in last night’s 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals. He went 2-for-2 with a homer and two walks.
It didn’t take long for the Mets to grab a lead last night, as Granderson took the very first pitch he saw from Max Scherzer and deposited it over the right field wall. On a night where Lucas Duda and David Wright sat with back issues, the Mets needed their catalyst to come up big. It resembled more of an early 2015 lineup than a 2016 one, in which Eric Campbell and Matt Reynolds were playing in the biggest game of the early season.
Last night’s leadoff bomb was his third of the season, which is second to Jose Altuve who leads the league with six. It was also his seventh overall on the season. The homer was the 38th leadoff homer of Granderson’s career, which broke a tie with Miami’s Ichiro Suzuki for second-most leadoff homers among active players. It was the 14th time he had done it as a Metropolitan, which is the most in the majors since joining the team in 2014. Mets hitting coach, Kevin Long, told his players to be ready and to jump on Scherzer early.
“Be ready to hit,” Long said. “Go after him.” (NY Post)
Granderson did just that, putting a jolt into a team that needed one dearly after dropping four straight. Manager, Terry Collins knows that getting Curtis going can be the biggest key to unlocking the full potential of this offense.
“If he gets on base we tend to score a lot more runs,” Collins said, “and we tend to win a lot more games.”
He could not have picked a better game to get it going, against the division leader of the NL East. Granderson knows the importance of these games, no matter how early in the season it may be.
“You want to get off fast against these guys,” Granderson said. “Because we both know we’re going to see a lot of each other all year.”
The win put the Mets just a half game behind the Nationals for the top spot in the NL East. The Mets will go for the series win tonight, with first pitch slated for 7:10 PM.
