If there was any doubt who the true catalyst of the Mets engine is, David Wright has answered the debate with a resounding ME, the last three games against the Giants.
Besides collecting three hits in each of the last three games, and hitting a robust .692, he now has pulled even with Carlos Beltran for the team lead in RBI’s, with 27. The Mets offense has come alive against the Giants, a team that boosts a solid rotation, scoring 24 runs and amassing a bushel of stolen bases (14).
(Poor Benji Molina has taken the hit, but this staff does a poor job of holding runners on).
Isn’t it ironic, that the Mets would go on a stolen base rampage with their best thief, Jose Reyes jailed with a calf injury. This team needs Reyes to be a peak performer to succeed and he must rise to the occasion especially down the stretch (his performance the last two Septembers, hitting in the .200 range, has been retched).
Right now the Mets are winning without him.
Alex Cora is not in Reyes’ class, and has been shaky in the field, but he will give the Jerry Manuel a professional at-bat and attitude. Hey, as a fan, you enjoy when your team lights up the scoreboard regardless of who is doing the damage.
Many believe Carlos Delgado was the most important stick in the lineup-Wrong. That distinction belongs to Wright. In his first five full seasons David Wright has knocked home 489 runs, Mike Schmidt 471 (he has 516 lifetime and records them in bunches).Losing Delgado will hurt the offense long term (why in the world did management make him fly cross-country and then put him on the DL?) but you wouldn’t know it the last three games. Beltran has been the team’s most consistent performer from day one, but the team did struggle even as he was ripping the cover off the ball.
With Wright hitting .350 now, he is poised to lead the Mets to a four-game sweep of the Giants in their beautiful yard. Who would have thunk that a few weeks ago? Although, he only has three home runs, its quite evident that as Wright goes, so do the Mets.
