The depleted New York Mets offense found some help Thursday night as two of its best returned to the starting lineup. Both Neil Walker and Michael Conforto returned from injury and immediately had a big impact in the team’s 6-4 win over Pittsburgh.
Conforto, 23, had been marred in his roughest patch as a major leaguer yet, struggling mightily. The young slugger had been dealing with discomfort in his left wrist keeping him out of the starting lineup since June 11th. Conforto had a nice night at the plate in his return, going 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Conforto also had an amazing catch out in left-field in the first inning, robbing Jung Ho Kang of an extra-base hit. He believed the time away from the field helped him not just physically but mentally as well.
“I got a little time to reflect a little bit and heal up some stuff,” Conforto said. “My wrist is well. It’s definitely good to have a little time off, but I can tell you I was excited to be back in there. I was fired up and had a lot of fun today.” (ESPN)
Yesterday’s homer was the 10th of Conforto’s season, also a career high as he had just nine in an abbreviated 2015 rookie campaign. Prior to yesterday, Conforto had struggled, in the midst of hitting to a .180/.229/.370 slash in his past 30 games. Hopefully yesterday was a sign of things to come for the sweet swinging lefty.
Walker, 30, had been out with lower-back tightness, and had himself a night at the plate in his return as well. The Mets second-baseman went 2-for-4 on the night while mashing a homer to go along with three RBI. The homer was his 14th of the season. Walker did not hit his 14th homer last year until September 18th, 2015. Walker was happy not just for his own performance but for how the team has looked in general over these last two games.
“More than anything, it was good to put up some runs and see that confidence kind of come back in our lineup,” Walker said. “Everybody goes through some things during the course of the year. We’ve been hit pretty hard here the last couple of weeks with some stuff.”
“It’s something we talk about — whoever is in there, whatever the case may be, we can’t be feeling sorry for ourselves or anything like that. We’ve got to go out there with what we’ve got and keep working hard and trust in ourselves and trust in our teammates.”
The offense has now scored 17 runs in it’s past two games. A stark difference from the dormant offense we had seen as of late. With Walker and Conforto seeming healthy yet again, there is now reason to believe this offense can get back to supporting its young starting staff while producing wins regularly.
