Jay Bruce has shown some signs of life as of late. He had a nice night at the plate Thursday in the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Miami Marlins.
Bruce was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI on Thursday night. He has now had some productive numbers over his last seven games, hitting to a .333/.364/.571 slash to go along with the homer and two RBI from just last night. Lucky for Bruce that he begins to come around as manager, Terry Collins is again going by his old mantra.
“You hit, you play,” Collins said. “We’re fighting tooth and nail to stay in the playoff race.”
That saying worked for Collins in 2015, so why not try it again? Bruce needs to hit, he was brought along to try and be the Yoenis Cespedes of 2016. For the most part though, he has been the Jason Bay of 2016, disappointing in his time thus far as a Met.
If Bruce is able to turn it around though and go back to the player he was before being traded to the Mets it would be at just the right time for a team who desperately needs everyone to get hot. The team is right in the thick of the Wild Card race, only two games behind St. Louis for that second spot.
So far as a New York Met through 27 games, Bruce has hit to a .196/.271/.330 slash with just three homers and eight RBI. Now would be the perfect time for Bruce to break out of that slump.
