Travis d’Arnaud homered off Jon Gray in the second inning for his fifth home run of the season. It was his first home run since June 20, the last time any Mets catcher has homered.
It was also his single that ignited last night’s rally in the seventh inning, which led to a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over the Rockies.
“I was trying to change who I was as a hitter,” d’Arnaud said Monday… I swung through the funk and applied it today in the game. Now I’m able to cover the full plate.”
After a sluggish start (4-for-23) since returning from the DL, d’Arnaud finished the evening going 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
More importantly for him it may have been the breakthrough game Terry Collins was looking for to increase his playing time.
“When this guy starts hitting, he can be really dangerous,” Terry Collins said. “That spreads your lineup out to where there is something pretty important in every spot.”
The Mets are a much better team when d’Arnaud starts as evidenced by their 6-1 record since he came off the DL and 17-9 record overall with him this season.
Speaking about the team and their comeback win, the Mets starting catcher said, “Definitely there is no panic anymore. We are believing in ourselves and it’s a lot more fun.”
“It feels like that even if we are down early we know we can fight back, we have a chance to win every single day.”
Look for d’Arnaud to start picking up more starts moving forward, as Collins was initially easing him back to build up his stamina.
