In a year where Major League Baseball set its own record with home runs hit in a single season, it was only appropriate the Mets did the same.
With New York up 2-0 in the eighth Monday night, Travis d’Arnaud took Braves pitcher Jose Ramirez deep for the Mets 219th home run of the year. The previous record of 218 was set last season.
“It’s huge to finish off this week strong,” d’Arnaud said. “We’re headed off on the right foot for the start of next year.”
Of course, the Mets shipped away most of its big boppers one-by-one over the course of the last few months. Lucas Duda, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson and Neil Walker were responsible for 75 of them.
Michael Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes and Wilmer Flores had 62 more before their respective seasons were cut short due to injury.
Mets manager Terry Collins reflected on how a different picture would be painted if everyone was still here or healthy.
“Just think if we had all our power hitters still here where we would be in home runs,” manager Terry Collins said, “This new theory of getting the ball in the air shows you everybody can do it.”
The Mets catcher, who is hitting just .243/.291/.437 on the season, has improved his game significantly since Mets general manager Sandy Alderson gave him and Kevin Plawecki a vote of confidence for this year and seemingly next.
D’Arnaud also has a career high in home runs with 16 and finished the game 2-for-3 with one double, his home run and two RBI. He has 54 RBI this season, extending his career-high and is batting .321 (17-for-53) with six home runs and 16 RBI this month (16 games).
New York is going to have to make up a lot of power next year without its big guns and with d’Arnaud and Plawecki the tandem going forward they will both be important factors.
