There aren’t too many better sights in baseball than seeing a David Wright homer. He extends his arms fully with the bat out towards the outfield almost whisking it out of the park as he then begins his trot around the bases. During last night’s 4-1 win over the Atlanta Braves, Wright, hit a bomb to start the scoring barrage in the first inning.
Wright has begun to heat up at the plate. Over his last seven games he is 8-26 with one homer and five RBI. Wright began to wonder as he slumped a bit and his strikeouts began to trend upward, what the problem could be?
“It’s weird,’’ Wright said. “You go through a rough stretch and as a competitor you want to say, ‘It can’t be me. It’s got to be my mechanics. It’s got to be my timing,’ so you are looking to constantly make adjustments.” (NY Post)
While swinging previously, Wright developed a leg kick to help with his timing. This was something he believed was adding to feeling off at the plate when discussing it with hitting coach, Kevin Long.
“I was tinkering with the leg kick and it got to the point where I felt my timing was off a little bit,” Wright said. “So I’m trying to break it down and get back to the basics, get your foot down and try to see the ball as long as possible. Kevin and I talked about it and this is what I always go back to.’’
Wright was striking out a near alarming rate this year. He has gone down 30 times in 79 plate appearances thus far. Both Wright and Long believed some change needed to be made.
“We knew that if he shortened his leg kick and got that under control,’’ Long told The Post, “we were hoping that the consistency would be a lot better and it has been.”
David is in the midst of the most grueling full season of his career. Battling spinal stenosis while trying to stay in the game he loves is quite an uphill battle. He has shown signs of his vintage self, as well at times as someone who is not who they used to be. Wright though puts forth some of the greatest effort of any player that has ever worn the Mets uniform. You can’t help but root for the captain of this team.
