Curtis Granderson came into the Mets game against the Miami Marlins on August 29th with a .724 OPS, the lowest it had been since June 8th when it was at .716 and he had struck out 36 times in his previous 105 at-bats.
Mets fans were getting sick of watching Granderson strike out and leave men on base at a historic clip, at one point he was 10 for 86 with runners in scoring position. It started with a modest game on August 29th when Grandy went 1 for 2 with two walks in a game the Mets won on walk-off home run by Yoenis Cespedes.
The following night Granderson found himself on the bench to start the game but became only the third Met in team history to homer twice in a game he didn’t start. One of those home runs came with a man on base for just the third time of the season out of 22 homers. The next day he was the cleanup hitter and walked three times for only the second time all year.
Then the next week Grandy homered in four straight games for the first time in his long career including two with runners on base. The home run binge gave him 26 on the season matching the amount he hit in 2015.
Grandy would provide the all the heroics in the Mets 3-2 win over the Marlins on September 17th when he became the first player in franchise history to hit two home runs in extra innings. He hit a game-tying home run in the 11th inning then sent the Mets home a winner with a walk-off in the 12th.
Last night in a game the Mets desperately needed following a sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves, Curtis got the Mets on the board first with a two-run homer in the second inning. It was the 75th of his Mets career and 292nd overall in the majors with both totals matching that of former Met Rusty Staub.
Since that game on August 29th, Grandy is hitting .260/.382/.685 with nine home runs, 19 RBI and 18 runs scored. He also has 14 walks compared to only 14 strikeouts during that 89 plate appearance span.
Granderson is now up to 29 home runs on the season, the most he’s hit in a Mets uniform and the most in a single season since he hit 43 with the Yankees in 2012.
The power surge couldn’t come at a better time for the Mets with Jay Bruce continuing to be abysmal and Yoenis Cespedes struggling for much of September.
