Adrian Gonzalez was a stalwart bat for the San Diego Padres from 2006-10. He appeared in three All-Star Games, launched 161 homers, drove in 501 runs and hit to a .288/.374/.514 clip in five seasons.
The San Diego native wasted no time torturing his old team on Sunday, grooving a two-run double to right field in the third and putting the icing on the cake in the seventh with an opposite field homer to give the Mets a then 7-2 lead.
It’s been a rough go of things for Gonzalez so far this year. He entered Sunday afternoon’s game hitting just .200/.296/.317 with two home runs and 12 RBI.
The Mets had even discussed moving outfielder Jay Bruce to first to get Brandon Nimmo‘s bat in the lineup more. Gonzalez was having none of that notion on Sunday.
For Gonzalez, he believes he has been putting together quality at-bats despite the lack of results early on.
“Overall I feel like I’ve had good quality at-bats, I’ve hit the ball hard,” Gonzalez said on Friday. “Overall, I’m good. Want to keep getting working and getting ahead. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t land in front of a guy, and he catches it.”
Regardless of how the first base situation shakes out, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson is not worried about Gonzalez, and his roster spot is not in jeopardy.
“We haven’t gotten the production we’ve wanted from a variety of positions, but if you look at Adrian’s metrics, those are sort of on par with the same metrics in his productive years,” Alderson said prior to the series with San Diego. “Right now, we’re comfortable with those two guys (Gonzalez and Flores) and see where it takes us.”
Hopefully, his game Sunday is indicative of a change of fortunes for the veteran.
