Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY
After a mediocre start to the season, Mets’ Jeff McNeil was back to his usual All-Star form in Thursday’s game against the San Francisco Giants. While he entered the game batting .242/.375/.333, his line is now .275/.412/.406 after a 3-for-3 performance at the plate with a walk and hit-by-pitch. In addition, he collected two RBIs, which increased his total to eight on the season.
While the Mets’ offense was scorching hot in their series against Oakland, that success did not translate to McNeil. However, he has quickly regained form in his past seven games, in which he has batted .320/.452/.520. Consequently, McNeil’s offensive prowess is an important aspect of this Mets lineup as he can increase its depth. If opposing pitchers have to worry about a Mets lineup that contains formidable hitters that go into the bottom half of the order, they will be in for very difficult outings.
One encouraging sign from McNeil’s strong performance is his high exit velocities on his batted balls. In fact, his sixth-inning home run against RHP Tristan Beck had an exit velocity of 101.6 mph. His next two singles against the same pitcher had exit velocities of 100.6 mph and 98.7 mph respectively. While Beck was not effective in his MLB debut, these hits were still against a major league pitcher.
Another indicator that McNeil is seeing the ball well is the fact that he was able to reach base twice against the Giants’ tough left-handed starter Sean Manaea. Heading into Thursday’s contest, left-handed batters were batting a mere .210/.264/.339 against Manaea. However, McNeil was able to skillfully leverage his hitting prowess against both left-handed and right-handed pitchers by reaching base two times with a walk and hit-by-pitch in his two plate appearances against him.
Overall, this performance is a major step in the right direction for McNeil and the Mets going forward. With the absence of outfielder Starling Marte in Thursday’s game, the Mets’ lineup had a deficit that needed to be filled. Considering McNeil’s impressive performance, this could lead to a promotion within the order of the starting lineup going forward.
