Here comes Kevin Plawecki. While Daniel Murphy’s RBI single in the fourth inning finally ended the Mets’ 21 inning scoreless streak that went all the way back to Friday, it was Kevin Plawecki’s two-run double that proved to be the decisive blow on Tuesday night as the Mets topped the Baltimore Orioles 3-2.
Following Murphy’s single, Wilmer Flores laced a double to left field to put runners on second and third. Plawecki then ripped one to left center to score what would end up being the winning runs.
The Mets’ rookie backstop has had an underwhelming performance at the plate but he extended his hitting streak to five games last night, batting .333 (6-18) over that span, and now has his overall average up to .250.
It was only a matter of time until good fortune would finally start coming his way. Plawecki has not deviated from his fluid level swing and his approach at the plate, and he had been making good contact and hitting the ball hard since his promotion. So it was only a matter of time until those balls started dropping in for hits. “I was lucky for the ball to fall,” Plawecki said.
It was only one inning and three runs, but Terry Collins underscored the significance of it.
“We had a talk today about getting back to our game plan,” Collins explained. “They don’t really believe they’re in a slump. We’ve hit the ball hard, we’ve hit it at somebody — that’s part of the game. We’ve got to continue to battle through it, and tonight they came up with a big inning.”
Plawecki has also drawn praise from his pitchers for his ability to call a good game, including Matt Harvey. “As far as catching, he did an absolutely tremendous job.” said Harvey after a win against the Yankees.
It’s tough to say what the future holds for him after Travis d’Arnaud returns from the DL, but one can’t come away unimpressed by what we’ve seen from Plawecki thus far. He certainly has a bright future ahead of him and has shown he belongs in the majors.
