While their pitching woes have garnered more attention, the Mets offense has struggled with inconsistency all season, as hitting with runners in scoring position has been a real soft spot for this ball club.

Coming into the month of September, the Mets ranked 21st in the MLB in runs scored with 151 over 35 games played. Things have started to turn around though, as a 14-run outburst on Sunday catapulted the Mets into top 10 for runs scored with 196.

While you cannot attribute this turnaround to Todd Frazier alone (although Pete Alonso  has benefited from using his bat), the Mets offense has been prolific ever since their deadline acquisitions were activated on Wednesday. Over the last five games, the Mets have scored 40 runs, going 4-1 across that span.

Guys like Michael Conforto, Dominic Smith and Robinson Canó have been steady contributors all year long and have continued to produce this past week. The brightest sign for the Mets offense however has been Jeff McNeil and Alonso, as the 2019 All-Stars appear to have finally turned the corner.

After an 0-for-3 performance on Monday, Alonso was nearing the Mendoza line, hitting .208/.324/.376, and having homered just once in his last 38 at-bats. Then Frazier arrived and let the Polar Bear swing his bat for a few days.

Suddenly Pete has homered four times in his last four games played.

Alonso went 6-for-18 this past week, with five runs scored and five driven in. Sunday marked Alonso’s best game in some time, as he went 3-for-5 with two home runs and a hustle double. All of that production has helped the sluggers slash-line immensely.

The 25-year-old is now hitting .224/.329/.462, with 10 home runs and 25 RBI. Despite all his struggles this year, Alonso once again has the team-lead in homers and trails only Smith when it comes to runs batted in.

Now for McNeil, his hot streak stretches a little beyond this past week, as he has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games. McNeil has raised his average over 30 points during that span, going from .252, all the way up to .291 after Sunday’s game.

When looking back at his season, McNeil’s collision with the wall likely played a large part in his midseason struggles.

After only missing a few days after that collision, McNeil went 3-for-21 across his first seven games back. Since then, McNeil has gone 14-for-38, with seven doubles over his last 11 games. Maybe the best sign for McNeil came on Sunday, when he hit his first home run of the season in his 116th at-bat.

McNeil was just one of four Mets to homer against the Phillies on Sunday, as New York’s hitting parade included five total blasts and 17 hits overall. The Mets got three or more hits from Brandon Nimmo, Conforto, Smith and Alonso in that game, while the team hit 5-for-16 with runners in scoring position.

One of those clutch hits with runners in scoring position came from Andrés Giménez in the fourth inning. After both Alonso and Wilson Ramos struck out with two runners in scoring position, Gimenez laced a single into the outfield to drive in two runs. The rookie extended the Mets lead to 4-1 at the time, giving Jacob deGrom some breathing room before the game was really broken open in the later innings.

Gimenez may now be the starting shortstop on this team, after replacing Amed Rosario in the starting lineup in each of the last three games. To his credit, Gimenez has made the most of the playing time, hitting 5-for-11 in this series, with four RBI and three runs scored.

With just 19 games left to play, the Mets are going to need to score every last run if they want to make a push at making the playoffs this year. It is clear that there is plenty of talent stacked in this potent lineup, all they have to do is live up to their potential.