The Mets offense has been on a home run tear lately but other than that, there hasn’t been much at the plate. Manager Terry Collins doesn’t mind that surge.
“I think that’s how we’re built,” said Collins. “This team is built on power. Lately, when we’ve hit home runs, we’ve won.”
The Mets have now hit at least one home run in their last six games, including one in their 12-2 blowout loss to the Cards on Saturday.
Before the current streak, the Mets went nine straight games without a homer. So it’s been rather feast or famine with the long ball lately.
“You might hit the ball right on the screws, and it might be a line drive into the gap, it might go right to someone and sometimes you might just miss it,” said Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson, who homered on Friday and leads the team with 14 home runs.
“It’s a game of inches type thing. Sometimes you may hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark. It’s just a matter of staying ready to hit, being ready if you do get that pitch that you know you can drive and putting a good swing on it.” (MLB.com)
The Mets have scored 17 of their last 19 runs on home runs, two of the four runs in this series, all 15 runs in their series vs. Arizona and the final two runs at San Francisco on July 8.
They are ninth in the NL with 76 home runs, but last in batting average (.233), runs (312) and total bases (1,093).
Hitting home runs are nice but it would be better if more runners were on base when they come. The Mets have continued to struggle getting runners on. One example was on Friday’s game when the Mets didn’t get multiple runners on base until the 9th inning.
“We’re not hitting real well, and the games we hit two or three home runs, we’ve been winning those games because we pitch,” said Collins.
“If we start getting more guys (on), we’ll be giving our pitching staff a little bit more support, but until we start swinging the bats better and getting more guys on, we’re going to be living with the home run.”
