The Mets’ offense has suddenly woken up, and Thursday afternoon in Cleveland was their best performance yet.
New York completed its three-game sweep of the Guardians on Thursday with a 13-6 victory. They pounded out 18 hits and three home runs. The Mets scored 25 runs during the sweep after scoring just four total runs over their previous three games against Miami.
This breakout comes just a few days after the Trade Deadline, when the Mets ended up keeping most of their core offensive pieces. Since then, the group has come out of the gate swinging.
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Thursday’s production came from seemingly everywhere. Marcus Semien, Carson Benge and Luis Robert Jr. each had three hits, while Luis Torrens drove in three runs. Francisco Lindor provided the biggest swing as he launched a three-run homer in the seventh inning that broke the game open and gave New York a 9-5 lead.
Semien started the slugfest with his 13th homer of the season in the second inning. Torrens followed later in the frame with a two-run shot that gave New York a 3-2 lead. Benge added an RBI triple in the third, continuing an impressive series where he homered in each of the first two games. His bid to homer in all three games fell just short Thursday when his drive hit the wall for the triple.
The Mets hit nine home runs during the three-game series, their most in any three-game series this season (they hit 10 in a four-game series against the Cubs in June). That kind of production is a nice turnaround for a lineup that still ranks among the 10 worst offenses in the league.
Another encouraging development has been Jorge Polanco. After entering Wednesday stuck in an 0-for-26 slump, Polanco finally broke out by going 2-for-4 with a home run in the Mets’ 6-5 extra-inning victory. The veteran had reportedly taken around 300 swings during additional work before the game, and the adjustment immediately paid off.
Meanwhile, Benge has continued establishing himself as one of the lineup’s best bats, while Semien has finally started supplying some much-needed production. With the Trade Deadline passing without any significant subtraction from the offense besides Tyrone Taylor, the Mets have been leaning mostly on internal options, and they are finally starting to see some success.
The Mets are still getting crushed in the standings as they are 50-66 and 11.5 games out of the Wild Card, but for three games, they looked nothing like a last-place offense. After scoring six, six and then 13 runs, the question now becomes whether this heater can follow them to Pittsburgh.
