Okay, it’s hard to love Ruben Tejada right now. The shortstop, entering Tuesday’s rainy 6-1 victory over Philadelphia, was sporting an all too familiar sub-Mendoza Line Batting Average. The patience with Tejada, if not completely diminished was wearing dangerously thin with seemingly everybody other than Terry Collins. But Ruben was out there again, batting eight, but out there.
And then, a glimmer of hope. A stat flashes across the screen, surely a typo.
Ruben Tejada career with the bases loaded: .409 (9-22), 27 RBI.
No, not a typo and Ruben made sure that people like me, ogling the silly looking .409 batting average under a name like Tejada, knew that it was right where it belongs. He cracks one to center and drops it in front of Ben Revere, two men score. With that, Cole Hamels‘ night was through as were those of plenty of Philly fans as they headed for the parking lot, leaving behind a soon to be ghost town called Citizens Bank Park.
The game clinching knock was Tejada’s second hit of the night, locking in only his second multi-hit game of the year. Just like that, that the average was back at a slightly more aesthetic .200., the Mets were on there way to their seventh win in nine days, and those silly numbers that promptly introduced that turning point single grew.
Ruben Tejada career with the bases loaded: .435 (10-23), 29 RBI.
Hey, we’ll take what we can get.
