New York Mets left-fielder, Michael Conforto has solidified himself as the number three hitter for this team. There are no current plans to move the young left-handed hitter from the spot anytime soon.
Conforto had another solid day at the plate Sunday during the Mets’ 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves. He went 1-for-3 on the day with a double and two RBI. Since moving to the three spot in the lineup on April 15th in Cleveland, he has hit .324 with four doubles, two dingers and seven RBI. He has helped catapult the Mets offense during the recently completed nine game road trip, in which they have gone 7-2. Hitting coach, Kevin Long knew it was only a matter of time before Conforto took on this role.
“I just think at some point you knew he was going to hit in the three-hole,” Long said. “You didn’t know when. Why not start the process? Start the process, see what happens, see if he could handle it. He hasn’t missed a beat.” (ESPN)
Conforto, 23, started the scoring for the Mets today with a sacrifice fly, knocking in Curtis Granderson to give the team an early 1-0 lead. He has had consistent, quality at-bats, providing this team with a pure professional hitter in the most important spot in the lineup.
“He just has consistent at-bats day-in and day-out,” Long said. “He gets good pitches. He commands the strike zone. He doesn’t waver from swinging at strikes. He uses the whole field. And he’s able to recognize many different pitches. So all of those factors make him a pretty good hitter.”
Michael has shown a knack of doing whatever it takes to keep the line moving and knock in runs when the opportunity has presented itself. He has become very disciplined at the plate and has also shown his ability to hit right and left-handed pitching so far this year.
“When there are less than two outs, it’s a great opportunity to help the team,” Conforto said. “It’s a great opportunity for you personally — selfishly. You either get a hit, or if you do put the ball in the air deep enough, you don’t waste an at-bat. That’s on the selfish side. But I always go up there and I just want to bring in a run for the team. And so I definitely look forward to those opportunities. I had two of them today, so that was great.”
Coming into the nine-game road trip the Mets had only hit six homers. They had hit 23 over the course of these previous nine games, only failing to go deep this past Sunday against Atlanta.
“A lot has been said about us getting runs on home runs,” Conforto said. “I think we always expected to manufacture runs and be a team that can move guys, can execute in those situations with a man on third and less than two outs. I think we knew we were going to be able to do that. We just didn’t start off that way.”
Conforto will continue to be a linchpin for this offense as the season ticks on. His prowess at the plate has forced manager, Terry Collins‘ hand in allowing him to play more often and command the number three hole, Conforto is making the best of it.
