Neil Walker has taken the Mets by surprise in the first month of the season. A player who normally struggled from the right side of the plate, has proven so far to no longer have those issues. Not only is he hitting left-handed pitching, but doing so with power.
Walker, 30, crushed two homers last night in the Mets’ 11-1 defeat of the Philadelphia Phillies. Both came off left-handed reliever, Brett Oberholtzer, who was working mop up duty on a night when Vincent Velasquez showed he was human. The two dingers hit by Walker, put his total to six on the season, three of which came from the right side of the plate. Those three homers have come in just 11 plate appearances while batting right-handed this season. It took Walker 640 plate appearances to reach that same feat over the previous five seasons. Mets manager, Terry Collins is as surprised as anyone.
“From all we heard, it’s a big surprise,” Collins said. “As we’ve talked about so many times, a lot of it is about confidence. Right now he has great confidence hitting right-handed.” (ESPN)
Walker though isn’t too surprised, as he used to show greater power from that side of the plate in the minors.
“In the minor leagues I had more power from the right side than I did the left side. Things just got away from me over the course of a lot of at-bats.”
He previously stated that he had simplified his quirks at the plate, which may have helped. He eliminated a toe tap while batting right-handed, that he previously featured. It seems to have helped immensely with his timing. Overall this year, Walker, has produced a productive line of .245/.245/.830 while hitting six homers with 11 RBI.
His 6 shots in April have tied a Mets record for most homers in the first 13 games of a season. John Buck had the same amount at this time back in 2013. The home run drought for the Mets seems to have ended, as the team has exploded with the long-ball as of late. Over the previous five games the team has hit 17 homers, while scoring 33 runs. If this offense continues on, this team is showing they will be quite the force to be reckoned with.
