There was no warning of Yoenis Cespedes coming in to save the Mets last night. He didn’t appear on-deck, no practice swings were being taken, absolutely no sign of their Cuban superstar. All of the sudden, with the Mets down 3-0, he emerged from the dugout and then tied the game on the first pitch he saw with one swing of the bat.
The pitch was absolutely crushed and rocketed over the left field wall like a missile with a 111 mph exit velocity.
“You just shake your head,” manager Terry Collins said. “Special players do great things when you’re not expecting it.” (NY Post)
Lucas Duda was standing on deck as a decoy, Brandon Finnegan had no thought of having to face Cespedes. He wasn’t even anywhere to be seen in the dugout, Collins had no idea where his power hitter was just before the at-bat.
“I didn’t know where the hell he was,” Collins said. “I heard, ‘He’s coming, he’s coming!’
For Cespedes, it was the first career pinch-hit home run when he did eventually arrive, knocking in Kevin Plawecki and Juan Lagares to tie it at three. It was his sixth homer of the season. He has now had an extra-base hit in eight consecutive games played.
“He has a flair for the dramatic,” an exuberant David Wright said after the game. “It was like out of a movie scene.”
Remarkably, this was his first at-bat since leaving Friday’s game in Atlanta due to injury. Cespedes has been nursing a bruised right leg and had fluid drained from the spot before yesterday’s game.
Cespedes and his teammates could be seen going nuts in the dugout after his homer and the subsequent triple by Curtis Granderson that led to the go-ahead single by David Wright. The togetherness seen in that dugout last night was great to witness, showing how together this team really is as they begin to roll. Kevin Plawecki had high praise for Cespedes.
“He can change a game just like that,” Plawecki said.
Cespedes last night showed exactly what he can do, and that is carry an offense when needed. On top of his six homers this year, he leads the team with 17 RBI. The “Yo Show” has returned, hopefully for good.
