Mets infielder Wilmer Flores has had an up and down 2015 season. Early in the year, Flores was struggling with his defense at shortstop, but Flores was hitting at times and as long as he hit, the Mets could deal with his defensive deficiencies.
Lately he has been fielding better especially since the Mets moved him to second base, but for most of June, Flores has struggled with his offense, hitting only .152 with a .361 OPS from June 17 to July 1, contributing to the Mets overall offensive struggles.
However since moving to second base, Flores has broken out in a big way offensively. After getting swept by the Cubs at Citi Field, the Mets won 2 out of 3 over the first place Dodgers in LA and Flores was a big reason why. He finished the series going 10-for-13 with 5 RBIs. During Sunday’s rubber match, Wilmer had 4 hits including 2 doubles, and 3 RBIs in the Mets 8-0 victory.
“Wilmer’s really swinging the bat good right now,” said manager Terry Collins.
A lot of Flores’s hits were big hits as well. On Friday, He tied the game at one apiece with a hit off Kershaw. Then in the 9th inning, he had another big hit that put runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs and led to the game winning run that inning on Kevin Plawecki’s sacrifice fly.
On Saturday, Flores had 3 hits and one of them led to another run in the 8th inning, as the Mets nearly came back from a 4-0 deficit, which they fell short 4-3.
“It was just pitch selection, that was it,” said Flores. “Nothing more than that.”
“He’s hitting the ball to right field,” said Collins. “He’s not trying to pull things. They’re pitching him away and he’s taking hits the other way. Certainly, that’s what good hitters have to do.” (MLB.com)
If Flores could continue hitting as he did over the weekend, it would be a huge boost to the Mets offense – an offense that could really use a productive bat right now.
