Mets may have ‘more stern’ conversation about approach as RISP woes continue

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BOSTON — The New York Mets’ first conversation about their struggles with runners in scoring position occurred more than a month ago, during a series loss in Minnesota.

The topic is likely to be revisited, more sternly, soon.

New York’s offensive funk continued in a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox on Monday night, the fourth defeat in the past five games for the Mets. After going 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position in the Bronx over the weekend, they were 1-for-9 Monday.

“It hasn’t gotten much better,” co-hitting coach Eric Chavez said of the team’s production in those spots over the last month. “We addressed it, and we let it be. But if things continue, it’s definitely something (where we’re) a little more stern: ‘This is a real thing and we need to start changing some things.’”

This has been a team-wide problem. After Monday night, the Mets are hitting 43 points higher (.260 to .217) and slugging 53 points higher (.428 to .375) with nobody on base compared to with runners in scoring position. The team OPS is 78 points better with the bases empty.

Kodai Senga gave up three runs in six innings but didn’t get much help from the offense. (Winslow Townson / Getty Images)

In the National League, only the Diamondbacks have seen a larger falloff in their production with runners in scoring position.

“Obviously,” manager Carlos Mendoza said, “we’re not getting the job done with runners in scoring position.”

“We’ve got to capitalize as a team,” said Juan Soto. “We’re doing a pretty good job getting guys on. We’ve got to get those guys in.”

On Monday, the culprits were often the Mets’ best players. Francisco Lindor struck out with two on in the fifth and grounded out with two on in the seventh. Soto grounded into a double play with two on in the third, and Brandon Nimmo with two on in the sixth.

Soto has one hit in his last 22 at-bats with a runner in scoring position, a span one day shy of a month now.

Mendoza talked about a lineup that was too passive early in counts and too aggressive later. Essentially, they’re taking the good pitches to hit to fall behind, and then they’re swinging at the putaway pitches.

“Most of the time, when you have hitters that are successful, they control the zone. They don’t miss a pitch they get,” Chavez said. “When things aren’t going your way, there’s usually more chase involved. You’re taking the strikes and swinging at the balls.”

The numbers under the hood largely support Mendoza’s thesis. The Mets are striking out less and walking more with runners in scoring position as opposed to with the bases empty. And their batting average on balls in play is way down — .244 compared to .308, which speaks to some bad luck involved.

“The other night we had a big situation and Juan hit it 113 (mph) right at somebody,” co-hitting coach Jeremy Barnes said before the game. “You obviously want to get hits with runners in scoring position. But sometimes it doesn’t fall.”

The one area the Mets have been worse with runners in scoring position is with their chase rate, which jumps from 25.0 percent to 29.2 percent (entering Monday). And the player who stands out is Lindor, whose chase rate balloons from 23.2 percent with nobody on to 40.4 percent with RISP, entering Monday. You could see that in his fifth-inning strikeout against Justin Wilson, when Lindor worked a 10-pitch at-bat — in part because he swung at four pitches out of the zone, including a slider for strike three.

“He chased today,” Mendoza said. “He’ll be fine. He’s too great a player.”

“The deeper the at-bats have gone the last couple days, I’ve swung more,” said Lindor, who gave himself a “C-minus“ for how he feels at the plate right now. “We’ve got to flip that script.”

In Chavez’s mind, the next step is to acknowledge that the approach has been different in those spots. He said hitters often look at a crucial spot as a situation where they “have” to come through, rather than one where they “get” to come through.

“It’s more changing your thought process in how you look at the situation,” he said. “That anxiety, whether you want to admit it or not, because I went through it too, I know it’s there. There’s numbers that tell us things change when runners are on base and when they’re not. It’s really just being able to control those thoughts and keep your approach the same.”

Chavez also knows what it’s like when the whole team feels like it’s falling short in critical situations.

“At the end of the year, we’ll look at this as a short part of the season. But when this is the sample size you have, it looks really bad,” he said. “This is definitely a down part. At the end of the year, it should paint a different picture.”

(Top photo of Pete Alonso: Charles Krupa / Associated Press)

This news was originally published on this post .

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