Opinion: The Offense is Out of Sync
The Mets starting lineup has six of eight players hitting over .300.
That’s impressive, but it means nothing to me if they are each getting their one hit in different innings. I mean, at some point, they are going to need to deliver a string of hits, in a row, to score a string of runs, in a row. Right now, the Mets are not a ‘cohesive unit,’ as Walt Frasier likes to say.
What’s worse, the Mets are hitting just .254 with runners in scoring position, while striking out roughly 20 percent of the time.
Prior to yesterday’s game, Jerry Manuel explained to reporters that his team must do a better job adjusting to pitchers late in the game.
“We’re not making adjustments to the adjustments that are being made against us,” Manuel said. “I think it’s good to a degree that it’s happened so we can recognize and identify it and say, ‘Why is this happening?’”
There is something to this, because the team is hitting the ball hard, the ball just keeps ending up in the glove of the opposition.
I know this is is a very Willie-esque excuse, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I mean, either Brendan Ryan is psychic, or the Mets are really unlucky, because the kid seems to be in the exact spot of every ground ball hit to the right side. The thing is, if this is the case, like Manuel said, he and his team must adjust.
Ordinarily, this would not be such a big issue, except that, at the same time, three of team’s five starting pitchers are working through mental or physical issues and are struggling in their performance on the mound.
In other words, if the Manuel’s hitters do not start working together, if they do not change their approach at the plate, and adjust to the adjustments, all while picking one another up, when coupled with the struggles of Maine, Pelfrey and Perez, a 6–8 start could quickly spiral in to a 10–20 start - and, while not the end of the world, in a division with three other contending teams, that would be bad.
