Brett Baty entered the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game with the Royals with the bases loaded and two outs, and his team up only 2-1.
As we saw in Tuesday’s rollercoaster affair, a one-run lead was a precarious place for the Mets, so tacking on more runs was imperative for Baty and his team. The left-handed swinging infielder was already 0-for-3 on the day — his hitting streak in jeopardy — and was down in the count 1-2 to Alex Lange. The Royals’ right-hander threw a changeup down that caught too much plate and Baty made him pay, lacing a single that drove in two.
“It was huge,” Baty said of his hit after the Mets’ 6-2 win. “It was awesome to come through in a big spot like that.”
Baty is not having the season he or the Mets hoped he would. While defensively he’s helped the club play multiple positions, including some he’s never played before this year, his offense has left a lot to be desired.
He entered Wednesday’s game hitting .218 with a .603 OPS. But that two-run knock extended his hitting streak to a career-best eight games. Over this hitting streak, Baty is batting .300 (9-30) with four doubles and four RBI.
“Coaching staff is doing a nice job with him right now,” interim manager Andy Green said of Baty. “There’s much more action to the pull side with him right now than it was for the majority of the season. He’s lacing doubles in the gap to the pull side, he’s allowing himself to take a swing and miss and not change who he is… He’s maintaining aggression. Really encouraged with that.
“Really feel like he’s letting it go at the plate and trusting himself. That’s ultimately how you have to hit at this level, you can’t hold anything back. He’s winning to the pull side more frequently than he was earlier in the year.”
Baty was asked about whether he’s done anything different at the plate during his hitting streak and the 26-year-old said he’s taken a simple approach: hit the ball hard.
“My pregame work is really good right now. Trying to just clear my head and trying to hit balls hard,” Baty said. “I’ve always been good at that. And the first part of this year, I was terrible at it. Just trying to hit balls hard again.”
With Jorge Polanco and Francisco Lindor back from injury, Baty is encouraged by what he’s seen from the offense, especially in that five-run eighth inning. In fact, the Mets have scored six or more runs in their last four games and are 3-1 in that span.
“This whole season, we’ve known what we could do as an offense. It’s just about going out there and doing it every single night,” Baty said. “We got guys that specialize in getting on base, scrappy at-bats, and we got guys that can put it in the seats too. It’s a complete lineup when we’re firing on all cylinders.”
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