Mets manager Carlos Mendoza spoke following Sunday night’s win over the Los Angeles Dodgers…
Vientos’ defensive struggles
Mark Vientos has had a bit of a rough time defensively this season.
The youngster showed signs of improvements last season, but he’s taken a drastic step back this year.
He’s been losing out on playing time to Brett Baty of late, but was back in there for Sunday’s series finale.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go as planned.
Vientos booted a Mookie Betts ground ball in the top of the first, allowing the speedster the reach on an infield knock.
Luckily, it didn’t come back to bite the Mets as Tyrone Taylor gunned down Betts trying to score later in the inning on a potential Will Smith sac fly.
Still, this is an ugly trend for him as he has now committed a team-high seven errors on the season.
“He’s going through it defensively right now,” the skipper said. “Especially on those slow rollers, as of late I feel like three or four of them where he gets on the change or he’s having a hard time securing the baseball — it happens, he’s continuing to work.
“He was out there today on that particular play. He’s got to keep going and he’ll get through it.”
Vientos was pulled later in the game for defensive purposes — as Baty slid over to the hot corner and Luisangel Acuña entered the game at second base.
Big Pete’s back on the board
It’s been a bit of a tough stretch of late for Pete Alonso.
The big man has slowed down drastically after his scorching hot start to the season.
Entering Sunday’s contest, Alonso was stuck in a 65 at-bat homerless streak — the longest of his career.
But with a favorable matchup against Dodgers righty Landon Knack, it didn’t take him long to snap that skid.
After Juan Soto busted it down the line to beat out a two-out infield single, Alonso cranked the first pitch he saw from Knack over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
It was his 10th of the season and ended up being a big one in the 3-1 victory.
“It’s rare for Pete to go on a stretch like that without a homer,” Mendoza said. “Finally gets a breaking ball first pitch and he was ready to go — hopefully they come in bunches now. It was good to see him from the first pitch today in the first inning and put early pressure on them.”
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