The Mets have been waiting for someone other than Juan Soto to step up and boost their offense with a handful of their regulars sitting out on the injured list.
On Thursday afternoon, MJ Melendez was the man for the job.
Melendez smacked a single in his first at-bat of the day, then picked up Freddy Peralta his next time up, lifting a game-tying three-run homer over the right-field fence.
It was the lefty slugger’s second home run since joining the Mets.
Two innings later, he stepped to the plate and gave himself up, dropping down a sacrifice bunt to push Juan Soto into scoring position after drawing a leadoff walk in a tie game in the sixth.
New York took its first lead of the day just one pitch later as Mark Vientos lined a double.
Melendez was set to come back up in another big spot after Soto led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to right, with the team now trailing Washington by a run.
However, with former Mets left-hander Richard Lovelady on the mound, Carlos Mendoza elected to have Austin Slater come off the bench and pinch hit.
Slater, who recently joined the Mets on a minor league deal, hadn’t had an at-bat in eight days but is a career .263 hitter with 30 of his 45 homers and a .776 OPS against left-handed pitching.
He couldn’t deliver this time around, though, working the count before grounding out to shortstop.
New York, of course, ended up squandering the opportunity before going down quietly in the ninth as the team closed out the long homestand with its sixth loss in nine tries.
Mendoza explained his thought process behind the decision afterward.
“Slater is here to hit lefties, obviously,” the skipper said. “Knowing that we’ve seen Lovelady against righties as well, just wanted to take the chance their with a righty against him and try to do some damage.”
Mendy talks job security
After suffering their second consecutive loss, the Mets fell to 10-21 over the first month of the season.
They remain in possession of the worst record in baseball heading into May.
With questions about his job security, injuries throughout the lineup, and just an overall lack of production from up-and-down the roster, Mendoza says it’s been tough on everyone.
“It’s not easy, but we have to keep going,” he said. “There’s no other choice here, we have a responsibility and we have to turn this thing around — it’s not early anymore, so yeah, it’s obviously frustrating for a lot of people in here.”
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