Jeff McNeil faced the Yankees on Tuesday and while he wasn’t part of the power team facing Gerrit Cole, he at least had a bit of life at the plate in the 9-7 win.
The struggling second baseman was two for four with two runs scored in the Mets’ Subway Series opener at Citi Field, but he has yet to get a hit in his past 15 at-bats, continuing a dreadful season.
But manager Carlos Mendoza said he was pleased with what he saw from McNeil’s at-bat, when he again failed to get a hit in Sunday’s game against the Cubs in Chicago.
“He was in better shape on Sunday,” Mendoza said. “He was shot three times.”
As Mendoza pointed out, McNeil hit three line drives: the first at 105 mph, the second at 99 mph and the third at 91 mph.
McNeil then hit two singles from the eighth hole in Tuesday’s win and also stole a base.
It was McNeil’s first multi-hit game since June 9 against the Phillies in London.
“I thought he had another good at-bat,” Mendoza said, noting McNeil has had some bad luck recently.
Still, McNeil is one of the few Mets hitters whose performance hasn’t improved this month.
He was benched against left-handed pitchers for four straight games but returned to pitch against right-handers in a two-hit game against Philadelphia in London.
But after that game, McNeil struggled again, going into Tuesday with just three hits in 36 at-bats (.083), one extra-base hit, two walks and six strikeouts.
Right fielder Starling Marte is expected to miss at least a month with a deep bone bruise in his right knee, and Mendoza said McNeil could be considered as a candidate to replace the injured Marte.
“It’s valid,” Mendoza said.
Complicating things for McNeil is the emergence of Jose Iglesias, who wasn’t in the lineup Tuesday.
“With the way Iglesias is playing right now, it will depend on how the game unfolds and the day,” Mendoza said. “I have no hesitation in moving McNeil to right field.”
Including Tuesday, McNeil has started 66 games at second base and six in the outfield, all in left field.
If McNeil can’t pull himself out of this slump, his presence in the lineup will be hard to justify anywhere.
As of Tuesday, only Toronto’s George Springer had a lower OPS than McNeil’s .572 among eligible hitters.
That’s contributed to a steady decline over the past two seasons for McNeil, who was the leadoff hitter in 2022 with an .836 OPS.
Mendoza, in his first year as Mets manager, has consistently supported McNeil, but Iglesias has had better batting performance against right-handed pitchers than McNeil, and also against left-handed pitchers.
