Mark Vientos did not write words.
He was not lost in his belief that he was nearby.
He still felt the same about his swing – good feelings – hit just .145 in his first 17 games, but his home runs remained zero…
…Until his first at-bat on Thursday night.
Vientos thought his drought would soon end at some point. “A matter of time,” he briefly spoke the post before the Mets went on to a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals at Citifield.
It turns out that the “problem of time” came about four hours later.
He sliced a 4-seam fastball 338 feet and thrusts it right inside the foul pole on the right field, starting two innings and a bit of verification over four nights as quality swings and contact ultimately led to something on the other side of the fence.
“It certainly feels good,” Vientos said.
The numbers stood out considering what Vientos organized in his first taste of the postseason last October.
His 2025 stats in 2025 were jarring considering he played home 27 times in 111 regular season games in 2024.
Does one homer gain weight from his shoulders? “Maybe,” he said before the match.
Can you quickly get your first lead to someone else? “I hope so,” added Vientos.
He generated a lot of hard contacts as the 11 balls he played left with an exit speed of at least 100 mph.
Twenty-six of his 51 balls feature an outlet velocity of at least 93 mph.
But coming on Thursday, Vientos had a batting average of .188 on the ball he played. This marked the lowest of his career, starting with the 17th lowest in the majors since last year’s .324.
Hit, specifically Homer, just didn’t follow.
So it all came together and made a difference in the moment produced in October.
The postseason became a lab for his breakouts, leaps to stardom and producing at his biggest moments on stage.
And perhaps on Thursday, he rounded the base and pumped his fist in two innings, marking a turning point towards it.
“It’s only a matter of time for him,” Francisco Lindor said. “He needs to keep on track. He continues to crush and bow his head and hopes at the end of the year he will hit 30 or 40 home runs.”
