Jeff McNeil continues to shine for the Mets with his fourth home run in five games

Mets Secure Series Win Against the Nationals

The Mets continued their strong performance against the Nationals on Thursday, claiming their sixth consecutive victory. They edged out the win with a score of 4-3, bringing them closer to an impressive goal of being 21 games above .500.

It wasn’t the smoothest of games—more of a gritty battle, really.

One standout moment came from Jeff McNeill, who has been on fire lately. After Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto got on base with walks, McNeill hit a fastball, clocked at 95.7 mph, into the front row just inside the foul pole, scoring three runs in the first inning. The ball traveled 342 feet, and you could see the excitement as he pumped his fist while rounding the bases.

This marked McNeill’s fourth home run in just five games, adding to a remarkable tally of 10 RBIs during that period.

“Wow, baseball can be wild like that. Sometimes you just ride that hot streak,” commented Brandon Nemo about McNeill’s performance post-game. “He’s swinging the bat beautifully now. Every run we scored was crucial,” he added with an enthusiastic tone.

Nemo also pointed out McNeill’s past achievements, noting, “We know what Jeff is capable of. He was the batting champion in 2022, and he’s really on a roll right now. It’s a huge boost for us.”

Looking back to last year, McNeill didn’t start off so strong, especially in June 2024 when he hit a disappointing .194 with just one home run and five RBIs. This season, however, he jumped out of the gate much better, boasting a .333 average with a 1.056 OPS during March and April. Though he fell to .222 in May, he seems to thrive as the weather warms up.

After Thursday’s game, his June stats showed he was hitting .324 with 10 games played, raising his season average to .270 and OPS to .911.

During the game, he did get hit by a pitch on his right leg, forcing an early exit in the third inning, but manager Carlos Mendoza assured everyone that McNeill would be fine. “He’s okay,” Mendoza said. “The decision to pull him was strategic, considering we have strong left-handed hitters in our lineup. The trade-off was just one RBI.”