This is the Jeff McNeil the Mets were hoping for.
The Mets need McNeil.
And the McNeil he wants for himself.
He had three hits and one RBI in four at-bats in the Mets’ 6-1 win in the series opener against the Royals at Citi Field on Friday night, marking his second consecutive multi-hit game this season. did.
It was his best performance of the year and his best to date, going 2-for-3 with two hits, two walks and three RBIs at the plate as the Mets defeated the Braves 16-4 in Thursday’s series finale. It continued.
In these two games, McNeil recorded his first multi-hit game of the season and is currently on a five-game hitting streak.
He started the season with an impressive .091 batting average on 2-for-22 at-bats, with just one RBI and two walks in the team’s first seven games.
“It feels good. Anytime I’m getting a lot of hits, I’m in a good position,” McNeil told the Post. “The mechanical adjustments I made have allowed me to hit the ball in a better position. I feel like I can see the ball better. The ball is feeling better and everything is going well. is.”
What were those adjustments?
“It’s just getting better. [stance in his] lower half [of his body]Bring your hands back and try to stay back instead of leaking forward,” McNeil said. “They were very small, but we saw a big difference.”
McNeil hit a line drive to left field for an RBI single, scoring Brett Batty and putting the Mets up 2-1.
“He won the batting championship not too long ago,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of McNeil. “…You’re going to go through ups and downs, and there’s going to be more.” [up] than down. These guys will get it done. We’ve started to see more of that from McNeil in the past few games. that’s nice. ”
All three of McNeil’s hit songs on Friday night were singles.
Two of them went in the opposite direction to the left field, and the other went to center field. Especially he didn’t pull any of them.
This is evidence of backing away, as McNeil said was a point of emphasis.
When that doesn’t work, he often strays away from being a good contact hitter who can pull the ball and use the entire field.
As of Friday, McNeil was pulling the ball on 43.8 percent of the balls he played this year, according to FanGraphs.
This is the second highest result of his career.
But he seems to be getting back to what he does best.
“That’s what he is: a line drive hitter,” Mendoza said. “And he’s going to go a different route. We’ve seen that throughout the lineup.”
