ATLANTA — Luis Guillorme knew it was gone on contact.
“It doesn’t happen very often for me, but I knew on that one,” the infielder said after smashing a leadoff eighth-inning homer Monday against Darren O’Day in the Mets’ 4-1 victory over the Braves.
The shot into the right-field seats extended the Mets’ lead to 3-1, a half-inning after Austin Riley had homered against Max Scherzer to pull the Braves within one run.
Guillorme’s homer was his fourth in 495 career at-bats. Two of those homers have come against the veteran reliever O’Day, in three at-bats against him.
“I think sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Guillorme said.
The Mets have come to expect contributions from Guillorme, both at the plate and on defense. He has emerged as a valuable piece — an almost everyday player — for a team that has survived injuries to starters throughout the season. For this series the Mets are without Jeff McNeil, who was placed on the paternity list before the game.
Luis Guillorme launches a home run in the eighth inning. USA TODAY Sports
As much as Buck Showalter enjoyed Guillorme’s homer, it might have been his second-inning double against Max Fried that more impressed the manager.
“Fried is one of the best left-handed pitchers in the league and just to hit a line drive down the left-field line against a tough left-handed pitcher,” Showalter said.
“Louie has been dialing up just about everything we need, that is why we have been talking about him — we get to see it every day as far as valuable to a team, you can make a case of him being as valuable as anybody for what successes we have had so far. He’s made it easy on me. When we have people down he just gives me a guy I can count on to move around.”
