The Mets’ biggest hit might have come after their comeback was already complete.
Yoenis Cespedes entered the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s game against the Nationals even deeper in his season-long slump, having gone 0-for-3, and was now holding a .194 average for the year. With strikeouts in his previous two at-bats, he’d reached as many strikeouts (29) in the first 17 games of the season as he did in the first 45 games last year.
But the best Mets hitter left the inning finally looking like it, helping spark a nine-run eighth-inning, and showing what may be the first signs of his long-awaited breakout in an 11-5 comeback win at Citi Field.
With the Mets trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Michael Conforto led off the frame with a single off of Ryan Madson. Cespedes opened his at-bat by fouling off two pitches, and then connected on a 97 mph pitch for a single to keep the rally going.
Cespedes scored the tying run on a Todd Frazier single, and returned to the plate later in the inning with the bases loaded, and the Mets leading 7-4.
Reliever A.J. Cole came in from the bullpen to face Cespedes and got ahead with an 0-2 count, but the Cuban slugger fouled off a slider, before tattooing a shot to left field for a grand slam. It was his fourth homer of the season.
“Even before this game, every at-bat I get, if I strike out or don’t strike out, I have to prepare for that at-bat, and it’s a new at-bat,” Cespedes said through a translator. “I have to forget about what happened before.”
It was the Mets’ third grand slam this season, and Cespedes’ sixth of his career. His five with the Mets — his most recent had come June 10 — is now one short of Mike Piazza’s franchise record.
For his career, Cespedes is batting .463 (25-for-54) with the bases loaded, with 71 RBIs. And despite his struggles early this season, his 17 RBIs are tied for second-most in the National League.
And the breakout Cespedes, and everyone else at Citi Field, had been waiting to see may finally have begun.
“I really hope so,” he said.
