David Wright likes to follow the lead of Met veterans like Carlos Delgado. Last night was no different.
After watching Delgado’s fourth-inning, three-run home run off Aaron Small from the on-deck circle, Wright followed with a mammoth 445-foot blast of his own, which turned out to be the decisive run in the 4-3 victory over the Yankees.
“That was like a $20 cab fare. That ball was far,” Delgado joked of Wright’s blast.
The Yankees had broken a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth with two runs, so Delgado’s three-run homer, his 15th, was crucial. After Paul Lo Duca’s single to center and Carlos Beltran’s single to left, Delgado mashed a first-pitch, 89 mph fastball over the right-field fence.
“I guess in a way, my thinking is to keep the line moving,” Delgado said. “You don’t want to go out there and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to hit a home run,’ or whatever it is.
“It usually doesn’t happen like that. You’ve just got to bear down and say: ‘Let me get a pitch that I can drive.’ ”
Wright (1-for-4) doesn’t usually drive the ball well over 400 feet. But he turned on a high, inside 1-and-1 delivery from Small and launched it over the visiting bullpen in left for his sixth homer of the year, a tape-measure clout that gave his team a two-run lead.
“There’s not too many that I get right off the bat that I know are gone, but that was one of them,” Wright said. “I just put a nice, easy swing on it.”
Said Delgado: “I’ve said all along this kid has a lot of potential. He’s got a quick bat, and he hit that ball a long way.
“I’m a big fan of home runs. That was a nice one.”
One of the team’s young cornerstones, Wright is blossoming by the day. Friday’s game-winning hit off Mariano Rivera in the opener of the Subway Series was the latest example of his clutch ability, and he took a .314 average and 27 RBIs into last night’s Subway Series finale.
But Wright sees his older teammates as the catalyst for a sea change in the clubhouse and on the field, saying players like Delgado “bring a winning swagger with them.”
“He’s so approachable,” Wright said. “Everybody knows what he does on the field.
“It seems like he always finds a way to get the big hit. He’s not only great on the field, he’s even more crucial to this team in the clubhouse with the way he carries himself.”
