WHERE’S THE hitting? That’s the obvious question everyone is asking at Shea. A more appropriate question might be, where is the arrogance?
The Mets are a lifeless bunch right now and it’s not just because they can’t buy a hit. They are going through the motions and yesterday’s three hours and 23 minutes of futility against a mediocre Reds team that resulted in a 3-1 loss was a perfect example of how this team cannot play the game.
The Mets are not so good that they will get an automatic invite back to the post-season. That trip has to be earned.
When the Braves are the opponent, the Mets’ testosterone level immediate rises and so does their game, but against everyone else this year the Mets are 0-6. In 27 innings against the Reds at home the Mets never led. Not one solitary inning.
The last two games they managed all of one run against Chris Reitsma and Jim Brower and that was unearned. That’s not exactly Maddux and Smoltz, they were facing. Yes, the Mets are in a hitting funk (four runs in 47 innings), but they’ve allowed that malaise to creep into their style of play. No time over the last three days did the Mets walk with the confidence that they are the defending National League champions.
There was no arrogance, no swagger to their play.
With one out they loaded the bases in the first inning and Edgardo Alfonzo was ahead 3-0 in the count. Brower came back to strike out Alfonzo, who has been in the throes of a dreadful slump since the LCS ended, and the Mets immediately dropped their heads. This is not the same approach they took last October when they constantly bounced back from adversity before running into the Yankees’ buzz saw. The Mets have been trying so hard to keep their emotions in check, because we all know the cliche that this is a marathon, not a sprint, that they are sleepwalking against anyone who doesn’t have the words Braves on their chest.
It’s not that the Mets aren’t playing hard. It’s not that they aren’t working overtime trying to correct their ridiculous batting slump, it’s just that they have no edge to them right now.
The slump they are battling is emotional as much as it is with the white ash in their hands. At this point, the flashiest thing about them is Shinjo’s orange wrist bands.
“I think we’re all feeling lousy collectively at the plate,” is the way Mike Piazza put it.
Piazza admitted that when Alfonzo went down swinging in the first some of the air came out of the Mets. Mark Johnson followed with a tapper back to the mound. It was as if at that moment this game was vapor-sealed into the loss column.
The handy excuse is injuries to outfielders Timo Perez and Benny Agbayani. Losing Agbayani is a legitimate hardship, for he has the knack for the big hit and always plays with emotion. Perez was off to an electric start, batting, .385, but he still has to prove that he can handle major league pitching. Yankee scouts detected a huge hole in his swing as he batted .125 in the Series.
Too much already has been made of Shinjo. Yes, he’s hitting .314, but don’t overlook the fact that Perez’ .286 lifetime Japanese League average is 37 points higher than Shinjo’s. Shinjo looked overmatched in his first three at-bats yesterday as he was moved into the leadoff spot. He doubled in the seventh off Mark Wohlers, but never came around to score. Part of that was bad timing as he tried to steal third on Todd Zeile’s long fly to right for out No. 1. Instead of tagging up, Shinjo had to hustle back to second and he never advanced beyond third as the Reds later walked Piazza and got Alfonzo to hit a weak fly to center to end the threat.
If The Slump continues, the Mets might be better served to bring up top prospect Alex Escobar, who is off to a solid start at Triple-A Norfolk, batting .306.
New hitting coach Dave Engle has been working long hours trying to awaken his hitters. Engle has one of baseball’s worst jobs. Players get the credit when they are hot and everyone looks to the hitting coach for answers when slumps occur.
“Dave’s a great guy,” Piazza said. “The buck has to stop here with the players.”
Engle literally comes from the Ted Williams school of hitting. Engle’s father Roy was a childhood friend of Williams in San Diego and ran the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, Mass., for 18 years. From the time Dave was three years old, he chilled with the hitting guru. He joked yesterday that he was waiting for a call from Williams.
“Everybody’s pressing and that creates a little bit of tension in the swing,” Engle said.
That tension needs to be replaced by confidence. The Mets are defending NL champs. It’s time they all start acting like it.
