PHILADELPHIA — Here’s a reality — maybe a half-truth — that Mets followers is not going to wish to learn:
In clutch conditions, Mets batters have been unfortunate.
Getting into play Saturday, the Mets’ batting common on balls in play (BABIP) — basically a measure of how typically they’ve discovered holes or grass — with runners on second and/or third was .236, the worst in baseball and never notably near the remainder of the pack: No. 29 was the White Sox at .254.
Their poor outcomes haven’t arisen as a result of they haven’t made strong contact; the Mets’ common 90 mph exit velocity in such conditions registered as third-best within the sport.
In Friday’s series-opening dud towards the Phillies, the Mets loaded the bases with one out within the first inning and Jeff McNeil smoked a pitch at 98.5 mph off his bat — straight at second baseman Bryson Stott, who started a double play.
Examine that .215 batting common with RISP with the .254 anticipated batting common; their .299 on-base share with RISP with their .338 anticipated on-base share; their .386 slugging share with RISP with their .445 anticipated slugging share.
Can the Mets chalk up an issue that has persevered all season — an absence of well timed hits and a normal lack of clutchness — to the type of unsustainably poor fortune that may naturally change because the season wears on?
“Yes and no,” co-hitting coach Jeremy Barnes stated earlier than the Mets went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring place in an 11-4, slump-busting victory over the Phillies at Residents Financial institution Park. “It’s onerous to regulate your BABIP. … As soon as it leaves the bat, there’s solely a lot you are able to do about it. So in that side, all we will management in these conditions is our course of and what we’re swinging at and all these sorts of issues.
“We need to be better. I think we’re still giving away a lot of things. But yeah, there’s a level of it just isn’t falling for us.”
The Mets have recognized that their battle to seek out hits on the proper time is, certainly, an issue — they too typically have chased outdoors the strike zone with runners in scoring place.
Mets coaches have felt the extra pressurized at-bats have seemed completely different, maybe a mirrored image of hitters making an attempt to do an excessive amount of.
“We have some guys that are being overly aggressive in certain situations,” Barnes stated. “We have other guys that are maybe not being as [aggressive] … they’re maybe a little bit too passive. But it’s something that we’re paying attention to and we’re addressing.”
Getting into play, the largest offender with runners in scoring place was Juan Soto, who was batting .133 — with a .247 anticipated batting common.
Soto, who has carried out within the World Collection and put collectively his greatest season in his stroll 12 months, isn’t identified for wilting underneath strain. And he didn’t Saturday, when he went 4-for-5 with two homers and got here via with a bases-loaded, two-run single within the eighth.
Earlier than Jesse Winker went down, he was hitting .222 in such conditions with an anticipated batting common of .322. Brandon Nimmo’s precise common in these spots (.234) equally fell far in need of his anticipated (.290).
Francisco Lindor additionally has been a sufferer of poor luck, although he despatched a clutch, two-run double off the right-field wall to pad the Mets’ lead within the sixth.
“It’s kind of a mixed bag — it’s a tricky one right now,” Barnes stated. “We positively wish to be higher. We have to discover a approach to rating extra runs.
“But we got to do that without really changing our identity and overhauling everything and having a negative trade-off.”
