Optimism reigned supreme last night at Shea Stadium. Perhaps the Mets are just in a state of delusion, considering their .223 team batting average.
But here was the good news. Guess what opponents are hitting against the Mets? That’s right, .223.
“It’ll get better,” General Manager Steve Phillips said before the hitless-wonder Mets took on the Expos at Shea Stadium. “Today’s the day. If not today, then tomorrow.”
And that is exactly how the Mets are handling the Great Slump of ’01.
Like fishermen trapped in a high-seas storm, they’re riding it out. There’s nothing else they can do. When you’ve scored only three earned runs over the last 47 innings and Tsuyoshi Shinjo is your right fielder instead of Gary Sheffield, that’s life. The good news for the Mets is that their pitching has been terrific in the first 12 games of the season, and no one has been more masterful than last night’s starter, Rick Reed.
Reed was coming off two complete games, but only had a 1-1 record to show for his 1.50 ERA. He faced Mike Thuman, who was also 1-1, but owned a 6.00 ERA.
Cracked Phillips, “Our pitching has been good, I don’t see anybody writing that.”
The Mets rank first in complete games (2) and sixth in ERA at 3.18. Reed has more complete games than every other team in the majors, except the Tigers. Here’s one of the most impressive statistic. Opponents are hitting .117 against Reed. Only Hideo Nomo’s .100 opponents’ batting average is better.
As for batting average, the Mets went into last night’s game batting .182 over the last five games. Some other ugly numbers:
In their losses, the Mets are batting .175 with runners in scoring position, but in their wins the Mets are hitting .395 with runners in scoring position. In their last 165 at-bats the Mets have managed only one home run.
Everywhere you went in the Mets clubhouse there were different theories for the struggles.
“We just have to relax,” Phillips said. Bobby Valentine thought that perhaps the Mets have just run into a string of pitchers with exceptional changeups.
As Valentine noted, changeup pitchers early in the year can really create a hole in your head as well as your swing. “Pitchers with very good changeups probably are the toughest pitchers to hit early in the season,” the manager noted. “Guys with the good changeups often make the team [in spring training] and then get sent down to the minor leagues in May.
“That changeup is a tough pitch, it can really throw off your timing,” Valentine said.
Of course, Valentine is saying a lot of that because he’s trying to protect his hitters. The bottom line is that the Mets stink right now.
The Mets timing has been thrown off. Check out some of these numbers. Edgardo Alfonzo went into last night’s game batting .109. Darryl Hamilton was batting .103 – and that earned him the leadoff spot last night.
In fact, Alfonzo and Hamilton were batting a combined .106, which was 19 points lower than the Mets’ pitching staff was hitting. Met pitchers were batting .125, 3-for-24. Alfonzo was hitting .109, 5-for-46. Hamilton was hitting .103, 3-for-29.
Want more? Todd Zeile was at .175. Jay Payton was soaring at .222. Jorge Toca, Desi Relaford and Todd Pratt were all looking for their first hit and were a combined 0-for-18. Reed, by the way, was not only pitching magic on the mound, but he was batting .333.
The Mets, as the free world knows, were also looking for their first victory of the year against a team not named the Braves. They were 0-6 against the rest of the league and that’s why they were in last place.
First-year batting coach Dave Engle is taking an optimistic approach, saying that hard work will bring good results. Engle stood around the batting cage before last night’s game looking much like a Little League father at his son’s game. You can just see it in his words and face that he desperately wants his hitters to succeed.
Engle is a Ted Williams disciple. For 18 years his father ran the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, Mass.
“Ted would just say, look for a ball that you can hit and get a good swing on it” Engle said. “It’s not just one or two guys who aren’t hitting. This whole team is looking to bust out. The pinch-hitters are looking to bust out. The pitchers are looking to be the guy who shuts the other team out so we can win a couple of games. Every game has been very close where one hit and boom. We just haven’t gotten that hit, but it’s a new day, we just have to come ready to go.
“It’s a little early-season tester for myself as well as everyone on the team,” Engle added. “How we go through this as a group, these are some of the threads that are woven in for the future of this team.
“It seems like the snake that has bit us is a pretty big good-sized snake – but that’s just about as much venom as you can take.”