June 2, 2011, Mets moribund offense story for Metro NYC Newspaper
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One drought ended last night at Citi Field. The other still lives.
The Mets’ 9-3 loss last night marked the 10th time in their last 15 games in which they were unable to score more than three runs. Their 220 runs scored rank 19th in all of baseball. Dating back to May 18, they have been outscored 74-49. They have lost eight of 14 and at 25-30 are in fourth place in the NL East, one game ahead of Washington.
The losing has dovetailed with a power outage, as the Mets had not hit a home run in 10 games before Justin Turner’s solo shot to left field in the eighth. Turner’s homer was the first a Met hit at Citi Field since May 6. The drought was beginning to reach historical proportions as the franchise’s record for consecutive homerless games was 17 in 1980, The MLB record is held by the 1991 St. Louis Cardinals, who went 18 games without a home run.
“I think it is a result of the lineup. I have not seen guys look like they’re over-swinging by any means,” Terry Collins said before the game. “I think the approach has been pretty good.”
But the question, which has become a theme over the past two seasons, is does the park hurt the Mets’ hitters? Citi Field is ranked 23rd out of the 30 MLB parks in terms of offense. Dating back to 2009, Citi Field’s first year of existence, the Mets have only hit 114 home runs in 189 games at their home park.
Collins acknowledged the debate regarding the park’s dimensions and whether the organization should bring in the fences.
“It’s difficult for me to have an opinion on it. As much as I know home runs are important, so is good pitching. I think Sandy, one of the things he brought up last winter was, as we go down the road and not only try to develop our own pitching but go out and try to convince pitchers to come here, one of the attractive features is that ‘your numbers are going to look pretty good in this ballpark,’” Collins said. “There are pros and cons.
“Two nights ago, the catch Angel (Pagan) made (in) right-centerfield, that ball is a home run in three-quarters of the major leagues. The ball Angel hit (Tuesday) night, that’s a home run in a lot of parks. It’s a difficult question. It’ll be the constant battle of ‘should it be smaller so some of our guys can hit homers?’”
Collins mentioned David Wright as a hitter who has been negatively affected by the park. The manager could have also mentioned Jason Bay. The left fielder entered the game with a .242 average, 10 RBI and two homers this season. He went 0-4 with two strikeouts and three left on base, highlighted by an Andrew McCutchen’s first-inning spectacular sliding catch to end a Mets threat.
“Here we go, again,” Bay deadpanned when asked to describe what went through his mind as the play unfolded. “I hit it well and there was a big gap. As I’m running I’m thinking I have an extra-base hit and a RBI. I’m watching him close and I’m watching the ball, and before he even got there, the way things are going for me I kind of figured he was going to catch it. There was a sinking feeling. The whole thing is unfolding in front of me and I can kind of see everything colliding at once and when he slid, I was pretty sure he caught it.”
http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/877855--mets-offense-comes-up-short-in-another-loss
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 12:12 PM
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