All the experts thought this Met team would be a power hitting lineup that had to hit the long ball to put games in the “W” column and for most of the season that power was sporadic at best. But last night in Miami the Mets got 2 homer nights from both Pete Alonso and Robinson Cano powering their way to a 11-4 win in the opener of their 4 game series in Southern Florida,
Robinson Cano has been through so much since coming over to the Mets in a trade with the Seattle Mariners and spent the off-season working on his game so his bat would return in Year 2 as a Met. And looking up at the league leaders this morning there are only two .400 hitters in the National League and one of them is Cano who sits at ..412 as he has continued his torrid hitting despite spending 10 days on the injured list.
He is hitting the ball with authority and he has ALWAYS been a geat breaking ball hitter which we have seen in grand fashion this season. “Last year was a tough year”, says Cano, “but this is a new year and all I want is to help this team make the playoffs.”
Cano’s teammate Pete Alonso also had a 2 homer night and that is a great sign for this Met team because if he ignites his long ball bat combined with the solid hitting of both Cano and Michael Conforto this lineup could put the Mets right back in this playoff race,
Alonso is experiencing what many great rookies see in their second season-pitchers develop a game plan to attack weaknesses and for Pete that is swinging at breaking balls in the dirt. But in the last week or so, I have noticed he is laying off those pitches and on this night that forced Marlin pitchers to challenge him in the strike zone which Alonso translated into 2 lunar missiles that sailed out of the ballpark.
Pete Alonso and Robinson Cano are 2 Met hitters fans may want to watch real closely. They are adjusting to the adjustments they are seeing from opponents in that pitcher-hitter cat and mouse game. These 2 players could transform this team in a hurry and we saw a illustration of that concept in Miami on Monday Night.