The Met offense will be a key factor as they continue to see starting pitchers go to the sidelines with injuries. Before the game last night, the Mets found out that David Peterson would be sent to the injured list forcing Corey Oswalt to make the start.
And the Met offense responded as Brandon Nimmo crushed an early home run and Amed Rosario, whose offense had been struggling, had a big night driving in 3 runs with a homer and a based loaded single and both were the topic of conversation in the Mets post-game Zoom press conference.
Nimmo has the unique way in which he approaches at bats as his patience has been well documented in the amount of walks he receives but that patience also allows him to be aggressive when pitchers try to get ahead in the count early so he does not walk or more properly run to first as he does after a base on balls. “It is part of the ebb and flow of the game”, says Nimmo,”and I know that in certain situations pitchers might try to get ahead and that helps me be aggressive in those situations.”
Watching Nimmo I can tell you he has a very aggressive bat in those situations and we saw that last night as he homered, tripled and poked an RBI single in 3 of his at bats where he used that approach.
Rosario has struggled early in the season and there were 2 reasons for that—he was swinging at too many pitches in the dirt and not opening up his front shoulder when swinging at inside fastballs. Last night, he really looked good at the plate like he did in the second half of last year as he crushed an inside pitch out of the ballpark and took an outside pitch later in the game to right center which plated 2 insurance runs for the Mets.
When Rosario uses those 2 tactics at the plate, he could be a very dangerous hitter as he proved in the second half of last season. I also think to a certain extent, he might be feeling a little pressure from how well Gimenez is playing which may have given him some added motivation.
Having both of these players contribute heavily for the offense will help so much as we saw last night. Combined with the hitting of Michael Conforto, Robinson Cano and a revitalized Pete Alonso–not to mention JD Davis who also homered last night will make their offense sing. The last 2 nights the Mets have gotten tons of hits but more importantly 13 of them have been EXTRA base hits. And that is what this offense can do when it is operating on all cylinders.
I am sure Jacob deGrom hopes that trend continues tonight in Miami.