In 1964, when a Met fan was told the team scored 19 runs, he responded, “Did they win?” In 2016, if someone tells you the Mets scored 12 runs, you can now ask, “in an inning?”
Not only did the Mets put up 12 runs in the third inning of yesterday’s 13-1 win over the Giants, but they scored the first eight runs without a homer. Much of the Mets’ scoring this season has relied on the home run, and it’s good to see the team can also score when the ball is not flying out of the park. But I’m certainly not complaining about topping off the inning with a grand slam, especially when it’s from Yoenis Cespedes on his first day back in the lineup.
Yesterday, I wrote about how Michael Fulmer, the top prospect the Mets sent to Detroit in the Cespedes deal, was making his major-league debut, and how great it was that the Mets had not given him up for just a two-month rental of Cespedes. Fulmer got the win, going five innings and allowing two runs, seven hits, and one walk while striking out four. He beat another former top prospect, former Yankee Phil Hughes.
Cespedes may not have even known that Fulmer was making his debut, and if he did, he probably didn’t care. But talk about rising to the occasion with a two-run single and the grand slam for six RBI in one inning.
As in last season’s pennant push, Cespedes is not a one-man wrecking crew. The Mets have three players hitting over .300 with at least a .950 OPS – Cespedes, Michael Conforto, and Neil Walker – and Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting over .300. But with David Wright a shell of his former self – .236 BA and 29 strikeouts, second worst in the NL – Cespedes sets the tone. Fortunately, the Mets still have him for at least one more year.
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