BOSTON — Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso are two of the Mets’ most important bats. So it’s no surprise that their own struggles have correlated with the team’s struggles this season.
However, the club’s homegrown duo has been looking more and more like their old selves over the last week.
McNeil, the 2022 NL batting title winner, is 6-for-24 with two doubles, four runs and four RBI. In Boston alone this weekend, McNeil has gone 3-for-9 with two RBI, both courtesy of the little league home run from Saturday night in the second game of a twin bill against the Red Sox.
“I don’t hit a lot of regular homers,” McNeil joked Saturday night at Fenway Park. “I don’t think I’ve had a little league home run since little league.”
Alonso has gone 5-for-12 with two doubles, a triple, an RBI and three runs over his last three games.
“Pete is playing more to the level that he’s spoiled us with,” said manager Buck Showalter. “You can see it in his face that he’s feeling good about some things. We all know what that could mean to us.”
Getting the type of production the two are typically known for would be a huge boon for the Mets as they try to salvage the season and get back into the playoff race with the Aug. 1 trade deadline nears.
The lack of production from McNeil and Alonso has been puzzling. Alonso was on pace to hit 69 home runs at one point earlier this season and led the league through much of the early part of the season. But even before he went down with a wrist injury in June, Alonso was unhappy with his average, which had been in the .230s, well below his .258 expected batting average.
McNeil was hitting just .248 as of Sunday. He won the batting title last year with a .326 average.
Alonso and McNeil had the same frustration: They were hitting the ball hard, but every hard hit seemed to find a glove. Their individual BaBIP numbers would support that claim. BaBIP — an acronym for batting average on balls in play — measures how often a ball put into play becomes a hit. It’s a metric that takes luck into account as well.
McNeil and Alonso were both putting the balls in play, but getting unlucky when they turned into outs instead. League average is .300, and entering Sunday, McNeil’s BaBIP was .276 and Alonso’s was .193.
“I’ve hit some balls hard but they’ve just been finding gloves,” McNeil said. “It’s tough, so it’s nice to have a few drives and get some big hits for us here.”
There are other factors as well. Some have suggested the shift limitations have hurt McNeil, a contact hitter who has long been known for being able to hit against the shift. Alonso isn’t exactly a three-true-outcomes hitter, but home-run hitters like him typically do tend to strike out a lot and Alonso is no different, although it’s not exactly egregious. His 20.8% strikeout rate in 2023 ranks him in the 49th percentile, which is about average.
As has often been the case this season, the pitching has not matched the hitting. But if the Mets can get Alonso and McNeil hitting the way they typically do, the team will be in a better position to out-hit mistakes and absorb the bullpen blows.