PHILADELPHIA – The Mets’ offense has been rolling lately. Richard Hidalgo is hitting. Cliff Floyd is hitting. Kaz Matsui is hitting. Mike Cameron is hitting.
Yep, lots of guys are hitting. But Mike Piazza hasn’t been one of them.
Piazza has been struggling lately, and last night was perhaps his toughest night in a little while. He went 0-for-5 in the Mets’ 5-4 loss to Philly, marking the first time this year he got five at-bats in a game and didn’t get a hit. Still, that wasn’t the worst part.
The worst part was, the Mets’ best and most fearsome hitter stranded five runners.
“Obviously I’m a little frustrated,” Piazza said. “I don’t feel like my bat speed is what it should be. I’ve taken some poor swings the last few nights.”
Piazza is now in a 3-for-23 rut over his last six games, his average dropping from .314 to .300. Twenty-three at-bats is probably not significant enough to qualify this as a bona-fide slump. But it’s certainly not anything like the roll Piazza has been on for most of his All-Star season.
“I’m not swinging the bat the way I should,” he said.
One reason for the mini-funk could be fatigue. While his move to first base has undoubtedly kept him fresher, it’s also kept him in the lineup more than ever. The 35-year-old Piazza has played in all but one of the Mets’ 84 games, and he’s started all but three.
He won’t start tonight in Miami, though, as Art Howe plans to give Piazza the night off in the opener against the Marlins.
“[He] just needs a little blow,” Howe said. “We’re getting in late, so I think it’s a good time to do it.”
Last night, Piazza came up in the first inning with Matsui on second base. His fly ball to right moved Matsui over to third, but didn’t plate him.
In the third inning, with Jose Reyes on second and Matsui on first, Piazza popped to second. With Matsui on first in the fifth, Piazza flew out to right again, hitting the ball harder, before he drove one to the warning track in right in the seventh. In the ninth, against Billy Wagner, Piazza managed just a slow roller to third.
Piazza is also mired in a 57 at-bat homer-less drought, his last bomb coming on June 22 against the Reds. The Mets’ best hitter is overdue.