Maybe this is the solution for Jeff McNeil: You don’t have to run very hard if you’re just circling the bases.
Nursing a fatigued left leg that forced him out of the lineup last Friday and Saturday, McNeil is clearly not 100 percent, but his bat looked pretty healthy again as he homered and doubled while extending his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games in the Mets’ 12-5 loss to the Braves at Citi Field on Tuesday night.
“He is hitting everywhere, from line to line right now,” manager Luis Rojas said after McNeil went 2-for-5 with a home run to right-center and a double down the left-field line. “His power — he’s trusting it to the big parts of the field or the gaps.”
McNeil, who pushed himself Monday in ensuring he reached second on an off-the-wall double, then had to be replaced by a pinch runner, had a nice game Tuesday. Even a great game, however, would not have mattered as the Braves blasted Jerad Eickhoff immediately, draining any drama from the result by the fourth inning. Still, in a Mets lineup that has dipped in production recently, McNeil is showing signs he is capable of carrying the club, as he has in spurts since he came up in 2018.
Since going 0-for-4 on July 1, McNeil has fattened his batting average from .226 to .271. During this 14-game tear, the 29-year-old is 17-for-47 (.362) with two homers, four doubles and one bad leg.
The Mets have been vague about the issues that are affecting the same leg he injured in May, when cramping became a hamstring strain that kept him out about five weeks. They have said his leg is fatigued, and he was removed after his double Monday, which drove in the only run of a 1-0 Mets victory. He also had pinch hit an RBI double in his return Sunday, too, underscoring how important the No. 2 hitter is to the lineup.
On Tuesday, the Mets were not close enough for his bat to matter, but it still represented a rare bright spot.
Facing Charlie Morton, whom the Mets had not been able to touch this season (a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings entering play), McNeil turned a fifth-inning, 96 mph fastball into a two-run shot into the Braves’ bullpen in right-center. That made a dent in what had been a 10-1 game and allowed McNeil to coast, rather than sprint, on the basepaths.
McNeil should have tacked on another hit, but second baseman Ozzie Albies made a trampoline-like leap to rob him in the seventh. In the ninth, McNeil perfectly placed one down the left-field line, bouncing it into the stands for a double. In doing so, he became the 56th player in franchise history to record at least 100 multi-hit games with the Mets — in just his 310th game.
With a bit more than two months left to the regular season, the Mets are cognizant of McNeil’s leg, which is still hampering him.
“We’re going to keep talking to him, and I’ll keep having my eyes on him,” Rojas said.
The Mets need him in an offense that has scored 17 runs in six games. It is a different lineup without Francisco Lindor and with a struggling Michael Conforto, who went 2-for-4 Tuesday in an encouraging sign.
Pete Alonso had carried the club coming out of the All-Star break, and McNeil is displaying he can carry some that slack, too — at least on days when the pitching allows the bats to matter.