The New York Mets badly needed a big hit after the Minnesota comeback last night, and Bo Bichette supplied it.
The New York Mets have won two games in a row, but they definitely took the hard road to do it. The Mets started a pitcher who couldn’t throw strikes, then blew a 7-2 lead, but at the end of the night it was Bo Bichette who finally had his New York moment with a bases-clearing double that turned a 7-7 tie into a 10-8 win.
"I think he’s been looking for that moment, especially here at home,” manager Carlos Mendoza said in an article by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “Meaningful for him to do it in front of our fan base.”
Those fans had to watch a boatload of bad baseball to get to Bichette’s heroics in the bottom of the eighth. Starter Christian Scott walked five, balked and hit a batter, but somehow the Mets were only down 1-0 when he was pulled and Brett Baty hit a three-run homer to erase the deficit.
The Mets went on to romp to a 7-2 lead, but some bad bullpen work by Craig Kimbrel and Huascar Brazelban allowed the Twins to come back to tie the game in the eighth. That set the stage for the struggling Bichette to line a high slider to left center to give the Mets the lead.
"It didn’t feel like it to me,” Bichette said when asked about the location of Anthony Banda’s first pitch fastball. “It looked like a good pitch to hit.”
Bichette hasn’t done much with those lately, and he knows it. He’s been hearing it from the New York boo birds, based on him signing a $126 million contract that’s come with a slash line of .238/.270/.314 so far.
The Mets new third baseman knows he has to do better, and he’s hoping this is a first step. He’s shown flashes here and there with hits in seven of his eight games, but the expectations in New York are a lot higher for Bichette.
"The desire to help a new team and the desire to just perform at the level you know you can perform at -- I don’t know if any of that was weighing on me, but I definitely still need to get better,” Bichette said. “I’ll make adjustments and get to the player I need to be.”
The Mets need Bichette badly right now. Shortstop Francisco Lindor will be out for an extended stretch with what’s still being called a “calf strain,” while outfielder Juan Soto just returned from the same injury. Bichette was signed to provide production and star power, and this is the exact time for him to step up.