Andres Chavez
The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-7 on Opening Day on Thursday afternoon. Scoring 11 runs against a Paul Skenes-led pitching staff is perhaps more impressive than the win itself.
It wasn’t Skenes’ day, that’s for sure. And a couple of misplayed balls by makeshift center fielder Oneil Cruz certainly didn’t help the Pirates and aided the Mets’ chances. But New York’s revamped lineup had an excellent game because it was willing to let Pittsburgh’s pitchers work.
Basically, power and patience were the reasons behind the offense’s excellent game. The stats, as always, back up this statement.
A Patient Approach Paid Off On Thursday
“The Mets made the Pirates throw 192 pitches in eight innings of work yesterday. That 24 pitches per inning is more than they saw across any game last season,” SNY Mets posted with data provided by The Athletic’s Will Sammon.
The offense logged 11 runs and 11 hits on Thursday, and four of them went for extra bases: a double by Marcus Semien, a triple by Brett Baty, and home runs that came courtesy of Francisco Alvarez and Carson Benge. The exciting rookie also stole a base to keep them guessing.
That’s not all. The Mets also walked nine times, which is a very impressive total. They did strike out 10 times, but that’s going to happen. As long as they keep swinging the bat like they did on Thursday and getting on base, they will be fine.
Sometimes, aggressiveness at the plate pays off. Swinging at the first pitch is, in fact, a solid strategy in many cases. However, the most important thing to do at the end of the day is laying off the bad pitches, getting nice counts to hit, and take advantage of the hittable strikes with aggressive swings.
A Deep Lineup Will Cause Problems For Every Pitching Staff
That was the Mets’ approach on Thursday, and it paid off. The offense was not only deep, with eight of the nine starters getting on base at least once, but it was relentless and powerful. It was patient from top to bottom, and they are now reaping the benefits.
More tests are going to be coming in the next few days and weeks, but make no mistake: the Mets’ renewed offense is looking very good. Yes, it doesn’t have proven sluggers like Pete Alonso or Brandon Nimmo, but the unit has a little bit of everything: contact, power, patience, and hitting IQ.
When everything is said and done, the Mets are going to be fighting for important things, and it will be, in large part, because of their solid offense.
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