Back in the olden days when the New York Mets seemed to only score runs by accident, David Wright coming back from a long injury absence and immediately going yard would have been a major storyline.
But not on Monday night. In a 16-7 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, Wright returning to hit his first home run since April made him just another face in the crowd. And that, of course, is yet another great sign for an offense that's been mass-producing them lately.
If you missed Monday's action, you missed the Mets hitting not one, not two, not three...[skips ahead]...but eight home runs to set a new franchise single-game record. To look at each of them in succession would take too long, so here's a helpful GIF straight from the Amazins:
Thanks mostly to those eight homers, the Mets easily erased a rare clunker by ace right-hander Jacob deGrom, who lasted just 2.2 innings and gave up seven runs (six earned). More importantly, they pushed their lead in the NL East to 5.5 games over the idle Washington Nationals.
For the Nationals, closing a gap like that with precious few weeks remaining in the 2015 season wasn't going to be easy to begin with. But now, it could be that much more difficult, as it looks like the Mets may have their captain back.
That was the message Wright sent in the top of the second inning, anyway, as his first major league hack since April 14 resulted in a bit of kaboom-age that looked like this:
According to Baseball Savant's Daren Willman, Wright's dinger was 108 mph off the bat and traveled 428 feet. That made it certainly the louder of the two hits he collected in his return from a troublesome back condition, and he also tallied a walk.
Afterward, the veteran third baseman was understandably giddy, telling Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com, "You watch it on TV and now to be a part of it, you understand that this team seems to be on a mission. I’m glad to be a part of it."
Now, this admittedly could be the end of the positive vibes for Wright. One good game doesn't equal a hot streak for anybody, least of all a guy who just spent four months on the disabled list. Besides, who knows how Wright's back is going to act over the next few weeks?
But in times like these, you can't help but ponder "what if?" Wright's explosive comeback was a reminder that he's a darn good hitter when he's healthy. And if that's what the Mets are in store for, an offense that once had opposing pitchers champing at the bit should now have them quaking in their boots.
We don't need to go very far back in history to find a time when the Mets offense was as threatening as a declawed kitten. Through the end of July, the Mets were scoring just 3.54 runs per game.
But now? Yeah, that all seems like a distant memory.
Even before the Mets dropped 16 runs on the Phillies, they had been putting all other National League teams to shame over the last 30 days. They were leading all NL clubs in runs (149) and slugging (.475), and were second to only the Chicago Cubs in home runs (42).
An explanation? Probably the easiest to point to is the arrival of Yoenis Cespedes.
After collecting two more hits (including a homer) on Monday night, Cespedes is now batting .312 with six home runs since coming over in a deadline-day trade with the Detroit Tigers, and you could swear that he brought a special blend of Kool-Aid that he doesn't mind sharing. In August, Mets skipper Terry Collins has gone from having a shortage of capable hitters to an excess of them:
Note: These figures haven't been updated to include Monday's game.
We've all heard the notion that hitting is contagious. And while the jury is still out on whether that's actually true, there's no shortage of circumstantial evidence in favor of the idea. If nothing else, what we're watching is the Mets adding to the pile.
Of course, given what we know about how this team was doing before all this, it's only natural to worry that a harsh market correction might be awaiting the Mets in September. But while worrying about that is easy, actually anticipating one is surprisingly difficult.
For one, there's the fact that the Mets offense is a different animal than it was even as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Between Cespedes, Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson and now Wright, it's a deeper unit now than it's been at any point all season.
Secondly, the Mets aren't going to stop enjoying the easy schedule that's helped feed their scorching offense. As Grantland's Jonah Keri noted on Monday, the Mets' remaining opponents have an aggregate winning percentage of .440. No other team in baseball has it so easy down the stretch.
If anything, the big concern in Queens these days may be the one that Bob Nightengale of USA Today hinted at:
As silly as it seems to worry about a pitching staff that ranks third in MLB with a 3.31 ERA, there are cracks. Or, at least, signs of cracks. Maybe deGrom's clunker is nothing to worry about, but ultra-talented rookie Noah Syndergaard has a 4.88 ERA in August and the decision to rest Matt Harvey could backfire. Maybe the Mets won't keep enjoying the same dominant pitching they've enjoyed all year.
But even if that ends up being the case, the Mets may still be able to avoid Mets'ing things up.
After all, a 5.5-game lead counts as a big lead in this year's MLB landscape, and the Nationals don't seem at all interested (or capable, for that matter) in erasing it on their own accord. And when you have an offense that can bludgeon opponents into tiny bits, dominant pitching becomes a luxury.
That's a point that the Mets have been demonstrating pretty steadily over the last few weeks, and Wright's involvement was the exclamation point on their latest demonstration. By now, the baseball world should be getting the message that this isn't the Mets offense of the olden days.
If not, well, the season's not over yet, and this Mets offense isn't going anywhere.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.
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