Just about everything has improved for Jose Reyes. He feels better at the plate, he’s seeing the ball better, he’s taking better swings and he’s got better timing. And he’s carrying himself with more of a swagger.
Reyes is scorching hot, exploding after his miserable start, and he continued to return to form last night. The shortstop racked up three hits, scored the first run and drove in the other two in the Mets’ 3-0 shutout of the Phillies.
Think Reyes is in a groove? He has five straight multi-hit games and six in his last seven. He hasn’t struck out in his last eight games and he’s got 14 hits in his last 32 at-bats, a .438 clip.
“That’s the way we’re expecting him to play,” Francisco Rodriguez said. “He’s the engine of the offense, the engine of the team. . . . He’s the key.”
In the three-game sweep of the Phillies, Reyes went 8-for-13 with a homer, five RBIs, five runs and two steals.
How much better is Reyes feeling at the plate compared to a week or two ago? Said the Mets’ sparkplug, “Much, much, much better.” That’s plenty.
“I think [I am] just seeing the ball a lot better,” Reyes said. “I was aggressive before. Now I think I put better swings on the ball. . . . My timing was all over the place. Now I feel like I have my timing back.”
Reyes can tie his career high tonight when it comes to multi-hit streaks — he did it in six straight games during his 2003 rookie year.
“He’s got a little more of that swagger,” Jason Bay said. “He comes every day with that energy, but it’s more the swagger, the confidence I didn’t see early on.”
Added Jerry Manuel, “I just think it took time. The fact he had missed so much time and even though we see the things he’s capable of doing in batting practice, in the field, there’s still a certain period you have to adjust to the rhythm of the game.”