Terry Collins was kidding. Sort of.
He has a solution for the Mets hitting woes at Citi Field. This ballpark is a nightmare for his hitters.
“We’re going to move in the fences about 25 feet,’’ Collins said before Wednesday’s 4-0 loss to the Yankees when asked how the Mets could continue their home run onslaught against the Yankees.
The combination of Masahiro Tanaka and their own ballpark was too much for the Mets to handle. This was the Yankees first Subway Series win after six straight losses to the Mets.
Tanaka was spectacular, pitching a complete game, four-hitter and even picked up his first major league hit as he struck out eight.
Afterwards, Collins said this about the frustration of Citi Field.
“You asked me about the home run barrage. We hit three home runs tonight, we were just in the wrong park,’’ Collins noted of balls hit deep for outs by David Wright, Daniel Murphy and Curtis Granderson.
Cavernous Citi Field is not Home, Sweet, Home, and those long balls were only outs as Mets fans in the crowd of 35,577 groaned.
All you had to do was look at the home and road averages of some of the Mets to understand moving in the fences once was not enough.
Do it again, Mets, move in the fences more.
Lucas Duda came in hitting .196 at home with three home runs. On the road he is batting .333 with one home run. Chris Young was batting .184 at home with two home runs and .294 on the road with one homer. Granderson was hitting .141 at home with one home run and is hitting .279 on the road with four home runs — two of those coming in those previous two games at Yankee Stadium. Wednesday night’s starting catcher Anthony Recker was batting .160 at home with no home runs and .353 on the road with two home runs.
Wright, who has lost more than his share of home runs at Citi Field through the years, had his 11-game hitting streak snapped, but he came in batting .303 with two home runs at home.
As much as the Mets say it is not, Citi Field is in their hitters’ heads. Believe it.
“This is a different park,’’ Collins said. “We’ve got a lot more wind over here than Yankee Stadium because of the water and there are other factors. This is a big place.’’
The ball just doesn’t carry here while it jets out of Yankee Stadium.
The Mets scored 21 runs in the two games at Yankee Stadium to move all the way to fourth in the NL in runs with 163. And were shut out their first game back home against the spectacular Tanaka, who improved to 6-0.
Over the last two seasons the Mets are 42-59 at home and 51-49 on the road. That says it all.
This year they have hit 13 home runs at home and 15 on the road.
Sandy Alderson is trying to look on the bright side of all this.
“I think we’ve played pretty well at home [this year] given our history here,’’ Alderson said of the Mets 9-11 mark at Citi. “Our hitters have reconciled themselves [with Citi Field]. I sit at Yankee Stadium and say, ‘Gee, if we bring in our fences another 10 feet it would be fun.’ I think what’s important is that our team understands the environment, reconciles itself and figures out a way to take advantage of it … you can’t deny that they enjoyed the last few days.’’
But when you have to “reconcile’’ being back home, that is not good.
Wright was asked before the game if the Mets could continue their longball ways.
“I hope so, we’ll find out in a couple of hours,’’ he said.
After his first at-bat he realized he was back home where the big fly dies.
So does the batting average and on this night, so did a Subway Series win streak against the Yankees.
Welcome home, Mets.