Jason Bay has been fooled before.
There have been times when he has had a brief run of success at the plate with the Mets and thought he finally had broken out of a slump — only to fall back into another one almost immediately.
“The tendency that I’ve had — and I’ve talked to [hitting coach Dave Hudgens] about it — is I get to a point where I’m feeling comfortable and then all of a sudden a week goes by and I’m not satisfied, so I start changing things,” Bay said.
“I think I need to start driving the ball instead of just letting it happen and then I get away from what was finally getting me going,” Bay added. “I think even when I have three hits, it’s not good enough, because it’s two singles and a little double.”
So Bay winds up swinging for the fences and falling into bad old habits and creating new ones.
Bay is entering a three-game series against the Braves — which could well be the Mets’ last-gasp effort to salvage this season — on a bit of a hot streak and he is trying to avoid the same mistakes he has made in the past.
“I’m really trying to force myself to stay settled down and be a hitter,” Bay said. “I just have to let things happen instead of forcing them. I know I’m becoming a better hitter with what I’m doing. I just have to stay with it. That’s what the fight is all about. It’s not hard . . . it’s tiresome.”
It’s tiresome mainly because not much has changed in Bay’s time with the Mets.
He is on a six-game hitting streak in which he is batting 10-for-23 (.450), and has five extra-base hits in his last nine games, but Bay is still hitting just .239 with seven homers and 37 RBI, along with a measly eight doubles. Those are a far cry from the power numbers Bay used to put up annually.
“The first part of my career, I just hit,” Bay said. “I realized that I was not perfect and there were some things hitting-wise that I didn’t do. But the things I did do negated that.”
Unfortunately for Bay and the Mets, he’s not doing those things anymore.
“I’ve always struck out 150-160 times a year,” Bay said. “That’s the kind of hitter I am. All of a sudden, since I’m not hitting 30 home runs, I’m trying to make everything perfect, so I don’t strike out as much. I’m OK with having holes in my swing if I’m producing, but since I’ve been here, I haven’t done that — so I’m not afforded the opportunity to just go up and swing.”
He showed a glimpse of what the Mets expected to see more of on Monday, when he sent a towering shot over the wall in right-center field for just his third homer of the season at Citi Field.
“Over the last couple of weeks, I feel like I’ve done a better job hitting to the opposite field,” Bay said. “Kind of the way David [Wright] did his first year here.”
And he’s hoping he doesn’t overthink his way into trouble again.
“One thing I’ve learned after a year and a half of having a lot more downs than ups and not getting many results: Sometimes you’ve got to adjust,” Bay said. “And for me, that means keeping things simple. Now I just have to do it.”