David Wright didn’t exactly rip Citi Field, but it’s clear the Mets captain wouldn’t mind a more hitter-friendly ballpark such as Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia or Coors Field in Denver, where the Mets will play their next two series.
The Mets offense did just enough Sunday to make good on a pitching gem from Dillon Gee and beat the Marlins 4-0 to complete a 6-4 homestand. But it sounded very much like Wright was looking forward to going on the road, where the Mets play a two-game series in Philly beginning Tuesday before heading to Denver and Miami.
“The last week or so, I’ve really hit some balls hard,” Wright said after going 1-for-4 with a run-scoring double on Sunday, putting his batting average at .275 with one homer and a team-high 15 RBIs. “Whether it’s the wrong time of the year, the wrong part of the ballpark, whatever it’s been, it seems like I’ve had some good at-bats and hit some balls hard, but don’t have much to show for it.
“Hopefully, when the weather warms up and we stop getting these swirling winds and get on the road and get in some more suitable hitting ballparks, hopefully we’ll start seeing some results.”
The bitter sweetness of Citi Field is it’s built to be a pitcher’s park, which it was for Gee, who threw eight shutout innings before Carlos Torres took care of the ninth. But 375 feet to right center and 358 to the left-field wall have done little to help the Mets offensively.
For the second straight game, Curtis Granderson hit a deep shot to right that might have been out of Yankees Stadium. Wright, meanwhile, belted a hard liner to left in the fifth inning that wound up hitting the bottom of the wall, allowing Granderson to score from first. Otherwise, the Mets — who had six hits — did what they have done most of the season, relying on pitching, defense and clutch hitting to improve to 14-11 on the season.
“I think our situational hitting has been pretty good: getting runners home from third, moving runners over, things that you don’t necessarily see in the box score,” Wright said.
The Mets third baseman flashed his glove as well as his bat Sunday. With the Mets up 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning, Marlins cleanup hitter Casey McGehee hit a pop-up left of the third-base foul line. Wright gave chase, heading straight for the rolled-up tarp against the concrete wall just beyond the visiting dugout.
Wright slid with his back to the field and made a terrific over-the-shoulder catch for the second out.
“It was a panic slide because you don’t want to go barreling into that tarp,” he said.
Pitching and defense is how the Mets will win most of their games this season, but they would like to get more out of their at-bats.
Manager Terry Collins said Wright “hit five balls in this series that in a lot of places are going to be home runs or extra-base hits.” He also said Granderson’s long fly out in the seventh inning would have been a home run in Yankee Stadium.
“That’s the sixth or seventh ball that he’s hit that’s been caught that across town is a point,” he said. “That’s some of the stuff you have to deal with playing in this park.”
It was encouraging to see Gee work into the eighth inning, but the Mets know the offense must establish some consistency in order to stay competitive throughout the long season.
“At some point we’re going to need to take some of the pressure off of [the pitchers] where they don’t have to necessarily feel like they have to be perfect to win a game,” Wright said. “At some point these guys are going to give up some runs and we’re going to have to pick them up the way they’ve picked us up.”
The best chance of doing that might be away from Citi Field.