David Wright’s numbers are symbolic of the power outage that has gripped the Mets lineup.
But the All-Star third baseman said his anemic home-run total isn’t a big deal.
“There have been seasons where I hit 30 home runs and seasons where I have hit 10,” said Wright, who went 3-for-5 with a double in the Mets’ 4-3 loss to the Dodgers Thursday night at Citi Field.
He is batting .293 with two homers and 25 RBIs with a pedestrian .382 slugging percentage.
“It’s not like my whole game revolves around hitting home runs,” said Wright, who also struck out twice, including one that ended the game. “If that was my game, yeah, I would be a little worried. The idea is to be productive.”
Even so, the fact the Mets entered play 14th in the NL with 31 home runs made Wright’s drought more noticeable. Wright homered on Opening Day against the Nationals, and didn’t hit another until May 10 against the Phillies. The drought, which reached 136 at-bats, was the longest of Wright’s major-league career.
And Wright still has not homered on the road.
“The fact he is not hitting into the seats, I can’t [say] except maybe they are pitching him real well,” manager Terry Collins said. “He’s the one guy who stands out in our lineup as the guy you’ve got to get out. We’ve told David to be himself and not try to do anything more than what he’s always done and that’s use the field to hit and he’s hit some balls.”
Wright is making contact: His 25 hits in May were tied for second in the NL, three behind the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig entering play, but 17 were singles.
“I’ve hit some doubles, and the homers hopefully they come,” Wright said. “But it’s not something that I’m going to try to go up there and necessarily try to do something differently, because for me the endgame, the ultimate goal, what I think my role is on this team, is to drive in runs and score runs.
“Can I do a better job of that? Of course, you always can. But I feel the product of my at-bats, if I’m producing I’m happy and obviously homers help that. Hopefully they come, especially once the weather warms up and the ball starts carrying a little bit.”
It hasn’t helped Wright that Curtis Granderson, who hits directly behind him is hitting just .206. But Granderson was also the team leader in homers with six. Lucas Duda (five homers) and Chris Young (three homers) are the other members of the lineup who haven’t brought as much power to the table as the Mets had hoped.
“There are a couple of other guys you have to turn to every once in awhile, and that’s what I told David before: Be a good hitter,” Collins said. “Just be a good hitter and the power will come, and he is a good hitter.”
Wright is on board with the message.
“In order to be a good, strong lineup you need multiple guys getting hot,” he said. “And then it’s kind of contagious where it rubs off on the other hitters and then kind of everybody gets better pitches to see throughout the lineup.”