World Series 2015: Mets are all Wright after David provides boost with four RBIs in Game 3

 

David Wright entered Game 3 of the World Series hitting .171/.320/.220 for the playoffs, with 14 strikeouts in 41 at-bats and only two extra-base hits the entire postseason. After having worked so hard to come back from spinal stenosis and contribute to New York’s surge to the National League East title, it was fair to wonder whether he might be running out of gas.
Wright provided an answer to those concerns Friday night. His timing could not have been better, because with the Mets down two games to the Royals, they needed a spark, lest they be pushed to the brink of elimination.

After 1,546 regular-season games for the Mets and 21 more in the playoffs, Wright finally got to play in a World Series game in New York for the first time in his career. He hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat to put the Mets ahead and ripped a two-run single in the sixth to break open what became a 9-3 rout.

“Recently, the hitting coach and I have been working on some mechanical things, some timing things, just being a little bit more on time and being ready for the fastball,” Wright said. “So you go up there and you have a guy (Royals starter Yordano Ventura) that throws extremely hard. And you know you better be on time because he can throw the ball right by you. I was trying to tell myself just kind of nice and easy, because he supplies the power. You throw upper 90s, you’ve just got to try to meet it. I was trying to get my foot down early, get the barrel to the ball, and as you can see, put a good swing on it.”

The pitch that Wright blasted over the wall in left field was a 96 mph fastball, about Ventura’s average heater speed for the season. There may have been concerns about the Kansas City right-hander lacking velocity in this start, but not on that pitch.
Even though the Mets lost the lead the inning after Wright’s home run, he had served notice that the Mets were not going to go quietly after Kansas City took the lead in the first inning on a ringing double by Ben Zobrist and a couple of balls that didn’t leave the infield. That resonated on the New York bench.

“He’s not a guy that’s gonna ride those waves up and down,” said rookie Michael Conforto, whose infield hit in the fourth inning knocked in a run for the Mets. “He’s going to be the same guy that shows up every day and does what he did the day before. I think calm is a good way to describe him. ... He’s our captain and he’s our leader. When he goes out and he gets a big hit, I think you see the team get fired up about that. I wouldn’t say he was in a slump. I think he’s been taking great at-bats as well. I’m excited to see the rest of the series. I think he’s gonna be locked in.”

Wright was 6-for-22 in his past five games before Friday, so whether he was in a slump could be debated, but for the postseason as a whole, his numbers had not been good, and he had gone without a home run in the playoffs since Game 4 of the 2006 NLCS — 55 at-bats without going deep since a blast off Anthony Reyes.
When Wright singled off Kelvin Herrera’s 97 mph fastball to make it an 8-3 game, he became the first Met to drive in four runs in a World Series game since Rusty Staub knocked in five in Game 4 in 1973.

“Certainly David has been struggling, he never makes an excuse,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “He’s got to swing better, he knows that. Big hit for him, big hit for us. Got him going. A big hit later in the game off Herrera. I said before the game, we get our offense going a little bit, we play better baseball, like everyone does.”
The Mets had been 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position over the first two games. Wright’s hit to basically bury the Royals was one of three hits in eight at-bats for New York with runners in scoring position in Game 3.
“We all know he can hit,” said Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores. “Just because he hasn’t hit in the last couple of games doesn’t mean he’s not going to.”
He did Friday, and it sparked the Mets on their way to winning a game that kept them off the brink of elimination.