Mark Vientos?
Oh yeah, he’s definitely back.
It wasn’t too long ago that the youngster was losing out on playing time to Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio, but of late he’s been delivering big hits when the Mets have needed it the most.
On Monday, he got the offense going against Phillies ace lefty Cristopher Sanchez.
After Pete Alonso singled and advanced his way into scoring position on a balk, the righty was sure to make Sanchez pay, as he laced an opposite-field RBI double down the left-field line.
He would score just one pitch later on Brandon Nimmo’s RBI single.
Vientos came through again one inning later with things knotted up at three, this time making the Phillies pay for an error, lining a go-ahead two out RBI double into the right-field corner.
He was hit by a pitch in the seventh before being lifted for a pinch-runner, finishing the night 2-for-3 with his first career two double game.
“[Sanchez] is a phenomenal pitcher,” Vientos said. “I was just trying to be as simple as possible. His stuff moves a lot, he has a good changeup, good slider, good fastball so it’s really was just trying to stay as simple as possible up there.”
The Mets' offense would tack on in each of the final six innings to secure the 13-3 victory.
With another big day, Vientos is now hitting a whopping .342 with a 1.223 OPS over his last 10 games.
He’s riding a nine-game hitting streak and has extra base-hits in three straight.
His OPS has quickly risen over the .700 mark (.709) for the first time since the middle of May.
“My hard work is paying off right now and I’m just thankful,” Vientos said. “It definitely feels pretty good. Whatever I can do to help the team, especially contributing with the bat it just feels good.”
For the Mets to make any noise down the stretch, they’ll need Vientos to continue swinging it this way.
“We’ve been missing that bat,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We saw it last year how important he is and when you add that type of bat to the middle of our lineup we’re gonna be dangerous — it’s just good to see him having that confidence in himself.
“It was a struggle for him but when you watch him here the past two weeks the at-bat quality using the whole fields and driving the ball, if we get that version of Vientos we’re going to be in a good place.”