LOS ANGELES — When Brett Baty hit a bases-clearing triple Saturday night against the Colorado Rockies, it caught him by surprise. It wasn’t because of how hard he hit the ball, but because he has never exactly been a hitter who hits a lot of three-baggers, and somehow he already has two this season in the big leagues.
“I don’t even know that I had any in the minors,” Baty said.
As it turns out, he did — three of them over six seasons, which was another surprise for Baty.
But the bigger surprise might be the Mets‘ sudden ability to hit them up and down the lineup. Somehow, the Mets have already hit 13 this season, two shy of their entire 2024 total. It’s the third-most in the league, behind the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs. While it might be expected for the Rockies, who play in such an extreme hitters’ park that Max Scherzer once said it’s like “playing baseball on the moon,” the Mets’ lineup is clearly doing something right.
So much of hitting can be random, especially after the ball leaves the bat. Results can vary based on everything from how the defenders are positioned to the very air in the ballpark. But the Mets’ sudden penchant for hitting triples is a result of several factors.
“I think it’s a combination of the guys that are hitting, and taking advantage of these ballparks too,” manager Carlos Mendoza said over the weekend. “We know that when that ball gets in the gap and down the right field line from lefties, we’ve got guys that can run the bases as well. So I think it’s a combination of both putting good swings on balls and then taking advantage of athleticism and taking an extra base.”
The Mets have some excellent baserunners who hit left-handed like Brandon Nimmo, Juan Soto and Jeff McNeil, and some right-handed hitters who run the bases exceptionally well. Tyrone Taylor and Starling Marte will never hesitate to test the arms of right fielders. Hitting triples does require some risk on the part of the hitter, but with the way the Mets have put a heavy emphasis on baserunning fundamentals over the last two years, it’s a risk they’re typically willing to take.
Even Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos have tripled this season, and neither of them could be described as fleet of foot.
Someone like Nimmo, who has hit 32 in his career and led the big leagues with seven in 2022, can read the ball off the wall. For someone like Vientos, he’s going to be looking for cues from third base coach Mike Sarbaugh.
“The two I’ve had this year is just reading the ball,” Baty said. “The one in Sacramento, it’s just deep out there in the gaps. Then the one [Saturday] just kicked off the wall. I was on the heater, and I was looking for something out over, and I was just trying to hit the ball hard.”
Baserunning coordinator Antoan Richardson has been near universally praised by the Mets, with even Marte, whose calling card has always been speed on the basepaths, crediting him for improvements. Credit him for help with the triples as well.
The Mets open a four-game series at Dodger Stadium on Monday night. It’s a big outfield, and summer in the Southland means the ball flies. Their struggles with runners in scoring position are well-documented, and while the team thinks they’re starting to move past some of those struggles, a one-out triple means they only need a sac fly to score a run.
Look for the Mets to take some extra bases whenever possible this week to try to gain an advantage on the defending World Series champs.
