Carlos Mendoza’s lineup shuffle gets Mets huge hit: 'We needed that'

Searching for a way to snap his club out of a slump at the plate since the All-Star break, Carlos Mendoza made a big change to the Mets' lineup for Monday’s one-game trip to St. Louis: Dropping first baseman Pete Alonso down the five-hole.

Mendoza explained the move came about to see if he could spark something, and in part because Cardinals starter righty Andre Pallante is tougher on left-handers. So the manager could also get Tyrone Taylor into the two-hole and drop Alonso lower than the cleanup spot for the first time in 579 games.

The hope was that the shuffled lineup might snap the Mets out of a funk with runners in scoring position, as they had batted a paltry .186 over their last 17 games (second lowest in MLB).

Of course, in baseball – the same way the ball tends to find the infielder struggling for error-free play – the big moment with runners on found Taylor.

With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Taylor had the chance to build on a 2-0 lead moments after Harrison Bader delivered an RBI double for the Mets' first hit with a runner in scoring position of the afternoon.

The right fielder, who was hitless his first two times up, took a 1-2 Pallante slider and served it the other way for a three-RBI double.

“That was a big situation for Tyrone and us, he did a good job of just thinking small and punch one down the line for us, clearing the bases,” Bader said after his 2-for-4 day with two doubles. “It’s a great at-bat, big one for us.”

Mendoza praised Taylor for “staying with his approach, not trying to do too much and going the other way."

“Huge hit and we needed that,” he said after the Mets’ 6-0 win.

The new lineup wasn’t a total cure-all, with the fifth-inning doubles from Bader and Taylor being the only two hits they managed in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. And Alonso went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout (none coming with runners in scoring position).

But sometimes it is just about pushing the right buttons at the right time in a long season.

“The game called on Tyrone to step up in that situation, Mendy looks like a genius in that, I think he picked the right guy for the job in that given situation,” Bader said. “And, he came through. And that speaks volumes to Tyrone’s game, but also speaks volumes to our lineup as a whole and our capabilities to mix and match if something isn’t right.

“...We just did a good job of sticking together, fighting through those shadows a little bit, fighting through the heat, fighting through the travel and just coming together on that field which is what it's all about.”

“It’s great when it works,” the manager said with a smile, “but you know, it’s baseball. Sometimes it’s gonna work, sometimes it’s not gonna work.

“I’m just glad Tyrone got a good pitch there and was able to use the whole field and came through there. It was nice”

Mendoza said the plan is to still take it “game by game” when it comes to seeing if any lineup changes become more permanent but said he doesn’t anticipate Taylor in the two-hole for Tuesday’s game in Colorado, adding, “That’s baseball, too.”

Bader said he thought the new lineup “worked out great, because we won.”

“But your intention [at the plate] should be the same regardless of where you are in the lineup,” he continued. “It’s a dynamic lineup in the sense that you can plug in a lot of guys in spots and still have success. Obviously being in the lineup, situations are presented to you differently, but overall, your intention is the same which is execute on whatever you’re seeing in front of you based on what the pitcher is attacking you with.”

Amid struggles, plan at plate stays the same

Before the game, Mendoza addressed the team's struggles to deliver on their chances, touching on whether he views this as a matter of skill or if he views it more analytically as a situation that will even itself out as the law of averages dictates an at-bat is an at-bat.

“I do feel like it’s a skill,” Mendoza said, and looking at Alonso specifically, “this is a guy that gets 100 RBI in a lot of seasons. So I think it's a combination of both. Having the awareness of where you are at in the at-bat and the situation, what the pitcher is trying to do to you.

“There’s obviously a skill and you gotta go out and execute. And we got a lot of hitters that can do that. And at times you gotta give credit to the pitching staff because they’re gonna execute, they’re gonna make you chase. But I like where we're at as a team.”

Alonso said Mendoza spoke to him during the team's flight to St. Louis on Sunday and told reporters he was fine with doing whatever to help the team win.

When it comes to the recent woes, Mendoza said that he thinks it is “a little bit of both” of batters struggling to come through and running into some hot pitchers.

“Some good arms, but there’s also some times where we’re chasing or we’re a little too aggressive and we’re swinging at pitcher's pitches as opposed to continuing to control the strike zone whenever we have those traffic [situations],” the skipper said. “So, yeah, I think it’s a combination of good bullpens or good starters and they’re executing pitches and us going outside of the strike zone maybe a little bit too much at times.”

The philosophy doesn’t change for the skipper: “Get good pitches to hit and do damage.”

“At the end of the day, our job is to hit the ball hard. Control the strike zone and hit the ball hard,” he said. “And wherever it goes, it goes. Hopefully, we find those holes, hopefully, we find grass, we find seats.”