In baseball, the players are seen as the ones who go out and get a win. The manager is only there to screw things up.

Wednesday night at Citi Field, Mets skipper Carlos Mendoza managed to push all the right buttons as his side knocked around the Miami Marlins with 14 hits, including three home runs, in a 10-4 win.

And the manager did that, all before a pitch was thrown by deciding to get Tyrone Taylor in the lineup for Brandon Nimmo to have a night off against a left-handed starter and moving Harrison Bader – who had only batted in the bottom third of the order this year – into the No. 2 spot behind Francisco Lindor.

“The way he’s working his at-bats, taking pitches, chase - I think he’s gotten a lot better, even though he’ll chase just like every hitter will do,” Mendoza said before the game about Bader. “The way he’s controlling the strike zone, slowing the game down and then putting good swings on pitches that he’s getting to hit. Using the whole field, thinking short. It was a decision today against a lefty that I felt good with.”

And on the seventh pitch of the bottom of the first from Marlins starter Braxton Garrett, Mendoza was proved a prophet as Bader hit a towering 431-foot two-run home run to deep left.

"Sometimes it's gonna work, sometimes it’s not gonna work. I'm glad it worked out today in that first inning,” Mendoza said after the victory. “But some of the chances you take as a manager, knowing your players, knowing the personnel and putting them in situations where you feel like they’re gonna have success. And today, it worked from that first inning.”

Bader, who finished the night 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored, said the lineup change doesn’t make much of a difference for him.

“Our lineup is very dynamic. I think you can put a lot of guys in that position and they'd be successful,” he said. “Mendy chose me today to be that guy and kind of switch it up there, but I think a lot of guys could be in that situation and would find success the way I did."

Bader added: “When it shows up the middle, it’s our job just to put a good short swing on it and do damage. So, I just tried to do that and it worked out for us.”

And Taylor, who entered Wednesday mired in a 3-for-27 slump over his last 14 games, broke out of it with a 4-for-5 night including a double off the wall in right-center.

“Having success in this game is great, I’m just happy to contribute for the team,” Taylor said of his big night at the plate.

And they weren’t cheap hits for Taylor as he hit the ball hard all night with exit velocities of 109 mph, 92.6 mph, 99.9 mph and 97.3 mph.

On the night, the Mets had 14 hits – including homers from Bader, Starling Marte and Francisco Lindor.

"We were ready to hit, from pitch one," Mendoza said. "Got pitches, put some good swings on it 1-9. It was good to see Bader right away and then Taylor, obviously, what a big night for him. He needed that.

"But overall, the quality of the at-bats... we were ready to hit on pitches in the strike zone today and that was good to see."

Bader and Taylor both credited the team's approach.

“I think we had a good approach as a team, and we were able to have success with it,” Taylor said. “It was good to get Bader to start us off with the big home run like that.”

Taylor said nights like that are “just something that we’re capable of.”

“We have really good players in our clubhouse,” he said. “And to see it happening, baseball is a sport of momentum so, hopefully, we keep it going here.”

Popular in the Community