Mark Vientos developing into true game-changer in Mets' deep lineup

It is not going to be easy in the late innings, especially without Edwin Diaz for nine more games, but the Mets are on such a roll offensively that suddenly anything seems possible. Their stars are playing like stars and, perhaps most strikingly at the moment, Mark Vientos appears to be coming of age as a slugger and maybe even a game-changer.

His two home runs against the Yankees at Citi Field Tuesday night helped set a tone for the shellacking of Gerrit Cole and a 9-7 win in his first Subway Series game this season. 

It was more proof of what seems unlimited power potential, as Vientos hit both his home runs at over 108 mph off the bat and in the case of the second one, went with a Cole fastball on the outer half of the plate and lined it over the fence in right-center.

“For most guys that’s a double in the gap,” one MLB scout texted last night when I asked for his reaction. “He’s got a little Stanton/Judge in him, the way the ball comes off his bat. He hits everything really hard.”

The Mets knew that last year, of course, when they promoted him. He should have gotten more playing time under Buck Showalter, that’s clear now, but he’ll be the first to say he was more of a one-dimensional slugger then. 

After an off-season dedicated to working on his plate discipline and pitch recognition, however, he appears to be more of a complete hitter, with a .297 batting average and a .925 OPS to go along with nine home runs. 

It’s still relatively early, with 129 plate appearances under his belt since his call-up, and just recently it looked as if pitchers had found holes in his swing, as he slumped for a week or so.

“He went through that stretch where it was hard for him,” was the way Carlos Mendoza put it after Tuesday’s game. “He was chasing, they were spinning the ball against him a lot. But he was still ready for the fastball. The key is don’t panic, trust the process and look for pitches he can do damage with. 

“When he does that, when he stays short to the ball, keeps it simple, when he’s thinking about doing less, he can be pretty dangerous. We saw it tonight.”

In fact, Vientos said it was a conversation with a teammate in Chicago last weekend who reminded him he should be thinking about hitting the ball to center and right-center, rather than trying to pull the ball and let his natural power take care of the rest. 

“I’ve been working in the cage on that since then,” Vientos said, “and it’s been working.”

He smiled, knowing that was something of an understatement. Including the 451-foot bomb he hit in the eighth inning at Wrigley Field on Sunday night, and then the two on Tuesday, Vientos went deep in three consecutive at-bats. 

All because he was thinking small, he said. 

“He’s 100 percent right,” Vientos said of Mendoza’s assessment. “When I get myself in trouble is when I do too much. Thinking small, trying to simplify it is the best for me. On both of those home runs I was just trying to make contact and simplify it.”

It is just not just Vientos who’s hot for the Mets these days, of course. On Tuesday, Harrison Bader and Brandon Nimmo also hit home runs off Cole, knocking him out after four innings. 

And with nine more runs the Mets continue to be perhaps the hottest offensive team in baseball over the last few weeks. They’ve won 10 of their last 12 games, and in those 10 wins they’ve scored 64 runs. 

“We’re riding a wave,” Vientos said. “We’re sticking to our plan, our approach. We’re talking about it before games. If we keep doing this we’ll be dangerous. The vibes, the energy, we’re having fun playing the game right now.”

Is it sustainable? The Mets’ stars have the track records that say it is, and perhaps more to the point, the emergence of Vientos as well as the recent return of Francisco Alvarez, who has also been swinging a hot bat, offer reason to believe it’s no fluke what the Mets are doing offensively. 

Some of it goes back to the players-only meeting in late May where the Mets demanded accountability from one another and decided they needed to talk more about their approach to hitting on a daily basis. 

Mendoza says that has all led to better at-bats and results. 

“It’s contagious,” he said. “And with what we’re getting from Vientos and Alvarez, it makes our lineup a lot deeper. When we’re clicking 1-9, it’s special.”

Indeed, for a long time Tuesday night it seemed the rout was on after the Mets got to Cole early and took a 9-3 lead, but David Peterson, who pitched well, only went 4.1 innings because of his high pitch count, and asking the Mets’ bullpen to get 14 outs right now, with Diaz suspended and Adam Ottavino continuing to struggle, is a big ask indeed.

Sure enough, though Dedniel Nunez was very good for 2.2 innings, things got dicey in the eighth when Mendoza used Ottavino, Danny Young, and had to bring in his closer for the night, Reed Garrett, who promptly gave up a grand slam to Aaron Judge.

Still, Garrett shook it off to get four outs, including a 1-2-3 ninth for the save and the win. The finish wasn’t pretty, and it’s clearly going to be difficult navigating the late innings with so few dependable options, but it was still a feel-good win for the Mets, taking it to the Yankees and Cole the way they did.

Nobody felt it more than Vientos.  He was asked what it was like hitting home runs in the big leagues the way he had in the minors for years.

“It’s cooler,” he said with a smile.

On this night that pretty much said it all.