Coming out of the All-Star break, Mets skipper Mickey Callaway said that the lineups would likely be more fluid on a nightly basis.
He delivered on that statement on Saturday, moving Michael Conforto up to the second spot in the lineup, hoping to get Conforto more pitches to hit in front of Pete Alonso.
"Pete's behind me today? Yeah, so I'll probably get some pitches to hit," Conforto said before the game. "They're not going to want to face that big boy behind me."
Turns out Conforto was spot on in his analysis.
In the third inning of a scoreless game, Conforto stepped to the plate with a runner on base and Alonso on deck. The left-handed hitter proceeded to slug his 17th home run of the season, but his first since June 24th.
"I figured if we put him in front of Pete, you're going to get some better pitches," Callaway said after the game. "They know what's looming behind him, and maybe this is a good spot for him. The homer was big, he needed it … He just missed another one late off the lefty (Jarlin Garcia) when McNeil was trying to take second, and he looked comfortable."
"You just get the feeling that you're going to get more pitches in the zone with a guy with 30 homers behind you," Conforto said. "I think the approach was better today and I've just got to build off of that."
Conforto's two run blast put the Mets on the board in a game they'd go on to win 4-2 over Miami, and while his homer was his biggest hit of the night, he said after the game that he was happy with his overall approach against Marlins pitching.
"I barreled some balls up, I took some good swings. The walk was encouraging as well, and at the end the (Jose Quijada) just executed with a high fast ball, but I was close to making that a quality at-bat as well, so I'm just going to keep building on that, keep working on the things that I'm working on, and just try to stay as even-keeled as always.
"The approach is the big thing. That was my big takeaways from today. I felt like I was more in control at the plate today, so that was a positive."
Both Callaway and Conforto seemed to like the idea of Conforto being bumped up to the two-spot, and with his power display on Saturday, Mets fans are likely to see the 26-year old outfielder batting between Jeff McNeil and Alonso moving forward.