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Palladino: 'Power' Pitchers Prove Mets' No. 9 Hole Is No Easy Out

By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns

The philosophy of modern baseball states that pitchers pitch and hitters hit.

But when a team like the Mets have a pitcher or two -- or three -- who can hit, it puts that squad in even better position to weather the ups and downs of the offense over a long season.

And when said pitching staff can go beyond the occasional surprise of an RBI single or rally-starting double in a close game, that's gold.

The Mets showed they have that potential in San Diego and Los Angeles, where Bartolo Colon and Noah Syndergaard joined their daily Home Run Derby show.

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Actually, the Mets were lucky those two found a little power, since no one else homered in either of those games. For a team that has scored 55 percent of its runs off the long ball, that's significant.

Colon, always entertaining as he flails away at the plate, so determined to enjoy his times at bat after 16 years of one-dimensional American League usage, took San Diego's James Shields deep in the second inning of Saturday's 6-3 win at Petco Park.

Syndergaard victimized Dodgers rookie Kenta Maeda not once, but twice in Wednesday's 4-3 win.

Mets P Noah Syndergaard
Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard, right, celebrates his second home run of the game with teammates during the fifth inning against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on May 11, 2016 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

All this brings us to the observation that manager Terry Collins has a really nice asset in pitchers who have home runs amid the batting stats. They make the offensive potential of the No. 9 hole a touch more dangerous. Certainly not as perilous as the bottom of an American League lineup, where the DH allows position players to occupy that spot. But for a National League team, the hitting potential of the Mets' rotation draws just a little more respect from opposing arms.

And there's nothing more embarrassing to a pitcher than to give up a blast to his supposed light-hitting counterpart.

Right now it's Colon and Syndergaard. But Matt Harvey also has last year's home run in his background, so he must be regarded as a threat, too.

Syndergaard's homers gave the Mets the major league lead in pitcher-generated long balls with three. Only the Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, and Cardinals have pitchers who have hit homers, but the Mets are the only one with two.

A manager can't ask for much more out of a pitcher. And when he has three with proven long-ball potential, well, it kind of brings up memories of days distant and not so distant.

Doc Gooden, one of the best-hitting pitchers of modern times, could never be counted as an easy out. Now that Syndergaard's sheet bears multiple clouts, it is not inconceivable that, way down the road, he could equal or exceed Doc's eight career homers.

And if he gets to eight in a reasonable amount of time, who is to say a decade or so down the road he won't be knocking on the all-time Top-20 list, where none other than Babe Ruth sits in that last spot with 14. Remember, before the Yanks turned him into the "Sultan of Swat," Ruth was a Red Sox ace.

Colon will probably have to settle for that 31-second celebratory trot around the bases, but one never knows now. With that wild righty swing of his, we must now contemplate the possibility of another ball flying out of some other park. Maybe even Citi Field.

He'd probably have to close his eyes and wish real hard, though.

Still, if it happened there, the crowd would tear the joint down.

Then there's Harvey. Fans already know he can stroke. Though he hit .108 in 2015, he did have two doubles and a homer among his seven hits. He also knocked in seven runs.

This year, he's at .250 with a single and a double.

Even Steven Matz has a double and an RBI this year.

Mets pitchers as a whole haven't done poorly at the plate this year. The cumulative .145 BA with three doubles, three homers, and eight RBI rank 10th league-wide.

In other words, Collins has a valuable asset in pitchers who hit.

The season is still young, so plenty more opportunities for Collins' starters to help their own causes lie ahead. And on this team that lives and dies by the long ball, the potential for Syndergaard, Harvey -- even Colon -- to pop one out on a day the rest of the bats sleep can't be undervalued.

If opponents ever thought the Mets' 9-hole was an automatic out, the past seven days should have taught them otherwise.

Who knows? Perhaps the next thing we'll see is Jacob deGrom and his .000 BA going deep for the first time in his life.

Why not? It's about time he joined the party.

Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino

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