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Coleman's Corner: Mets Get Offensive

By Ed Coleman
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It was quite a quartet of games. After being routed by the Rangers in Texas to begin their interleague journey, and before being vanquished by Justin Verlander in Detroit to complete their trip, the Mets spent four days in offensive nirvana -- putting up pinball numbers and chasing each other around the bases like they were on a carousel.

The numbers are staggering. They scored 52 runs. They pounded out 69 hits over the four games. 49 of them were singles, only 3, of course, were home runs. They also mixed in 13 doubles and 4 triples. They batted .404 as a team during the stretch. Even better, they hit .484 (30-62) with RISP. In addition, they drew 15 bases on balls during the four games, and now lead the National League and are 3rd in the majors in walks.

Manager Terry Collins was asked if he thought this lineup could sustain that kind of production for an extended period of time.

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On Wednesday, they actually scored 16 runs and had 20 hits -- none of them a home run. The Tigers hit 5 HR and lost by seven runs. It was the most runs the Mets have ever scored in a game without a homer in franchise history.

The Mets have been carrying the long-ball deficiency to ridiculous extremes. They were out-homered 15-5 on the road trip. Two of the 5 came in the final game -- their only runs in a 5-2 defeat to Detroit -- solo HR's by Daniel Murphy and Carlos Beltran. And yet they won 4 of the 6 games. The Mets have now hit 52 HR and allowed 87 HR. That's the 2nd largest differential (35) in all of baseball. Only the Houston Astros are worse with a differential of 52.

While taking two of three from the Tigers, the Mets scored 75% of their runs -- 24 of 32 -- with two outs. Pretty clutch. The Mets are now 2nd in the majors with 153 runs scored with two outs, second only to a pretty good ball club, the Boston Red Sox. Willie Harris, before departing on bereavement leave, was asked what it felt like to be with a team on this kind of current offensive roll.

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They've been on a nice little series roll of late as well. In their last 9 series overall, the Mets are 6-1-2. On the road this season compared to last, it's been like night and day. The Mets are right now 8-5-1 in road series this year, 4-0-1 in their last five, after winning only 5 road series in all of 2010. Collins believes that the players finally believe -- in themselves.

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And then there's Jose Reyes, who's playing on an entirely different level than anyone else. He has 121 hits, a .352 batting average, 15 triples, 30 stolen bases, 42 multi-hit games and 65 runs scored. 29 of those 65 came during the month of June, his highest total for any month of his career. It's also the second highest monthly total in Mets history. Fonzie, Edgardo Alfonzo, scored 31 runs in August of 1999.

After watching Reyes lead off a game with a hit, steal second and eventually score on a passed ball, Justin Turner had these comments as related by manager Collins.

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Reyes, by the way, hasn't had a hitless streak longer than one game since May 20.

Couple of other notables: it was quite a month of June for Carlos Beltran. He had 26 RBI for the month -- 10 in his last 5 games.

And Daniel Murphy, after going through a 3-31 slide, has been raking of late. Since then, Murphy is batting .469 (15-32) with 11 RBI and 7 runs. On a larger scale, over his last 38 games, Murphy is hitting .358 with 21 RBI.

C U soon
Eddie C.

Can the Mets keep it up? Let Coleman know in the comments below...

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