Palladino: Unlikely Power Show Could Spark Mets To Strong 2nd Half
By Ernie Palladino
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Maybe the Mets figured out the formula to curing their power-challenged lineup just in time.
Let the most unlikely of players lead the way.
All right, enough with the jokes. Given the overall production this season, just about anyone hitting below Curtis Granderson, Lucas Duda, Wilmer Flores and Daniel Murphy would qualify for that honor, and that includes a free agent in Michael Cuddyer who was acquired specifically to generate home runs.
But in this case, we are talking about a pitcher, Matt Harvey, and a minor league call-up who might still be wallowing in Triple-A Las Vegas had the Mets maintained any semblance of health this year.
That would be Kirk Nieuwenhuis. All he did in Sunday's final game before the All-Star break was stroke three homers against Diamondbacks pitching before reliever Andrew Chafin fanned him in the seventh.
Nieuwenhuis became the first Met in history to lose three balls in a home game, which is saying a lot. They've been around since '62. Nieuwenhuis has been in Flushing for parts of four seasons, but only one for more than half the schedule.
He wouldn't even have been at Citi Field Sunday if the Angels hadn't put him up on waivers June 10, just 14 days after the Mets traded him there for cash. Once Nieuwenhuis came free, Sandy Alderson grabbed him up again on June 13 and returned him to Las Vegas, where he waited until his July 6 promotion.
It's not exactly the resume of a hero, especially one who came into the game hitting .091. But without Nieuwenhuis' bat the Mets don't go into this midseason respite riding a four-game winning streak, five games above .500. His blasts provided four of the five runs in the 5-3 win, including the two-run, go-ahead job he hit to opposite left center off starter Rubby De La Rosa that broke a third-inning, 1-1 tie.
Nor could they have done it without Harvey on Saturday. Sure, he pitched well in limiting the D-Backs to two runs in seven innings. But they don't pull ahead of Arizona without his first career homer in the fifth, a two-out, two-run shot that complemented Duda's leadoff homer that inning.
Harvey sliced off his own little piece of history, becoming the franchise's second pitcher to turn a deficit (2-1) into a lead (3-2) with a homer.
For all his heroics in the 4-2 win, Harvey is not exactly Dwight Gooden when it comes to hitting. Gooden was genuinely good with the bat, and finished a 16-year career with eight homers and a .196 ERA. Harvey has so far been a typical pitcher at the plate, having hit .086 in 2013, his only full season in the majors.
That makes this season's .118 mark look downright Ruthian. But no one should expect him, or any other pitcher, to muscle the Mets into the postseason.
Of course, this could all be part of a contagious power surge that would greatly benefit the NL's lowest-scoring team. The Mets hit nine homers in the three games against the D-Backs, with Duda and Cuddyer going deep on Friday, Ruben Tejada joining Duda and Harvey Saturday, and Murphy joining with Nieuwenhuis Sunday.
Whether it continues after the break is anybody's guess. Considering the Mets' bats just received a fresh breath from two unlikely sources, things might be looking up for Collins' beleaguered lineup.
