Bo Bichette has endured a rough start to his career with the New York Mets to this point, but a bases-clearing double in the eighth inning of Thursday’s victory over the Minnesota Twins gave the player and fans a lot to be excited about in Queens.
“I think he’s been looking for that moment, especially here at home,” manager Carlos Mendoza said to reporters after the game. “Meaningful for him to do it in front of our fan base.”
Bichette, who signed a three-year deal worth $126 million in the off-season as one of the biggest prizes available in free agency, entered Thursday’s game with a .220/.255/.290 batting line and nine runs batted in through 24 games - paltry production at the plate for one of the league’s best-hitting shortstops over his seven seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The 28-year-old got an early glimpse of how harsh the supporters in New York can be when he was met with a chorus of boos in just his third game in a Mets uniform back in March.
Coupled with the fact that the Mets, who were in the short list of World Series contenders entering the season, are coming off a 12-game losing streak and sit one game from the bottom of the league standings, this kind of clutch performance was sorely needed for Bichette.
“The desire to help a new team and the desire to just perform at the level you know you can perform at - I don’t know if any of that was weighing on me, but I definitely still need to get better,” Bichette said after the game. “I’ll make adjustments and get to the player I need to be.”
Mets fans have seen a different Bichette than the one Blue Jays fans were used to watching day in and day out during his long stay in Toronto.
In the World Series in October and November last year, Bichette worked back from a September knee injury that was clearly still slowing him to produce a dazzling .348/.444/.478 slash line in seven games, including a three-run home run early in Game 7 against the Los Angeles Dodgers that would have gone down as one of the biggest home runs in franchise history, had the Blue Jays been able to hang on for the victory.
Bichette’s hit on Thursday broke a 7-7 tie to give the Mets a three-run lead that they would not relinquish in a 10-8 victory. That hit came after the Mets bullpen allowed a game-tying grand slam in the top of the eighth.
The honest - and often self-critical - Bichette told reporters after the game that he was feeling better with his swing. That double certainly helped prove it.
“Today, I felt good,” Bichette said. “But like I said, I’ve got to show up tomorrow and do it again.”
After winning the series against the Twins, the Mets continue their long homestand with three games against the Colorado Rockies, starting on Friday.
