Mark Vientos kept his bat moving in the right direction Friday, going 1-for-4 and driving in two runs with a home run in a win over the Tigers.
The game added another productive night to a stretch in which Vientos has collected hits in five of his last six games, even as he continued to fight consistency issues at the plate for manager Carlos Mendoza. Through 35 games, he was batting.242 with six home runs, 19 RBI and 14 runs scored.
The numbers show the push and pull around Vientos right now. He is giving the lineup power and enough contact to stay relevant, but the batting line still leaves room for more, especially as the season keeps moving and every series starts to matter a little more. Friday’s home run was another reminder that the upside is still there whenever he gets a pitch he can turn on.
For Mendoza, the challenge is the one that has followed Vientos through this opening stretch: getting the same hitter more often. The production has come in bursts, and the Tigers game fit that pattern again, with one swing doing most of the damage. That is enough to win a night. It is not yet enough to settle the larger question around how steady Vientos can be over the long haul.
At 5:31 p.m. EDT on Friday, the takeaway was simple. Vientos helped the Mets win, he kept the recent hit streak-like run alive, and he gave another sign that the power in his bat remains a real part of the lineup.
