NEW YORK — Francisco Alvarez savored the moment.
The 22-year-old catcher for the New York Mets took a few seconds to start trotting.
Alvarez first peered icily into the Mets dugout. He gestured firmly to the floor. He yelled at all of them. He hammered on his chest. Afterward, he circled the bases.
Alvarez’s feelings after defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 on Monday night at Citi Field with a walk-off, no-doubt solo home run fit the mood of the moment.
The win was required for the Mets (65-60). Into the eighth inning, they were ahead 3-1. They were unable to fail. It was the first game in a crucial 10-game run that would pit the Orioles, San Diego Padres, and Arizona Diamondbacks against three formidable clubs. They had been unable to solidify their positioning against weaker clubs lately. They trail the injured Atlanta Braves by 1 1/2 games in the race for the third wild-card berth.
Alvarez also required the home run. With high aspirations, Alvarez went through a serious depressive episode. He was 2 for 25 heading into his final at-bat on Monday. It was July 26 since he had hit a home run.
Mets 4, Orioles 3: Francisco Alvarez hit a walk-off home run. It was his first home run since July 26. The Mets started a critical 10-game stretch with a win. David Peterson went seven innings, allowed three runs (two earned). New York is 65-60.
— Will Sammon (@WillSammon) August 20, 2024
Alvarez hit some balls on the field two hours prior to the team’s batting practice and four hours prior to the game. Ball after ball was pumped into a pitching machine by co-hitting coach Eric Chavez, with front office special assistant Carlos Beltrán watching from the cage. These kinds of scenes have been frequent lately.
“I’ve been coming early every day to work,” Alvarez said, adding that he has particularly tried to hone in on sliders and limiting chase.
During a recent conversation, Chávez told Alvarez: “I just want you to be a good hitter.”
The takeaway: Give up attempting to hit home runs too much attention.
After having thumb surgery in June, Alvarez made his first appearance back from the injured list and looked like an all-around danger at the plate. However, he has since fallen into a serious rut.
Following the All-Star break, Alvarez’s offensive output fell off dramatically. With just a.447 OPS in the second half going into Monday’s game, he was the fourth-worst player in the majors among players with at least 70 plate appearances in that time. Alvarez has only hit two home homers since July.
Chavez stated that Alvarez’s obsession with trying to pull balls for home runs is the root of the issue, not any medical conditions.
Chavez and Alvarez have been working long hours on the field before to games over the past few weeks. Although Alvarez’s performance had not yet shown any of the improvement that the coaching staff had observed, that changed on Monday night. In late July, Alvarez struggled with a bothersome shoulder ailment in addition to his thumb injury. Alvarez has six home runs and a slash line of.253/.318/.410 on the season.
“When he first came back, he was hitting the ball the other way really well,” Chavez said, referring to Alvarez’s return from thumb surgery. “And then he started to get pitched inside. And then he got it in his head that he wanted to hit pull-side homers. So he started spinning out. So we’ve just been working on his direction.
“Everybody thinks it’s the physical things that happened — it’s not. He got it in his head or someone said something about hitting pull-side homers, so, physically, the body just responded to what the brain told it to do.”
It is witty. Chavez claimed that Alvarez failed numerous times recently when he attempted to pull a ball for a home run. But on Monday, with one out in the ninth inning and a 3-0 pitch from Orioles reliever Seranthony Domínguez, Alvarez admitted he considered just putting the barrel on the ball.
Perhaps that is a step forward. Alvarez is unquestionably powerful. In 423 plate appearances as a rookie last year, he hit 25 home runs. However, Chavez recently confronted him with the hard facts regarding the remaining statistics, including the whiff rate, lack of damage against breaking balls, and more. “Did you think it was a good year? You hit 25 home runs last year,” he asked Alvarez. since I didn’t. You should check at all of your stats; I did not think they were very excellent.
Then Chavez offered some praise: “In a few years, you will be the best offensive catcher in this game. No question about it. I’ll put my name on that. There’s no doubt.”
Alvarez needs to become more than just an all-or-nothing threat; he needs to become an all-around bat first. Chavez continued,“I said, ‘When you came back from your injury this year, that’s a good hitter. You’ll learn to do the homers. Become a good hitter first. Homers will come, make consistent contact, hit mistakes.’”
A fastball that was primarily over the plate but also tipped slightly up and inside, Domínguez’s pitch screamed to be hit hard and far. The ball departed center at a speed of 106.5 mph after leaving Alvarez’s bat 421 feet away.
“Alvy, he lives for those moments,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said.
The Mets are hoping that this is the beginning of Alvarez’s big break. It could be useful to them. Alvarez, along with almost every other player in the lineup, contributed to the Mets’ finest performance in June.
“It’s critical, it’s important, it’s huge,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve been talking about some of these guys where it’s been hard for them, they’re going through stretches where it’s not easy. The at-bats, they have been better. But we hadn’t seen that impact in games. For us to see it today, it’s going to be huge.
“When you have a guy like that going, hitting in the bottom of the lineup … we talk about how deep our lineup is, but we need these guys to get going. As a hitter, when you get a hold of one like that, it can get you back on track. Hopefully, that’s the case here.”
(Photo of Francisco Alvarez: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
