NEW YORK — Francisco Alvarez savored the moment.
A few seconds passed before the 22-year-old New York Mets catcher broke into a trot.
At first, Alvarez stared coldly into the Mets dugout. He pointed pointedly at the ground. He yelled at everyone. He pounded his chest. Then he rounded the bases.
Alvarez’s emotions after hitting a commanding home run to beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 at Citi Field on Monday night matched the mood of the situation.
The Mets (65-60) needed the win. They had a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning. They couldn’t blow it. It was the start of a critical 10-game series against three strong teams (the Orioles, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks). They had recently failed to consolidate their position against weaker teams. They are 1 1/2 games behind the injured Atlanta Braves for the third wild-card spot.
And Alvarez needed the home run. With expectations high, Alvarez entered a deep slump. Going into his final at-bat on Monday, he was 2-for-his-last-25. He hadn’t hit a home run since July 26.
Mets 4, Orioles 3: Francisco Alvarez hit a walk-off homer. It was his first homer since July 26. The Mets opened a critical 10-game winning streak with a win. David Peterson threw seven innings and allowed three runs (two earned). New York is 65-60.
—Will Sammon (@WillSammon) August 20, 2024
Four hours before the game and two hours before the team’s batting practice, Alvarez hit the field. Front-office special assistant Carlos Beltrán watched from the cage as co-hitting coach Eric Chavez tossed ball after ball into a pitching machine. Such scenes have become commonplace lately.
“I come to work early every day,” Alvarez said, adding that he has tried to focus primarily on sliders and limiting chases.
During a recent conversation, Chavez told Alvarez, “I just want you to be a good hitter.”
The point is, stop focusing so much on hitting home runs.
Alvarez showed he can be an all-around threat at bat when he returned from thumb surgery in June, but he has since fallen into a deep slump.
After the All-Star break, Alvarez’s offensive production plummeted. He entered Monday with just a .447 OPS in the second half (fourth-worst in the majors among players with at least 70 plate appearances in that span). Since July, Alvarez has hit just two home runs.
According to Chavez, the problem can be attributed to Alvarez’s fixation on trying to hit balls for home runs, and not to a physical ailment.
In recent weeks, Chavez and Alvarez have been working hard on the field for hours before games. The coaching staff has seen some improvement, but it wasn’t reflected in Alvarez’s results until Monday night. In addition to the thumb injury, Alvarez had been battling a nagging shoulder problem since late July. For the season, Alvarez has a .253/.318/.410 slash line with six home runs.
“When he first came back, he was hitting the ball really well the other way,” Chavez said, referring to Alvarez’s return from thumb surgery. “And then he started getting thrown inside. And then he got it in his head that he wanted to hit pull-side homers. So he started spinning. So we just worked on his direction.
“Everybody thinks it’s the physical stuff that’s happening — it’s not. He’s got it in his head or somebody said something about hitting pull-side homers, so physically the body was just responding to what the brain was telling it to do.”
It’s funny. Alvarez has gone to the plate so many times lately with the intention of pulling a ball for a home run, only to fail, Chavez said. But when Alvarez got the green light on a 3-0 pitch from Orioles reliever Seranthony Domínguez with one out in the ninth inning Monday, he said he thought about just taking the ball.
Maybe that’s progress. Alvarez’s power is undeniable. He hit 25 homers in 423 plate appearances as a rookie last year. But Chavez recently gave him a hard truth about the rest of the numbers: the whiff rate, the lack of damage against breaking balls and more. He asked Alvarez, “Last year you hit 25 homers, and did you think that was a good year? Because I didn’t. When you look at all your numbers, I didn’t think it was that good.”
Then Chavez offered some praise: “In a couple of years, you’re going to be the best offensive catcher in this game. There’s no doubt about it. I’m putting my name on it. There’s no doubt about it.”
Something has to happen first: Alvarez has to develop into an all-around hitter, not just an all-or-nothing threat. Added Chavez: “I said, ‘If you come back from your injury this year, you’re a good hitter. You learn to hit home runs. Become a good hitter first. Home runs are coming, making consistent contact, hitting errors.'”
Domínguez’s pitch begged to be hit hard and far: a fastball, slightly up and in but mostly over the center of the plate. Off Alvarez’s bat, the ball traveled 421 feet to left-center at 106.5 mph.
“Alvy, he lives for those moments,” outfielder Brandon Nimmo said.
The Mets are hoping it’s the beginning of a breakthrough for Alvarez. They could use it. When the Mets were at their best in June, they got contributions from almost everyone in the lineup, including Alvarez.
“It’s crucial, it’s important, it’s huge,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’ve talked about some of these guys who have struggled, they’re going through periods where it’s not easy. The at-bats, they’ve been better. But we haven’t seen that impact in games. If we see it today, it’s going to be huge.
“When you have a guy like that at the bottom of the lineup… we talk about how deep our lineup is, but we need these guys to get going. When you get a guy like that as a hitter, it can get you back on track. Hopefully that’s the case here.”
(Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
