MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-13
1. Todd Frazier, 63 percent
That’s correct, the greatest hit of this “MLB Rankings” for week-13 was not delivered in a winning cause.
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By all odds, it should have been. Todd Frazier‘s ninth-inning home run Thursday off Hector Neris not only gave the visiting Mets a 2-1 lead, but it single-handedly improved New York’s chances of winning the game from the mere 19 percent they were before Frazier stepped in all the way to 82 percent when he touched home plate.
The homer came with one out in the ninth and Michael Conforto on base thanks to a single moments earlier. Philadelphia’s narrow 1-0 lead rested on Bryce Harper‘s 448-foot home run off Zach Wheeler in the home half of the sixth.
Aside from that, Wheeler and Aaron Nola had matched shutout innings into the bottom of the seventh, when Wheeler was lifted. Nola departed at the start of the eighth, Neris getting the call for the ninth and retiring the first batter he faced before allowing Conforto’s single.
His relief problems were further compounded when Dominic Smith and Wilson Ramos followed Frazier’s hit with singles, and Amed Rosario‘s ground out got Smith home with an insurance run.
As it turned out, however, all those apparent Mets heroics actually only set the stage for Franco’s previously noted heroics