MLB Rankings: The greatest hits of the season’s final week
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits of the Final Week
9. Michael Conforto, New York Mets, 46 percent
What kind of season might it have been for the Mets if they had played like they did the final week? The answer is a cardiac kind. New York won six of its final eight games, two in walk-off fashion. Both of those games pivoted on hits that ranked among the week’s 10 most critical.
The action warmed up Tuesday night at home against the Miami Marlins. Miami grabbed a quick 4-0 lead only to see Conforto’s seventh-inning home run pull the Mets within a pair.
Then nothing much happened for a full turn through the New York batting order. Aside from a fielding error, Marlins pitchers retired six consecutive Mets hitters through the seventh and eighth, that streak only ending when J.D. Davis managed an infield single to lead off the ninth. Up stepped Conforto again, this time facing Jose Urena.
If Conforto’s first home run was big, his second was colossal. On a 1-2 pitch, he lined it over the right-field wall for a game-tying two runs. As Conforto stood in, the odds of a Mets win measured just 18 percent. When he touched home plate, they were 64 percent.
Conforto also had a hand in the eventual game-winning rally, although it wasn’t much of a rally. He drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 11th. A hit by a pitch, a wild pitch, intentional walk and force out of Conforto at home left the bases full for Brandon Nimmo, who also walked, forcing the winning run across the plate.