This is the Jeff McNeil the Mets expected.
The McNeil the Mets need.
And the McNeil he demands of himself.
He produced his second consecutive multi-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4 with an RBI in the Mets’ 6-1 win over the Royals on Friday night at Citi Field in the series opener between the clubs.
It was his best showing of the year, and followed his previous best performance, when he went 2-for-3 at the plate with two walks and three RBIs in the Mets’ 16-4 drubbing of the Braves in Thursday’s series finale.
The two games mark McNeil’s first multi-hit games of the season, and he’s now riding a five-game hitting streak.
He started the season 2-for-22 at the plate, good for a brutal .091 batting average, with just one RBI and two walks through the team’s first seven games.
“It feels good. Anytime I’m getting a lot of hits, I’m in a good place,” McNeil told The Post. “Made some mechanical adjustments which got me in a much better spot to hit. I feel like I’m seeing the ball better. I’m getting on top of the ball better, everything is clicking.”
What were those adjustments?
“Just getting in a better [stance in his] lower-half [of his body], getting my hands back and making sure they stay back instead of leaking forward,” McNeil said. “They were very minor, but I’ve seen a big difference.”
McNeil gave the Mets a lead they never relinquished, spraying a line drive to left field for an RBI single, scoring Brett Baty to put the Mets up 2-1.
“He won a batting championship not too long ago,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of McNeil. “… There’s gonna be times where they’re gonna go through ups and downs, more times [up] than down. These guys are gonna get it done. We’re seeing that McNeil now in the last couple of games. That’s good to see.”
All three of McNeil’s hits Friday night were singles.
Two of them went the opposite way to left field, while the other went to center field. He notably didn’t pull any of them.
It’s a testament to McNeil keeping his hands back, as he said has been a point of emphasis.
When that goes awry, he often pulls the ball and gets away from what makes him such a good contact hitter who can use the whole field.
Entering Friday, McNeil had pulled the ball on 43.8 percent of the balls he put in play this year, per FanGraphs.
That would represent the second-highest mark of his career.
But he seems to be getting back to what he does best.
“That’s who he is, he is a line drive hitter,” Mendoza said. “And he’ll go the other way. We’ve seen that throughout the lineup.”
