Luisangel Acuna's dynamic game sparks Mets' win over Twins
The Mets' Luisangel Acuña runs to score off an RBI single by teammate Pete Alonso during the third inning of a game against the Minnesota Twins on Monday in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
MINNEAPOLIS — That second-base spark the Mets have been looking for might finally be here.
In a 5-1 win over the Twins on Monday, Luisangel Acuna served as a catalyst from the bottom of the lineup, going 2-for-3 with a little bit of everything: a double, a walk, a steal, a bunt single and two runs scored.
“He’s such a dynamic player,” said Pete Alonso, who went 2-for-2 with two walks and his team-leading 19th RBI. “He had a phenomenal game.”
As the Mets have maintained their hot play, winning nine of their past 11 games to improve to 11-5 overall, they have sought anything more than a modicum of offensive usefulness from the combination of Brett Baty and Acuna.
Now, with playing time in recent days tilting toward Acuna for the first time, Acuna has strung together a four-game hit streak — glimpses of the high-level play the Mets received late last year but hadn’t seen so far this year.
“I obviously don’t play every day, but I’ve been starting to adapt to that role,” Acuna said through an interpreter. “Over the past couple of days, I have been feeling a lot better.”
Manning second base against lefthanded starters and some righties, Acuna’s numbers remain modest: .258 average, .698 OPS. But those are far superior to Baty’s .139 and .361. In the absence of Jeff McNeil, who this week is continuing a minor-league rehab assignment for his strained right oblique, neither player grabbed ahold of the position the way team decision-makers hoped.
Manager Carlos Mendoza, who collected his 100th career win, is open to seeing more. He said Acuna would be in the lineup again Tuesday — against another righthander — even though that was not necessarily the plan hours prior. It will be his fourth start in five games.
“He earned it,” Mendoza said.
Acuna first made his presence felt in the third inning, when he helped create a run by drawing a leadoff walk against Minnesota righthander Joe Ryan (five innings, one run). Then he swiped second, his team-high fourth stolen base of the season, double what the next guys have (Francisco Lindor and Jose Siri, two each). Alonso brought him in with a two-out single laced to leftfield.
In the seventh, Acuna bunted for a single and — using his natural speed to hurry down the line — advanced to second when reliever Jorge Alcala threw the ball wildly toward first.
“My favorite part of my game was when I bunted for the base hit,” Acuna said through an interpreter. “I practice that a lot, but I never put it into play for whatever reason. But today I did it and I executed the way I wanted to. I gotta do that more.”
He scored on Juan Soto’s 405-foot home run to right-centerfield, Soto’s second long ball of the year (and first in 14 games). That proved to be plenty of support for Clay Holmes (five innings, one run) and the bullpen (four innings, no runs).
What this turns into for Acuna and the Mets remains to be seen. McNeil is expected back in about a week, at which point the Mets will need to subtract somebody from the roster. Acuna still is at a stage of his career in which the Mets prefer he plays regularly — in the majors or the minors — instead of riding the bench as a part-timer in the majors.
Another variable: centerfield. Jose Siri is out indefinitely with a fractured left tibia. Acuna said that Mendoza told him “at any given moment to be ready” to head to the outfield. He played 31 games in center in Triple-A last year but has focused on infield work this season.
“We’ve been saying it: Every time we get contributions from the bottom of the lineup — with what’s behind them — it’s important,” Mendoza said. “Today with Acuna . . . there’s a lot of different ways he can help us win baseball games, and he’s doing that.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
