{"id":651426,"date":"2026-03-29T23:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651426\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:47:28","slug":"bo-bichette-hears-boos-from-mets-fans-as-strikeouts-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/651426\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo Bichette hears boos from Mets fans as strikeouts mount"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — It took until the seventh inning of just his third game with the New York Mets<\/a> for Bo Bichette<\/a> to hear boos from the home crowd at Citi Field for the first time.<\/p>\n

He was surprised they waited that long.<\/p>\n

“If anything, I thought it took too long,” Bichette said after the Mets’ 4-3, 10-inning loss<\/a> to the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>. “I thought my at-bats were terrible, too.”<\/p>\n

Bichette is 1 for 14 with eight strikeouts through his first three games — a startling stat line for an accomplished hitter with elite bat-to-ball skills. Last season with the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>, Bichette’s 14.5% strikeout rate ranked in the 86th percentile across the majors. In the three-game series against the Pirates, it was more than 50%.<\/p>\n

“I think he’s getting good pitches early in counts and then they’re making him chase, especially at the top of the zone,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s gonna swing. He’s gonna go out there and he’s going to hack. He’s a good hitter.”<\/p>\n

Bichette, 28, signed a three-year, $126 million contract with two opt-out clauses that effectively make it three one-year deals and a $40 million signing bonus over the offseason. He had never played third base as a professional after putting in seven seasons as the Blue Jays’ shortstop.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, he acknowledged learning to play third base has occasionally required more mental energy than he’s spent on defense in the past. He spent extra time pregame Sunday fielding ground balls after committing a throwing error in the fourth inning Saturday — a mistake he attributed to rushing through his mechanics — but said he feels “pretty good” at his new position.<\/p>\n

Bichette just didn’t expect the transition to also affect his performance at the plate.<\/p>\n

“I think I just got to be more committed, more committed in the process,” Bichette said. “Definitely find myself trying to have, like, a moment out there. So I just got to get back to being me.”<\/p>\n

Bichette said he’s wanted to have that moment from the day he signed back in January during the Mets’ offseason roster overhaul. He admitted not anticipating the desire to come through early to affect his performance.<\/p>\n

“It’s early, but also there hasn’t been much to be happy about what I’ve done so far,” Bichette said. “We can talk about it being early, but we’ll figure some things out.”<\/p>\n

Bichette had two chances for his moment late Sunday.<\/p>\n

The score was tied at 2 with runners at second and third and two outs with hard-throwing left-hander Mason Montgomery<\/a> on the mound for Pittsburgh. A single would’ve given the Mets the cushion they needed for a season-opening sweep.<\/p>\n

Instead, Bichette struck out on three pitches, whiffing through a 100-mph fastball to end the inning and result in his first taste of New York boos. Later, in the 10th inning, after Francisco Lindor<\/a> was thrown out at home plate attempting to score from first base to tie the game, Bichette stepped into the batter’s box with the tying run on second base and one out. He grounded out to shortstop.<\/p>\n

Moments later, the game and the Mets’ mini homestand to start the season was over. Next up: A six-game road trip to St. Louis<\/a> and San Francisco<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Will going on the road help?<\/p>\n

“Maybe,” Bichette said. “but I gotta figure out how to hit here anyways.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — It took until the seventh inning of just his third game with the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[83378,5,50404,649,4,61,169],"class_list":{"0":"post-651426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-83378","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bichette-bo","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-new-york-mets","14":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116315137884544425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}