{"id":673747,"date":"2026-04-12T03:09:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673747\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:09:51","slug":"carlos-mendozas-lineup-shakeup-pays-off-early-to-kickstart-quiet-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673747\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Mendoza’s lineup shakeup pays off early to kickstart quiet offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Mendoza\u2019s changes worked for one day, even if the result was another loss.<\/p>\n

The struggling Mets lineup broke out for 10 hits and three homers in an 11-6 loss to the A\u2019s on Saturday at Citi Field.<\/a><\/p>\n

The manager dropped Bo Bichette to the cleanup spot for the first time this year, and moved Luis Robert Jr. to second, with Jorge Polanco in between the two after being held out of the past two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wanted to shake some things up.\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe still have pretty good hitters at the top. I wanted to give them a different look here. Getting Polanco back in the lineup helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mets entered Saturday\u2019s contest against the A\u2019s having managed just three runs in the past four games. They hadn\u2019t scored in the previous 17 innings. There was another 17-inning scoreless drought earlier in this young season. The offense has been a major problem through 14 games.<\/p>\n

\"JorgeJorge Polanco looks up to the sky after hitting a home run in the seventh inning of the Mets\u2019 11-6 loss to the A\u2019s on April 11, 2026 at Citi Field. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Mets hit on Saturday. Polanco, Bichette and Francisco Alvarez all went deep. <\/p>\n

They cut a 7-1 deficit to 7-6, before Luke Weaver was tattooed for four runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one at-bat away from [going ahead],\u201d Francisco Lindor said. \u201cWe started putting together better at-bats as the game went on, but we just didn\u2019t finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the hitting issues can be attributed to Juan Soto\u2019s absence with a calf strain, and Polanco has been in and out of the lineup as well due to a case of left Achilles bursitis. But plenty of regulars have struggled, led by Lindor and his .167 batting average.<\/p>\n

\"MetsFrancisco Alvarez stands on second base before his blast was ruled a home run during the sixth inning of the Mets\u2019 loss to the A\u2019s. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, these things happen, especially early in the season. It\u2019s not something that we just fall back on, like it\u2019s part of the game. We\u2019re definitely going to get better and have better at-bats,\u201d Bichette said. \u201cGetting off to a hot start and everything rolling, I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a normal thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny team is better with those guys [Soto and Polanco]. But in this league, there\u2019s no excuses. We have to step up and just have better at-bats as a team. I think we\u2019re going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in defeat, Saturday was a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Mendoza\u2019s changes worked for one day, even if the result was another loss. The struggling Mets lineup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2396],"tags":[5,101,4,1690,61,2548,4203,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-673747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-mets","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mets","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-mets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkmets","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116389544586701728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673747","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=673747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}