Carlos Mendoza was going for it.
He was using his bullet.
Tying run on second base, right-handed pitcher on the mound.
DJ Stewart wasn’t going to have to wait any longer.
“I told him before the game to be ready for a potential at-bat there. I felt it was a good opportunity to take a chance there,” the first-year Mets’ manager said of his decision to use Stewart as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of a one-run game. “It was good to see him ready from pitch one. That was the game for me right there.”
It worked.
Stewart drove in the tying run off reliever Hunter Stratton, then drew a key walk two innings later against former Yankee Aroldis Chapman.
The two at-bats were key as the Mets rallied to knock off the Pirates, 6-3, winning for the eighth time in 11 games to get back to .500 after an 0-5 start.
It was another productive game for Stewart, the team’s part-time designated hitter who has rebounded well from a rough start.
He has hit safely in four of his last five games after going 0-for-12 with six strikeouts to begin the year.
He only has five hits on the season, but they have driven in seven runs.
“I think I’m relaxed a little bit more. [Mendoza] tells me every day to smile,” Stewart said. “I think he could see I was stressing out a little but, just everything that’s gone on the beginning of the season, but relaxed, getting good work, talking to my teammates.”
Perhaps his most impressive at-bat was his walk in the eighth inning, which led to a go-ahead, Harrison Bader two-run double.
The hard-throwing Chapman is notoriously tough on left-handed hitters.
But Stewart was able to work out a walk.
“I’ve actually faced him quite a few times in my career in Baltimore. Haven’t had much success off of him. I don’t think many people do — that’s why he’s been so successful his whole career,” Stewart said “I had a plan of what I was looking for. He didn’t really give me the one I was looking for to get a hit. I was fortunate to draw a walk there.”
