This was different for Harrison Bader.
He’d hit in the No. 2 slot just over 60 times across his career entering Wednesday — when Carlos Mendoza gave Brandon Nimmo the night off, shifted Pete Alonso and J.D. Martinez around, kept Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot and needed someone to fill that void behind his shortstop.
The Mets settled on Bader.
They were facing left-hander Braxton Garrett, which Mendoza said factored into the decision.
And Bader made his manager’s gamble look seamless, delivering a homer in the first inning — his second in six games — to ignite the offense in the Mets’ 10-4 win over the Marlins.
“Sometimes, it’s gonna work,” Carlos Mendoza said of his lineup change. “I’m glad it worked out today in that first inning. But some of the chances that you take as a manager and knowing your players, knowing the personnel and putting them in a situation where you feel like they’re gonna have success, and today, it worked from the first inning.”
After Lindor opened with a double, Bader fell behind 1-2, fouled a pitch off then launched Garrett’s sinker 431 feet over the fence. It took Bader until his 15th game in 2024 to collect his first homer.
He didn’t hit his second until his 42nd appearance.
But his other two have occurred since the calendar flipped to June, directly coinciding with Bader recording nine of his 23 RBIs this season this month.
The first portion of Bader’s first Mets season hasn’t exactly been smooth.
Last month, Bader told The Post’s Mike Puma that he was “bothered” by his Mets role amid an outfield logjam, acknowledging he hasn’t handled it well and it “lights more of a fire under my ass.”
But recently, Mendoza said Bader has done a better job controlling the strike zone.
He’s started to chase less — outside of the inevitable pitches all hitters will wave at — and turned that into a productive stretch. In the eighth inning, Bader lofted a ball behind first base that hit Jake Burger’s glove and bounced into right field for a single to finish 2-for-5.
“I think some at-bats, some weeks, some series are better than others,” Bader said of his chasing, “but overall, I always try to do that.”
He likely won’t be in the No. 2 spot for Thursday’s series finale.
At this rate, he might not be there the rest of the season — perhaps needing the perfect storm of Nimmo being off, other parts of the order getting shifted and a left-handed pitcher facing the Mets to surface there again.
But for one night, and for five at-bats, Bader flashed an ability to handle that spot if needed.
“I think you can put a lot of guys in that position and they would be successful,” Bader said, “and, you know, [Mendoza] chose me today to be that guy and kind of switch it up there.”
