The Mets player everyone wanted gone has been their most consistent NLCS hitter

It took until Game 5 of the NLCS for Starling Marte to piece together a truly memorable playoff game. He has been there for several key moments along this 12-game journey. Often helping by tacking on some insurance runs, this 12-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers was a little bit different.

Sure, Marte didn’t have the big three-run home run to put the Mets on front early. Behind Jesse Winker and Pete Alonso in the lineup who did a lot of the cleaning up of the bases, Marte pummeled the Dodgers with 4 hits including 3 doubles while driving in trio and crossing the plate once himself.

This wasn’t some sort of breakout party for Marte at the plate. Through 12 games, he’s batting .310/.380/.405. Yes, he hasn’t hit a home run since June 12 otherwise remembered as the Grimace first pitch game. More of a singles hitter with some doubles sprayed in, it’s the timeliness of those hits paying off and we see it in the team’s record when he produces.

When Starling Marte has a good playoff game, the Mets tend to win

Marte has driven in a run for the Mets in 6 different games. The Mets won all 6 of those games. The only victory he didn’t drive in a run was on his birthday when the Mets clinched against the Philadelphia Phillies. He did score a run, though. 

The RBI total is up to 9. It ties Alonso for the second-most on the roster. Just 4 runs scored, the Mets lineup has routinely fallen off behind him and failed to get him across the plate with a few exceptions along the way. In an NLCS where the Mets have gotten tossed around like ragdolls three times and only returned the favor once (Game 2 was the most baseball game we’ve gotten), Marte has still managed to create consistent opportunities for this ball club. 

The Mets now have 21 total hits against the Dodgers with 9 of them coming off of Marte’s bat. The .409/.435/.591 he is hitting against the Dodgers is especially impressive considering their pitching staff is so right-handed heavy. Marte actually leads all Mets hitters with a .333 batting average against righties in the playoffs.

A contract he wasn’t living up to, an annual IL stint which has led to two straight years of less than 100 games played, and some of the most horrific defense in the league all led to Marte being a less than satisfactory member of the roster. But in October, things have been much different. If there’s anyone with a big overdue home run left in them, it’s Marte hooking one around the left field foul pole at Dodger Stadium on Sunday to send us into a Game 7.