Harrison Bader knew he got all of it. He motioned to the Mets dugout on his way to first, raised a hand en route to second, pointed to the crowd after he touched home and hugged Francisco Lindor.
It’s hard to tell if the center-fielder took extra pleasure in homering against his former club Tuesday in the Subway Series opener because he always plays the game with infectious enthusiasm. His fifth homer of the season came in his first career at-bat against Yankee ace Gerrit Cole and gave the Mets a 3-0 lead in a game they won 9-7.
Photo by Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Bader was 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lift his season numbers to .272/.319/.404. He has 13 doubles, is 11-for-16 stealing bases and has been all the Mets could have hoped for when they signed him to a one-year, $10.5 million deal last winter.
He made a sliding catch in the right-center field gap on a line drive off the bat of Juan Soto in the seventh inning with a runner on first. That play started with Bader positioned in left center. The 2021 Gold Glove winner is sixth among major league center fielders with five outs above average, a Fangraphs metric that captures range.
Mike Puma of the New York Post asked Bader before the series how he thought manager Carlos Mendoza would be feeling, who, like him, was battling his former team.
“Go out there and kick some ass – that is all there is to it,” Bader told Puma.
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