Mets Respond to Collins Comments, Win 12-2

Maybe Terry Collins should have insulted his team sooner. A day after he said the Mets have “folded it up,” the team responded with an 11-run onslaught against the Braves, in the chamber of horrors called Turner Field, no less.

The Mets exploded for four runs in the first inning, two of them courtesy of a David Wright home run. After scoring two runs in the third the Mets added four more in the fourth — Wright again with the big blow, a three-run shot (below). They went on to win 12-2.

It came after Collins unleashed on his team  in his post-game news conference following the embarrassing 10-1 loss to the Nationals on Thursday, saying in part, “Perception is reality in our game and the perception I have right now is we’ve folded it up… You come and play the game right. I don’t care what the situation is. I don’t care about anything but playing the game correctly. That’s all I care about.”

On Friday Collins clarified his statement, saying it is all about execution, not about effort.

“I watch them work on the field. So it’s not the effort side. We just haven’t been executing at all… They were as frustrated as I was. Make no mistake about it, these guys are proud. And nobody likes to play as bad as we played certainly in the last homestand.”

The Mets finally showed some pride, pounding out 20 hits against Braves pitching. Lucas Duda had four hits. Jose Reyes had three hits, raising his league-leading average to .334 to give him a four point lead over Ryan Braun. Wright, Nick Evans and Josh Thole also had three hits each.

So the six-game losing streak is over. Let’s hope this impressive win sparks a nice run to end the season on a positive note.