Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Jeff McNeil appeared to have turned a corner on the Mets\u2019 last road trip, but his latest turn is toward the bench.<\/p>\n
After a 5-for-32 (.156) homestand, the slumping second baseman was on the bench as the Mets began their three-game series against the Nationals on Monday. <\/p>\n
It was the second time in four games that Jose Iglesias started in McNeil\u2019s spot, but unlike the last instance the desire to give McNeil a rest wasn\u2019t cited by manager Carlos Mendoza.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re giving Jeff another day to continue to work on some things and get back on track,\u201d Mendoza said at Nationals Park.<\/p>\n
What types of things?<\/p>\n
\u201cImpacting the baseball,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHitting line drives \u2014 I think he\u2019s lifting the ball a little too much. He\u2019s a guy that won a batting title by hitting line drives from line to line and right now we\u2019re not seeing that consistently. There\u2019s been stretches of a couple of games where you go, \u2018OK, he\u2019s back,\u2019 and then he goes some games where he is just missing pitches. We want him to square baseballs and hit line drives the way he is capable.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeil homered in consecutive games two weeks ago in Cleveland as part of 7-for-23 (.304) stretch, but entering play had only one extra-base hit since then and was without a multi-hit game.<\/p>\n
The fact lefty MacKenzie Gore started for the Nationals likely weighed into Mendoza\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n
But McNeil has equally underperformed against lefties and righties this season.<\/p>\n
Against righties entering play he had a .618 OPS. Against lefties he had a .613 OPS. Overall he owned a disappointing .227\/.296\/.320 slash line with three homers and 14 RBIs.<\/p>\n
The Mets selected Iglesias from Triple-A Syracuse before Friday\u2019s game and are still evaluating what they might have in the veteran, who received praise for hustling out a ninth-inning infield hit on Saturday in a lopsided game. <\/p>\n
Iglesias\u2019 hit extended the inning and helped the Mets score three runs.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Iglesias] gives you a little bit of flexibility, especially with guys going through stretches where it\u2019s hard for them,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have that flexibility, a guy that can play multiple positions and I feel good with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mendoza was noncommittal about the possibility of a platoon between McNeil and Iglesias.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen [McNeil] is on it doesn\u2019t matter who is on the mound,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHe\u2019s pretty good against lefties when he\u2019s on. When he\u2019s feeling right \u2026 this is not strictly a righty or lefty matchup. It\u2019s just more getting Jeff back on track. Right now he is working through something.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeil is still among MLB\u2019s toughest hitters to strike out \u2014 he\u2019s whiffed in just 11.2 percent of his plate appearances this season \u2014 but his metrics in regards to solid contact are low in all categories.<\/p>\n
Though an emotional player, Mendoza said McNeil was understanding about the decision to start Iglesias in his spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know he shows emotions at times when things are not going his way,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cBut he will continue to work, that is what we have seen. He\u2019s out there. He\u2019s battling. He\u2019s playing hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic WASHINGTON \u2014 Jeff McNeil appeared to have turned a corner on the Mets\u2019 last road trip, but his latest turn is toward the bench. After a 5-for-32 (.156) homestand, the slumping second baseman was on the bench as the Mets began their three-game series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-102969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102971,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102969\/revisions\/102971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}