David Wright homers in the first inning of the Cardinals/Mets game to give New York a 2-0 lead over St. Louis. The long ball was Wright’s eighth of the season after hitting at least 30 in each of the previous two years. There’s no reason to really think this is Citi Field, as he’s only hit three of his eight on the road.
When Bobby Murcer moved from Yankee Stadium to Shea Stadium during the Bronx remodel, his home runs dropped from 22 to 10. He hit two at Shea, eight on the road, so it would appear the ballpark factored into his demise. That’s tough to prove with Citi.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Citi is tougher for gap hitters then dead pull hitters, and my impression is that Wright is a gap hitter. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Wright somehow adjusted his swing early in the year, and it carried over to affect his power numbers on the road. It’d be interesting to see an analysis of where his long shots go. In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen him hit the high wall at Citi twice and hit one onto that stupid hill in center field in Houston.
If you watch Wright on a day-to-day basis, it was clear that for most of the season, he had indeed changed his swing; he was no longer driving the ball, but trying to slap it a bit more. This does seem to have changed in the past couple of weeks or so, and the results have been there a bit. He was stuck on 5 HRs forever, and has gotten the last 3 in the past 2 or 3 weeks or so, and is hitting the ball harder in general. Plus, other teams’ power hitters haven’t had a problem hitting balls out of Citi, gap or pull hitters. That he’s returned to driving the ball more now can only be a good sign.
All I can say is, whoever suggested to him that he change his swing to accomodate Citi should be shot (just kidding! Not really of course).