Kevin Long is in his 10th season as a big-league hitting coach. In that decade, he has witnessed just how quickly fortunes can turn.
“I’ve seen all sorts of stuff happen,” said Long, who is entering his second season with the Mets. “As a matter of fact, we got no-hit twice last year and went to the World Series, so explain that? And the Dodgers got no-hit twice and we were playing them in a playoff series. So, strange things happen in baseball.”
That strangeness manifested itself once more, this time with a lingering offensive funk that has turned the Mets into unwilling participants of a stress test.