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Delgado big reason why Mets are atop NL East

David Lennon | METS INSIDER

11:37 PM EDT, July 24, 2008

Two days ago, Carlos Delgado showed up at Shea and discovered his name in the cleanup spot. Glancing at the board on the clubhouse wall, he probably smiled to himself.

Delgado must have remembered all of those times he was called into the manager's office -- then occupied by Willie Randolph -- and told he was being dropped again in the batting order.

Fifth, then sixth, and finally ... seventh.

Delgado pretended that the embarrassing slide didn't matter. But it did. And the screaming fans who harassed him at Shea during those first few months, as well as the increasingly hostile New York media, were not going to be satisfied until Delgado had vanished from the lineup completely.

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Benched or released. Take your pick.

But that would have been a big mistake. It's largely because of Delgado that the Mets are alone at the top of the NL East, courtesy of his tiebreaking two-run double off lefty reliever J.C. Romero in the eighth inning of Thursday's 3-1 victory over the Phillies.

When reminded of the hordes that tried to run him out of town, Delgado grinned. Sparring with reporters is not one of his favorite activities, but he obviously was in a more playful mood than usual.

"Did they?" Delgado said. "Nobody told me anything."

Once the laughter subsided, he added, "I feel good. I've got a lot of pride, and that goes beyond what other people's expectations are. And I know I wasn't happy with the way things were going. I worked my -- -- off and I'm going to continue to work my -- -- off to get to where I want to be."

Delgado's resurgence, however, could be about more than just swing adjustments and dissecting video. He's batting .397 (29-for-73) in July with five home runs and 16 RBIs in 20 games. During that stretch, Delgado has raised his overall average from .228 to .261 and now rivals David Wright as the most feared run-producer in a Mets uniform.

Despite all the talk of mechanics, it's as if somebody has flicked a switch upstairs with Delgado. Hitting coach Howard Johnson suggested Thursday that the remarkable turnaround has more to do with his head than anything else. Johnson described Delgado as "one of the hardest workers we've got." But he also mentioned this would not have been possible without a noticeable shift in the first baseman's mood.

"Something happened to him maybe four or five weeks ago," Johnson said. "That's when -- for whatever reason -- he started to relax and feel good about himself. I couldn't put my finger on it, but everything just changed with him.

"I'm a firm believer that things can affect you mentally both negatively and positively. If there's things inside you that are holding you back, it makes the game a lot harder. Once you unlock that mental door, you can start addressing some of the physical things. That's what happened with him. Something happened, he relaxed and suddenly all of the things he was working on were paying dividends."

Hmmm. What could that something be? With Johnson's timeline in mind, Delgado's double off Romero occurred just over five weeks since Ran.dolph's firing in the early-morning hours of June 17. It's no secret that Delgado's relationship with Randolph was strained during his slow start and ultimately bottomed out with his two-day benching (May 27-28) in favor of Damion Easley.

Delgado was never publicly critical of Randolph. But when the manager's job was in jeopardy, he chose not to defend him, either. There's no disputing the fact that Delgado has flourished under interim manager Jerry Manuel, and it can't be written off as coincidence. Delgado has evolved from a self-described "survival mode" to become one of the game's most lethal hitters -- and there's no indication of that reversing anytime soon.

"I didn't have any doubts," Delgado said. "I knew what I was doing wrong."

Manuel said: "Now that he's moved into the fourth spot, I think he has a chance to recapture some of those numbers he had a few years back in his career. I feel very good about that move."