Dominic Smith on bench against Nats' lefty despite success vs. southpaws

Among the notable absences when Luis Rojas rolled out a new-look lineup Saturday afternoon was Dominic Smith, who has crushed lefthanded pitchers but was on the bench as the Mets prepared to face Nationals lefthander Sean Nolin.

Smith this year is hitting .322 with a .380 OBP and .435 slugging percentage against southpaws — and was even better the previous two years.

But his recent struggles, including a .198 average in August, won out in the decision to sit him, Rojas explained.

"We are aware of the fact that Dom has been really good for the whole season against lefties," he said. "Just recently, his approach hasn’t been there. He’s working on things, getting to it."

Rojas added that Smith is "trying to get into his legs." Without using his lower half, which has been a problem periodically this season, it has been much harder for Smith to hit for power.

Could Smith’s outfield workload — 109 games, well more than his career total entering this season — be causing fatigue, thus the legs-at-the-plate issue?

Rojas said maybe, but nobody with the Mets was attributing it to that.

"Early in the season when he was fresh, he got in a funk and he was doing the same things, he was hitting with no legs," Rojas said. "He wasn’t able to drive the ball. He wasn’t hitting for power. Everyone was questioning, where is his power? He had two homers at one point and we were in month three of the season."

Smith has shown brief flashes of his usual production level but has not sustained it.

"Like a lot of guys on the team, he’s searching and he’s looking to get to that consistent approach," Rojas said. "Stance, swing, everything that is going to help him drive the ball better. We didn’t see that [Friday, before the benching]."

Smith being the odd man out was a product of the Mets’ new preferred defensive alignment, with Javier Baez the full-time second baseman, which bumps Jeff McNeil to leftfield (and third base). That means one of McNeil and Smith have to sit each day; the previous two games, it was McNeil.

At third base, likewise, Rojas has been choosing daily between J.D. Davis and Jonathan Villar. On Saturday, it was Villar, who had a .304/.368/.493 slash line over his previous 20 games.

That success, as well as the Mets’ general lack of scoring, inspired Rojas to try something different: Put Villar at the leadoff spot, with Brandon Nimmo and his .407 OBP dropped to the second spot — the ideal placement for a team’s best hitter, according to one modern school of lineup-creating thought.

Why not? Nothing else has worked. The Mets scored five runs in the first four games of this homestand.

"Nimmo has been our leadoff the whole season, but we’re looking to connect (successful plate appearances) at this point. We gotta score runs. A lot of times we’ve been two runs or less in the last couple of weeks," Rojas said. "

"When we try something different with Nimmo batting second, his on-base (percentage) and approach is going to be there. So why not have Villar and him back-to-back and see if we can sequence guys getting on base?"

Rojas said he is open to keeping some elements of Saturday’s funkiness for future games, no matter which hand the opposing pitcher throws with.

"It’s something that we’ve thought of before," he said. "This is something that would work for either a lefty or a righty. Let’s see how the sequencing works tonight."