Plawecki comes through in Binghamton loss

Kevin Plawecki understands that RBIs are generally the result of opportunity as much as ability. Still, he wasn't particularly fond of the low total he had amassed this season.

The Mets' No. 7 prospect slugged his first Double-A homer and drove in all of Binghamton's runs in a 4-3 loss at Harrisburg on Friday night.

Plawecki's performance, which included a solo shot in the fifth inning and a two-run single in the eighth, pushed his RBI total to seven and came a night after he plated a run with a sacrifice fly.

"I was just fortunate enough to get a couple RBIs tonight," he said afterward. "I've been struggling with RBIs this season so far, so it was nice to get a few the past couple nights."

By going 2-for-4, Plawecki extended his hitting streak to seven games. In 21 games this year, the Mets' first-round pick (No. 35 overall) from the 2012 Draft is hitting .298/.326/.405. 

Friday marked the first time Plawecki drove in at least three runs in a game since June 26, 2013, when he collected three RBIs for Class A Advanced St. Lucie. It was his first multi-RBI game of the year.

"Sometimes you can't really dictate the amount of RBIs you're getting. You obviously have to be in situations where you can get RBIs," the Purdue University product said. "I really haven't had too many of them this year, to be honest. With [Matt] Clark hitting all the home runs in front of me and stuff like that, there's not a whole lot of guys out there."

While Clark has hit seven long balls, Plawecki's blast on Friday was his first since Aug. 13 in the Florida State League. He split last season between Class A Savannah an St. Lucie, hitting .305 with eight homers and 80 RBIs in 125 games.

The solo shot led off the bottom of the fifth, an inning after Harrisburg grabbed a one-run lead. The Senators answered it with a pair of runs in the sixth, but Plawecki tied it again with his two-out single in the eighth.

"I honestly got fooled on the pitch," he said. "I just happened to stay through it enough and it squirted up through the middle. ... It wasn't the prettiest of swings, but one obviously I'll take any day of the week."

Harrisburg regained the lead in the ninth on Rick Hague's RBI single. Plawecki's turn didn't come up in the bottom of the frame, but if it did, the folks at NYSEG Stadium would have had every reason to expect another game-tying RBI from the 2012 first-round pick.

"I'm seeing the ball a lot better this past week, week-and-a-half or so," Plawecki said. "I know there's two different ends of the spectrum -- you're going to have the good games along with the bad games. I'm just trying to ride it out as long as I can and just have fun in the process and, hopefully, the hits keep coming for me."