Mets' bats go 'OMG' as Iglesias, Bader each blast two homers

NEW YORK -- Luis Severino is the sign guy.

After every Mets homer on days he’s not pitching, Severino grabs the “OMG” sign that a fan gifted to Jose Iglesias earlier this year and passes it to the player who went yard, sometimes posing alongside him for a picture. On some occasions, if Severino happens to have wandered into the clubhouse, he rushes back out upon seeing one of his teammates clear the fence.

“It keeps everybody happy,” Severino said. “Even when you’re having a bad day, if somebody hits a homer and you bring out that sign, it seems like we’re going to come back to win the game.”

Friday night, Severino was uncommonly busy. The Mets hit a season-high five home runs in a 7-6 win over the Rockies at Citi Field, marking just the second time in the past three seasons they’ve accomplished that feat. Iglesias and Harrison Bader hit two apiece from the bottom third of the lineup, while Mark Vientos added a solo shot.

Sean Manaea held the Rockies to three runs over seven innings, and the bullpen bent, but didn’t break, as the Mets went on to win their fourth consecutive game -- a feat made easier given all the early run support.

“This offense has been unbelievable for the last couple months now,” Manaea said.

These days when the Mets score, they tend to do so convincingly and unceasingly. So it was Friday, when, after the Rockies took a two-run lead off Manaea in the top of the second, Vientos and Iglesias hit back-to-back homers in the bottom of the inning. Two batters later, Bader added a solo shot.

The Mets weren’t done, plating another run on a Vientos double in the third inning, then more on a two-run Bader homer in the fourth and an Iglesias solo shot in the fifth. All seven of their RBIs came from the bottom four hitters in the lineup.

“It’s a deep lineup,” said manager Carlos Mendoza, who received his first career ejection for arguing a called third strike on Iglesias in the seventh. “That’s the challenge for pitchers. You’ve got to get through the first four or five, which are pretty good, but then you’ve got some other guys behind them that are [just] as good.”

Iglesias, of course, has brought consistent vibes since his call-up in late May, both with his bat -- he’s hitting .347/.380/.560 in 28 games -- and all the hoopla surrounding his hit song, “OMG.” Right around the height of the “OMG” mania that overtook Citi Field last month, a fan delivered a custom-made sign to him through an intermediary. The Mets took to it immediately, using it as a dugout prop whenever they homer.

Since then, that sign has gotten plenty of use, because New York’s offensive renaissance has not revolved around Iglesias alone. There’s also Bader, whose early-season reputation as the team’s best clutch hitter has evolved into a power stroke as the weather has warmed. (Six of Bader’s eight homers have come in the last six weeks.) Not to be forgotten are Francisco Lindor and Brandon Nimmo, who each caught fire upon moving to their respective spots -- first and second -- in the Mets’ batting order. There is Vientos, who couldn’t find a spot on the roster for much of the early season but has since become integral to it. And on and on and on, up and down the lineup.

Since May 31, the Mets have not only led the Majors in runs, but they’ve done so by a wide margin as the only team averaging more than six per game. They’ve even increased their pace over the last month, scoring five or more runs in 18 of their last 24 games.

Iglesias has been among those to credit the sharing of information among hitters, which became a focal point for them following a players-only team meeting on May 29. Starting with Lindor, Nimmo and J.D. Martinez, that concept has trickled down to every member of the lineup -- from the longtime stalwarts to the relative newcomers like Vientos and Iglesias.

“It’s a very long season for a lot of reasons,” Bader said. “There are going to be a lot of ups and downs. But the ability to rebound is what this team has done extremely well, and narrow that focus to be successful. We’ve just done a really good job of that, and we’ve got a lot of games, a lot of runway left to continue to prove it.”