Where there's a Wil: Myers clutch again

NEW YORK -- It's never been in Wil Myers' nature to have a long memory. So when the Padres' first baseman strode to the plate on Saturday with his team trailing by a run in the ninth, he had already put his first three at-bats -- a pair of strikeouts and a double play -- well behind him.
That's when Myers revived the Padres from the precipice of defeat with a home run for the second time this season. He turned around a 1-1 fastball from Mets closer Jeurys Familia and deposited it 428 feet away, in the left-center-field seats, tying the game at 2.
The Padres would eventually lose, 3-2, in 11 innings, when second baseman Ryan Schimpf made the ill-advised decision to throw home instead of attempting a double play. But overshadowed in the defeat was another immensely clutch performance by Myers, who is now the only player in the Majors with multiple game-tying or go-ahead homers this year with his team one out from defeat.
"It felt good," Myers said. "I felt everything kind of connect right there with my swing. I had a good approach. I felt something click right there, so hopefully I can just ride that out."
On June 10, Myers launched a three-run dinger in Colorado with two outs and the Padres trailing by one. He followed that up by setting a franchise record for June home runs and by taking home the National League Player of the Month Award.

He struggled mightily in July, but he appears to have returned to his old self, hitting .333/.404/.619 since the start of August.
"He grinds hard," said Padres manager Andy Green. "But he's also got enough of a laid back-type personality, where he's not too worried about a few bad at-bats. He's able to flush it and keep going."
In Myers' eyes, the ability to do that is a flat-out necessity.
"That's what it takes to be a big leaguer," Myers said. "It's not just me; it's everybody here. That's what you've got to do in this game is just let things go and keep pushing."
That's exactly what the Friars did when they found themselves behind by a run against a dominant Jacob deGrom. The Mets righty had faced the minimum through 6 2/3, when Yangervis Solarte golfed a changeup into the right-field seats for San Diego's first game-tying dinger of the night.
That mindset carried over into the ninth when Myers became the first hitter to take Familia deep this season.
"That was a huge swing," Green said. "... He's able to flush [the first three at-bats] and step up against one of the best closers in the game and put a huge swing on the ball with two outs in the ninth inning. There's nothing more clutch than that."