This should be David Wright’s stage. 

This should be where the man once tagged as Captain America and the captain of the New York Mets, the only franchise for which he’s ever played, shined brightest. In David Wright’s first World Series, he should be the superstar of superstars. 

Unfortunately for him and his Mets, the 32-year-old, 12-year veteran is a falling star this October. Whether it is because of his wrenched, hurting, game-altering back or not, Wright’s lack of production has made him a slight liability during this postseason.

And while his defense has at times been outstanding, it was his botched ground ball and wide throw in the 14th inning that eventually led to the Kansas City Royals winning Game 1 of the World Series 5-4 at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night—or Wednesday morning, depending on your time zone.

Wright went 2-for-7 in the Fall Classic’s opener. He stranded four of the team’s 11 runners left on base, including stranding two after striking out in the 11th inning, and he was thrown out trying to steal in the ninth inning. For the postseason, he is now hitting .189/.348/.243 with 14 strikeouts and no home runs.

“It’s obviously a tough one to swallow, but once we leave the ballpark tonight we need to forget about it and start focusing on tomorrow’s game,” Wright told reporters after the game, as shown on MLB Network. “Coming into this we knew these guys were an excellent opponent, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. These are the types of hurdles we’re going to have to clear if we expect to win this thing.”

Wright has not been a total disaster in his second postseason. He has acknowledged not feeling great because of the spinal stenosis that limited him to 38 games this season, but it has not completely hurt his entire game.

“I’ve been better,” Wright told reporters, including Dan Martin of the New York Post, during the National League Championship Series. “When you’re not feeling great at the plate, you try to work some walks and do other things in the game well. Hopefully the hits come and I can join in offensively.”

Wright has at least been able to get on base with those walks. He’s drawn nine in these playoffs, and he went into Game 1 Tuesday with a .359 OBP despite going 1-for-16 in the National League Division Series. He picked it up in the NLCS by going 4-for-14 with a .444 OBP, but there was no doubt he was having issues catching up to good fastballs and covering pitches down and away.

Both those problems could easily be related to a bad back.

“He’s just a little late,” Mets hitting coach Kevin Long told Martin. “He needs to be more ready to hit the fastball. It’s nothing more than that.”

Wright’s back certainly has not hurt his defense much, if at all.

He made more than one play in the NLCS that in no way suggested he was a third baseman in his 30s playing with a crippling back injury—watch them here. He looked agile and quite capable of being one of New York’s defensive pillars, as he has been at times throughout his career.

Wright showed off again Tuesday. He made a leaping play when he went up to snatch extra bases from Royals catcher Salvador Perez in the fourth inning of a tied game.

Unfortunately for the Mets’ chances of winning this series, Wright could not make the play on the ball hit just about right at him. And that likely had nothing to do with his aching back, but it definitely helped his club lose the first game of this series. 

Afterward, Wright said the error happened because of “an in-between hop,” per Matt Ehalt of the Record. Whatever it was, it hurt, as did his two-out strikeout with two runners on against Ryan Madson on a cutter down and away. That came five pitches after Wright got ahead in the count 3-0.

The Mets now have to regroup and rebound. They still have the better starting pitching. They still have a lineup capable of getting on base and hitting for some power.

They also have their captain. He is still getting on base, and he is still a valuable glove at third base despite his costly error. However, if he stops drawing walks and continues to strike out, the value of his defense and his leadership will not trump his shortcomings. Then, no matter the reason, he will become a liability in this World Series.

For now, the Mets will ride him out because he is their franchise player, hurt or healthy.

 

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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