Asked how David Wright is compiling one of the more befuddling statistical seasons in baseball history, Jerry Manuel shook his head. 'No clue,' said Manuel, the Mets' manager. 'I'm dumbfounded,' said Razor Shines, the team's third-base coach. 'Baseball's a weird, weird game,' said Howard Johnson, the hitting coach. 'Other than that, I've got no earthly idea.' Almost sheepishly, Wright shrugged when asked for an explanation. He is just as clueless. Defying more than 125 years of precedent is not an easy thing to explain. Midway through June, Wright was leading the major leagues with a .365 batting average going into Wednesday's games while striking out as often as the sport's most feared sluggers. Except, in Wright's case, there have been few home runs to go with all those strikeouts. In a sense, Wright has become a composite of the best and worst traits of Ichiro Suzuki, Juan Pierre and Dave Kingman, on pace to hit 11 homers, strike out 159 times and steal 48 bases while batting 51 points higher than his career average. 'The numbers are kind of hard to argue with, good or bad,' Wright said before Wednesday's game against the Orioles. 'I've never gone out and said, 'I'm this type of player, I have to hit this average, I have to hit this many home runs, I have to drive in this many runs.' Whatever the game calls for, that's what I'm up there trying to do.' According to the Web site Baseball-Reference.com, only three players have struck out at least 159 times in a season and hit better than .300: Ryan Howard, in 2006 (181, .313), Bobby Bonds, in 1970 (189, .302) and Sammy Sosa in 1998 (171, .308) and 2000 (168, .320). Only Bonds (26) hit fewer than 50 home runs during those seasons. Through the Mets' first 62 games, Wright has four. After a slow first three weeks at the plate that inflated his strikeout numbers, Wright has been the Mets' Mr. Consistency while overcoming his anxiety with runners in scoring position. Going into Wednesday's game, he was batting .351 in that situation. Wright took a step back on Wednesday. He was hitless in five at-bats, snapping his 11-game hitting streak. He struck out twice and, with a runner on base, made the last out in the Mets' 6-4 loss to the Orioles. Away from the batter's box, the 26-year-old Wright is trying to assert himself more as a leader, particularly in the way he deals with the Mets' pitching staff. At least once a game, Wright leaves his position at third base to talk to the starting pitcher, sharing observations, encouragement or sometimes just giving him a rest. On Tuesday night, television cameras captured Wright in an animated discussion with Mike Pelfrey in the dugout, challenging Pelfrey not to be satisfied with a performance that began strongly but ended before the sixth inning was over. 'You just have to know different types of personalities,' said Wright, who has long been nominated by fans and members of the news media for a role he seems to be finally trying on. 'I've gotten a chance to see Pelfrey from Day 1 and see him struggle and see what he needs to do to be successful. I don't know about pitching, but by now I think I know what to say to help a guy feel better or help get his focus back.' As for that unusually high batting average, Shines noted that teams still respect Wright's power and have their outfielders play him deep, which has allowed Wright to hit any number of drives that fall in front of them. Johnson said Wright, a naturally strong opposite-field hitter, has taken advantage of spacious Citi Field to pile up hits. 'You've got no fielders out there,' Manuel said in exaggerated reference to Citi Field's big outfield. 'You just hit it and it's a hit.' Actually, that is basically what is happening. Through Tuesday, Wright had hit safely on 49.7 percent of the balls he has put in play, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. That is the highest percentage in baseball this season, and if Wright maintains that pace he will hold the career record, surpassing Babe Ruth's 48.1 percentage compiled in 1923. Ruth struck out a lot, too, but he balanced that with tremendous power. Johnson said he expected Wright's home run totals to increase and his strikeouts to decrease, pointing to Wright's recent hot stretch. In batting .558 over his last 11 games going into Wednesday, Wright struck out only seven times. 'That tells me that things are starting to click,' Johnson said. At some point, Wright expects his numbers to even out. He will hit a few more homers and strike out a little less, and some of those balls that are dropping in for hits may wind up in fielders' gloves. But until that happens, Wright will keep doing what he has been doing, which has hardly been done before. 