Michael Cuddyer continued his hot hitting last night in Philadephia where he went 3-for-5 with a home run, double, and 3 RBI in a Mets 9-4 win over the Phillies.
In 13 games since being activated from the DL, Cuddyer is batting .369 with four doubles, two home runs, and seven RBI in 39 at-bats.
“I feel better, my knees feel better. But it’s also just baseball, you go through hot spells and cold spells and fortunately right now I’m swinging the bat well,” said Cuddyer. “I’m not missing the pitches that I was missing earlier.”
Cuddyer is now 6-for-9 with four RBI in two out of the three games he’s started in this series. The one game he did not start was the Tuesday night game where he had a huge pinch-hit two-run single to break a 4-4 tie in the top half of the 6th inning.
When Cudder came off of the DL it was with the understanding that he would probably lose his hold on an everyday job with the acquisition of Yoenis Cesedes and the emergence of Michael Conforto, relegating him to a platoon role.
However, Cuddyer seems to have accepted this role just fine, and it’s certainly played a big part in the team’s recent success. “I’m happy for the team. We’re playing better and we’re a better ball club,” said Cuddyer. “No matter who we play we go out there and we expect to win.”
I always felt that if the Mets could get anything substantial out of Cuddyer after the DL, with the way the team had been hitting, that it would just be gravy.
Cuddyer has not only been hitting, he’s also only struck out four times since returning from the DL. This is good to see as I often thought there were instances before he went on the DL where he would consistantly chase pitches outside of the strike zone.
On the year Cuddyer is batting .263 with 10 HR and 37 RBI. Prior to going on the DL he had been hitting just .250
His home run in the top of the 8th inning last night was the Mets 40th home run in August. That tied the club record for the most home runs in any month since June of 2006. There are still five games left to be played in the month.
