Before flying out in his final at-bat during Tuesday night’s game four, Lucas Duda had struck out in six consecutive plate appearances. Overall, Lucas has gone 2-for-15 in the NLDS with 0 HR and 0 RBI’s.
Duda is a big part of this line-up and the Mets need to have him get it going in this win or go home finale. He is known to be a streaky hitter and seemed to be getting it going at the right time towards the end of the regular season, but he hit a cold streak yet again as we marched into October playoff baseball. Duda seems to be pressing at the plate and is constantly looking overmatched.
“He gets himself into situation where he thinks he’s gotta hit home runs instead of just getting some line drives and base hits,” Terry Collins said after the Mets dropped game four of the National League Division Series. “He’s a piece of our lineup that we desperately need to produce runs for us, and right now he’s struggling.” (MLB)
There has been much debate on the internet and radio airwaves on whether the Mets should start Michael Cuddyer over Duda in game five tonight, but Collins is sticking with his man. The one thing about Duda is that every time he steps up to the plate you may see a 450 foot monster shot to right field, and that hope is something that keeps him in the line-up.
In game two of the series, Duda went 0-for-3 with a strike-out against Dodgers ace, Zack Greinke. Lifetime, Duda is 3-for-12 against Greinke, one of those hits was a home-run as well. Duda knows when going up against the Dodger aces it is never an easy battle.
“They’ve got great stuff,” Duda said, speaking of Greinke and Clayton Kershaw. “You just have to go out there and try to battle, see how it goes.”
If there was ever a game this team needed a big blast from their starting first basemen, today would be that day. Duda will look to rebound tonight and get himself on track as the Mets and Dodgers play game five of the NLDS at 8:00 PM EST.
