During the just concluded Mets road trip that included a seven game losing streak, the team received very poor production from Lucas Duda or Michael Cuddyer. While many of the lineup’s struggles could be blamed on injuries, the middle of the order is simply failing to step up during the absences of David Wright and Daniel Murphy.
Lucas Duda is batting .120 over the last eight games, and his average stands at .181 during the month of June. His OPS has plummeted from .934 to .831 in this span.
“It’s human nature to try to do more,” Long, the hitting coach, said before the game. “You have to be smart about your at-bats. If you’re not getting good pitches, you need to keep the bat on your shoulder and take the pitch.”
“It’s a hard thing to do, especially when you’re in the middle of the order and other guys are depending on you. In this case, Lucas has to wait and get pitches he can handle, or else it will compound on him and get worse.” (Tim Rohan, NY Times)
Meanwhile, Cuddyer has just six home runs with a .251 average in 67 games this year. The Mets sacrificed a first round pick in this year’s draft for Cuddyer, who was signed to a two-year, $21 million dollar deal last off season.
Cuddyer is batting .199 with just three extra-base hits in his last 62 plate appearances and in the month of June has just a .588 OPS.
“That’s baseball,” Cuddyer said Sunday. “You have years and months where things don’t go your way. It’s not the first time that I’ve hit in double plays.”
“It stinks. I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it. But you continue to prepare and you continue to put the work in and you hope those things change.” (Mike Vorkunov, NJ.com)
New York’s lineup now ranks 27th in the MLB in runs scored and 28th in OPS. If the Mets are going to get back in contention, they desperately need Duda and Cuddyer to turn things around.
