J.D. Davis had been sidelined since the beginning of May after suffering a torn ligament in his left hand. That injury happened to be the start of a slew of injuries that the Mets have suffered all season long. Jonathan Villar filled it quite nicely in Davis’ absence, but the team was happy to see Davis back Saturday night as he went 3-4 including two 2-run home runs.

On the year Davis’ slash line is: .413 BA, 4 HRs, 11 RBIs, and a 1.230 OPS. With the recent injury to Francisco Lindor, and the continuing struggles of the Mets’ offense, not to mention to possibility of the ball club looking to upgrade at third base ahead of the trade deadline, Davis will need to step up. Especially if he wants to prove his worth to the team’s front office.

Davis’ performance was largely wasted as the Mets suffered one of their worst losses of the season, falling 9-7 to the last-place Pirates after leading 6-0 in the eighth. Davis, after the game told reporters:

“I just kept it simple, being in the four-spot you gotta do some damage,” said Davis, who batted cleanup in his first start since May 1 after to a lengthy IL stint. “But at the end of the day, a loss is a loss, and it’s a terrible feeling.”

Davis added:

“The unique thing about baseball is we can come back tomorrow and play a game. I think that’s where we’re at right now with the attitude, turn the page. Losing on a walk-off is a terrible feeling, but it’s only the second game of the second half. We gotta stay positive, we just have to turn the page and get after it tomorrow.”

Manager Luis Rojas commented in his post-game press conference:

“Same J.D., quality at-bats, looking for his pitch, finds his pitch, barrels it, he did an outstanding job,” Rojas said. “We need that offensive boost in the middle of out lineup, and he came in handed and bat cleanup.”

“We moved Pete (Alonso) up to second, just so he’s behind Brandon (Nimmo). Knowing Nimmo’s a guy who gets on base, and Pete will hit with some traffic. Having J.D. in the cleanup will kind of replace a guy like Pete, he’s an outstanding presence batting cleanup for us, he worked really well. That’s the J.D. that we know, we know he’s going to contribute with the bat. He got our offense going, first four runs immediately and then we added two more. I think it’s great we have him in the middle now, I think he’s going to help us score more runs.”

Indeed, scoring more runs is nice. Now if the Mets can only prevent the other team from scoring late, the season may still have some promise especially if players like J.D. Davis continue to produce.