While manager Terry Collins declined to reveal his lineup for Wednesday’s Wild Card game against the San Francisco Giants, it appears that James Loney will be at first base instead of Lucas Duda.
“I’ve got a good feeling,” said a smiling Loney when asked if he was told he’d be in the lineup.
Collins did reveal that he will be going with nine pitchers, leaving him plenty of options among his 16 position players.
“I have a lineup and I’m not going to reveal it. We used a lot of players to get to where we are. And so, there are a lot of pieces that are not going to be part of the roster tomorrow night, which may change if we get to a multi-game series. We had to make decisions on the guys we think are best prepared, best ready for one game and it’s hard, very hard.”
Original Report – Oct 3
On Wednesday, October 5, the New York Mets will face Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants in the National League Wild Card game. The only big question remaining for the starters is who will be playing first base?
You can make strong points for both Lucas Duda and James Loney. There had been some reports suggesting that Eric Campbell may even get the nod due to being a righty bat. That thankfully though was laid to rest on Sunday according to a couple of reports.
So we are left with Duda or Loney. For Lucas’ case, he has just come back from the Disabled List and has not seen too much action as of late, appearing in eight games since his return on September 18. Over that span, he is 5-for-23 with no homers and four RBI.
Duda has only faced Bumgarner once in his career and is 0-for-1 against him. Overall against LHP, he has hit to a .224/.295/.364 battling line to go along with 17 homers and 70 RBI over 634 plate appearances.
Loney on the other hand has had some clutch at-bats as of late, including the decisive two-run bomb on Saturday that helped the Mets clinch the top Wild Card spot. Over his last 15 games, Loney has hit to a .267/.298/.467 batting line to go with two homers and five RBI.
He has also had some experience against Bumgarner, going 2-for-13 while facing him. Overall against LHP, Loney has hit to a .251/.299/.347 batting line to go with five homers and 20 RBI over 1,377 plate appearances.
The production difference is quite stark between the two when comparing those numbers. Yes, Loney hits for a better average but Duda will be a threat in every at-bat he takes.
Both first baseman provide somewhat similar defense, so there is no step lost there. It all comes down to offense, especially in a game where runs could be quite hard to come by. I would have to put Duda in the starting lineup, if I was playing manager for the day. Who would you put in?
