Just Mets

Lucas Duda has been mired in such a slump, fans have wondered if his monumental breakout season in 2014 was nothing more than a fluke.

Entering Friday’s game, Duda was just 19-for-his-last-103 with 42 strikeouts at the plate. He had just one home run in those 103 at-bats.

“I’m definitely not doing what I’m capable of. I’m not helping the team in the ways that I should,” Duda explained on Friday.

But for one day anyway, Duda did do what he was capable of, smashing a first inning three-run home run to center field to help provide the Mets a come-from-behind, 3-1 win over the surprising Diamondbacks at Citi Field on Friday night.

“I’m definitely glad to contribute. I haven’t done that in a long time,” Duda said.

No, he hasn’t. It was his first home run since June 18. He only had two extra-base hits since that home run as well, hitting just .121/.216/.152 with 27 strikeouts in that 18 game span.

Michael Cuddyer followed with a solo home run of his own, giving the Mets back-to-back home runs for the first time since May.

“Tonight the two guys we hope to ride in the second half broke out a little bit,” Mets Terry Collins explained. “If we get Cuddy and Lucas going, it just changes the whole dynamic of the lineup. We don’t have to worry about one or two guys. We can spread it out a little bit.”

In regards to Duda, there’s clearly a lot going on with him.

His timing is off on hittable fastballs – he’s very late on pitches he should not only be attacking, but should be demolishing as well. Instead, he’s whiffing on those pitching, which is making it easy for the opposition to follow up with breaking balls outside the zone.

Duda is also not showing the same discipline he showed on those pitches last year and through the first eight weeks of this season, instead chasing and missing too many bad balls specifically down and out of the zone.

Duda hopes he can finish the weekend strong and hit the reset button during the All-Star break.

[I’ll] play these two games, take the All-Star break off, kind of take a deep breath here, relax a bit, and then get back to work,” Duda explained.

Here’s the thing. Even if the Mets acquire a bat, they’re going nowhere unless Duda and Cuddyer step up and play the way they’re capable of playing. On top of that, they need to stay healthy and get healthy if they’re going to survive a pennant race and get to October.

But if they can finally begin firing on all cylinders, the sky might in fact be the limit with this championship caliber pitching staff the Mets possess…