ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s called Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, but to the Mets it became one giant Duda Ranch yesterday.
Lucas Duda owned the joint, with the performance of his young career: Four hits, including three doubles — tying a franchise record — and four RBIs. The Mets have been waiting for this from the promising rookie.
“[This] was actually a big confidence builder and hopefully I can build on it and continue it,” Duda said after the Mets’ 14-5 demolition of the Rangers.
The Mets not only had their biggest scoring output of the season, but they matched a season high with 17 hits and had their biggest inning of 2011 — an eight-run sixth in which the first eight batters reached base.
Not bad for a lineup that included reserves Willie Harris and Jason Pridie on a day Jason Bay and Justin Turner took a seat to rest nagging injuries.
Harris finished 2-for-6 with an RBI as the designated hitter. Carlos Beltran finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Josh Thole was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Angel Pagan was the only starter without a hit.
The Mets (38-39) went homerless for a fourth straight game, but that didn’t seem to matter as they banged the ball in every direction, finishing with 13 singles, three doubles and a triple. Duda’s three-double performance was the 25th in Mets history.
“He’s here, he’s playing pretty good and he’s swinging pretty good,” manager Terry Collins said of Duda, noting the rookie’s confidence problems. “I think he should start having some confidence in his ability, because this guy’s got a chance to be a real good hitter.”
Jonathon Niese (7-6) rebounded from a sluggish performance against the Angels by holding Texas to two earned runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings. The left-hander surrendered consecutive homers to Adrian Beltre and Michael Young in the fourth, but otherwise encountered little resistance.
Niese was removed for precautionary reasons in the sixth inning because of a rapid heartbeat, perhaps related to the heat — it was 94 degrees at first pitch. But Niese was examined by a Rangers team doctor and said he doesn’t expect the heartbeat to prevent him from making his next start.
“Our hitters did an outstanding job of getting the lead and it was great,” Niese said. “It was fun to watch.”
The game turned into a rout in the sixth, when the Mets scored eight runs — seven of them before Texas recorded the first out of the inning. Five straight singles had produced two runs before Pagan walked to load the bases.
Duda came up and smashed a two-run double to the base of the center field fence. He said he thought he had perhaps ended a Mets grand slam drought that dates to August of 2009.
“I hit it pretty well and the ball travels pretty well here,” Duda said. “But I was still running. I was still on my horse.”
Thole then delivered a two-run double and Ruben Tejada a sacrifice fly. The Mets hadn’t scored eight runs in an inning since June 22 of last year against Detroit.
The Mets roughed up Rangers starter Alexi Ogando (7-3) with a three-run first inning, highlighted by Carlos Beltran’s two-run triple. Beltre’s fielding error in the third opened the door for the Mets to score three unearned runs and take a 6-0 lead. Duda’s two-run double sparked the inning.
“This kid [Ogando] has a great arm, and we just got balls and put good swings on them,” Collins said.