MILWAUKEE — He’s a new man. Maybe.
Ike Davis’ return to the Mets after a three-week exile to Triple-A Las Vegas didn’t produce any thunderous clouts last night, but a 3-for-5 performance with two RBIs and two runs certainly seemed like a step in the right direction for the first baseman.
”Leaving on a bad note and coming back on a good note is nice,” Davis said after the Mets’ 12-5 stomping of the Brewers.
Davis finished with three singles and a walk. His last three-hit game was on Sept. 15 of last season.
”I just thought he took better swings,” manager Terry Collins said. “He’s not overswinging, you can just see he’s calmed everything down and all his actions are calmed down, even the bat speed.
”He’s shorter to the ball than he was early. even though a lot of the things look similar, there’s a couple of major things that he’s obviously made adjustments on and he looks good.”
The jet-lagged first baseman was immediately thrust into the cleanup spot, to test the renovations he made on his swing during his stay at Las Vegas.
”My mind might have had a million different things, but my mechanics sucked,” Davis said upon his arrival at Miller Park. “It’s hard to be free in your mind when you don’t think you can hit your pitches you usually hit. Or if you foul them off every time instead of put them in play. I had to fix mechanical stuff to hopefully not miss my pitches.”
But Davis said the hitch in his swing, which the Mets originally hoped to eliminate, will remain.
”The hitch is not my problem,” Davis said. “It’s just calming everything down, being relaxed and not having so much movement with everything. And when you have movement, having it be the right kind of movement.
”I’m trying to step toward the pitcher now instead of toward the plate, which is allowing my hands to work a little better. Just really cut it down to basics.”
Davis hit .293 with seven homers and 13 RBIs in 21 games for Las Vegas. Included was a Pacific Coast League player of the week award, which Davis said was hung above his locker in the Las Vegas clubhouse.
When the Mets demoted Davis on June 10, he was batting .161 with five homers and 16 RBIs. His return bumped his average all the way up to .173.
Mets brass had threatened to demote Davis in late May, but stuck with him longer in part because Collins didn’t want to disrupt the clubhouse.
”He’s still a huge part of this team even though he hasn’t been here for [three] weeks,” Collins said.
Though a team source said Davis was angry when Zach Lutz got promoted over him two weeks ago when Lucas Duda went on the disabled list, Davis said he understood the organization’s decision to extend his stay in Las Vegas.
“After eight games I felt pretty good,” Davis said. “But you’ve got to give it time and keep working and make sure it wasn’t just one good game that we had, so that’s what we did.”