MLB

Terry Collins happy with Lucas Duda’s run of RBIs

PITTSBURGH — This is the Lucas Duda the Mets want to continue seeing.

The erratic first baseman drove in the Mets’ only runs on Friday, delivering a two-run single in the fourth in his team’s 3-2 loss to the Pirates in 11 innings.

Duda is batting .288 (21-for-73) with five homers and 17 RBIs in June. He also has a solid .825 OPS for the season, but manager Terry Collins is most interested in his RBI production.

“Any time you’re in the middle of that lineup, you’ve got to drive some runs in,” Collins said before the game. “And along with that you’ve got to hit some balls over the fence. That’s what you’re looking for in the middle of that lineup is those RBI guys.”

Duda hit an opposite-field blast on Thursday, giving him homers in consecutive games for the third time in his career.

“That’s the kind of power he’s got, so we’re happy he’s producing those runs,” Collins said. “You continue to get those guys ahead of him on base and if he keeps swinging the way he is, he’s going to accumulate some RBIs.”


Chris Young returned to the starting lineup and went 0-for-5 after sitting the previous game. Collins’ rationale was he needed to get Bobby Abreu a start on Thursday, and the manager made that decision before Young hit three homers in two games beginning Tuesday.


Josh Edgin got Gregory Polanco to fly out in the seventh, and has retired all 20 first batters he has faced this year, the longest such streak to begin a season in franchise history. Overall it’s the longest first-batter streak by a Mets reliever since Jon Rauch’s 28 straight from July 3 to Sept. 9, 2012.