PORT ST. LUCIE — It’s game on between Ike Davis and Lucas Duda.
The battle for the Mets’ starting first-base job is off at a respectable pace, with some of the best swings in Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Nationals — the Grapefruit League opener for both teams — coming from Davis and Duda.
Davis, who started at first base, hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning and finished 1-for-3. Duda started at designated hitter and finished 1-for-3 with a double, but was robbed of an extra-base hit by Eury Perez’s diving catch in the second inning.
“I really think they are bound and determined to make every game count,” manager Terry Collins said. “As I’ve told them both, ‘I know it’s spring training, and we’ve got a long way to go, but each time you’re out there you’ve got to get yourself ready to play,’ and that showed today.”
Each is expected to receive upward of 80 plate appearances this spring as Collins tries to settle on a first baseman for Opening Day and beyond. The loser could begin the season at Triple-A Las Vegas or get traded.
Davis was caught looking at strike three from Taylor Jordan to end the first inning before flying out in the fourth and crushing a Christian Garcia change up in the fifth for a two-run homer.
“I can tell in BP, I’m hitting the ball a little better than last year,” said Davis, who batted .205 with nine homers and 33 RBIs in 2013. “It’s all about making contact, and I’m putting the ball on the barrel more often than I have, so it’s going to take time in games.
“I have put up decent numbers in spring training before and the biggest thing last year was I hit [.327], but I didn’t drive the ball. I had only one home run all of spring training. If I can drive the ball, and just keep making solid contact, that’s the biggest thing.”
Davis battled an oblique injury for most of last season — without telling team officials — before missing the final month, after the muscle popped. He spent much of the offseason trying to rediscover the swing that helped him hit 32 homers in 2012.
“He looks more like the guy I saw when I first came to this organization,” said Collins, who joined the Mets in 2010 as minor league field coordinator. “A guy with the bat coming through the zone, much better swing path through the zone. He got so fly ball crazy that he created such a huge uppercut that he created holes. Those holes aren’t there right now. At least they haven’t been in batting practice, and his bat path is much improved.”
Duda hit a shot on which Perez made a diving grab in the second inning before hitting a broken-bat shot to right that one-hopped the fence in the fourth.
To show the organization he is serious about trying to claim the starting job at first, Duda was among a group of Mets players that attended a conditioning and nutrition program in Michigan this offseason.
“I feel good up there so far and hopefully it will continue,” Duda said.
But Duda tried to downplay the fact he is competing against his friend Davis for a job.
“I watch [Davis’] at-bats — the way they pitch him they might pitch me,” Duda said. “But I’m always rooting for Ike, and he had a great day today and I was happy for him.”