Ike’s the bunt of jokes
Pushes back with key RBI
How bad were things going for Ike Davis?
He tried to bunt his way on in the second inning last night with no runners on and couldn’t even do that correctly — popping his first attempt foul before eventually bunting out to the pitcher.
“I’m going to do it more often. I mean, I get out a lot anyway, so might as well give it a try,” Davis said. “If I get it down in the right spot, it’s a hit.”
Davis was being a bit too hard on himself on this night. That’s because he redeemed himself with a swinging hit in the sixth inning, an RBI double that proved to be the gamewinner in the Mets’ 41 victory over the Braves at Citi Field.
After failing on that bunt attempt in his first atbat with the shift on, Davis struck out in his next atbat in the fourth inning to a symphony of boos at Citi Field.
“The crowd gets on me no matter what,” he said. “If I take a pitch it’s a boo, so it doesn’t really matter. … The boos don’t really affect me.”
In his third atbat, the boos turned into cheers. With runners on the corners and two strikes, he laced a curveball from Kris Medlen off the wall in right field to drive in Daniel Murphy and give the Mets a 21 lead. They added two more insurance runs in the inning as Davis eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Juan Lagares.
“It probably means even more the fact that he got a pitch that he could handle, even though it was a curveball,” manager Terry Collins said. “Took a good swing at it. These are all confidence-builders, and the more confidence he gets, the more dangerous he becomes.”
It was only the seventh time all year Davis had hits in backtoback games, and the second time he had RBIs in consecutive games after his single accounted for the only Mets run in a 21 loss on Monday.
Davis was batting .150 with five homers and 16 RBIs when he was sent down to TripleA Las Vegas on June 9, spending almost a month there before being recalled on July 5. Davis is batting .263 (10for38) since the promotion.
“I’m just trying to have good atbats every time, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
“It definitely felt great to get a hit off a curveball. I hadn’t driven the ball in a while.”
Collins said he likes the discipline Davis has shown lately.
“I thought the things I saw especially tonight was laying off the balls that were down in the zone,” Collins said.