Mets Game 4: Lineup vs. Reds

Here are tonight’s lineups for the Mets and Reds, including Terry Collins‘ choice of first baseman for the next two weeks:

Mets
Eric Young Jr., lf
Daniel Murphy, 2b
David Wright, 3b
Curtis Granderson, rf
Lucas Duda, 1b
Juan Lagares, cf
Travis d’Arnaud, c
Ruben Tejada, ss
Jenrry Mejia, rhp

Reds
Roger Bernadina, cf
Brandon Phillips, 2b
Joey Votto, 1b
Jay Bruce, rf
Ryan Ludwick, lf
Todd Frazier 3b
Brayan Pena, c
Ramon Santiago ss
Mike Leake, rhp

So, as had been rumored, Lucas Duda wins the lottery for first crack at the first-base job. Collins had suggested that the winner would get somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-70 at-bats to prove himself. We’ll see how it goes. Personally, I don’t know what went into the decision and don’t care — just glad that someone is going to get a legitimate opportunity. Both Duda and Ike Davis have big swings that tend not to do well in short spurts — you kind of have to wait for the hot streaks to happen.

Anyone have any idea why Eric Young, Jr. is leading off, rather than scorching-hot Juan Lagares? I don’t see Lagares as a long-term leadoff man, but as long as he’s swinging well, doesn’t it make sense to get him plenty of ABs? And perhaps bat the pitcher 8th and Young 9th as an “extra” leadoff guy who can be driven in by David Wright? Or did that idea go out the window already? I don’t know that batting the pitcher 8th makes any sense or not, but if you’re going to experiment with it, now would be the time — when Lagares is hot and can be batted first, when Young is struggling and might benefit from being lower in the order, and the offense is not scoring enough and could use a little shake-up.

This could be the night the Mets win their first game of 2014, considering the Reds are a little banged up and without a few of their starting position players, Leake is far from their best starter, there’s no Aroldis Chapman for the 9th, and Jenrry Mejia is something of an unknown entity to the Reds hitters. Any astronomers out there who can confirm that the planets are properly aligned?