ST. LOUIS – There are some players who hit for power, some who can run and hit for average, others who excel defensively or have a strong arm.
Met catcher Paul Lo Duca, according to David Wright, gets credit for excelling in an additional category.
“They talk about five tools in baseball,” Wright said yesterday.
“He’s got that sixth, that’s the intangibles. That you can’t teach. He just has a knack for, a nose for, certain situations in the game. And I think that as a player, that’s a huge compliment … He’s a tremendous leader, and on the field, his numbers speak for itself, but off the field, I think he’s just as valuable to his team.” Lo Duca has shown his importance in this past week especially, getting two critical clutch hits for the Mets against two different teams.
The first came Saturday in Milwaukee, when Lo Duca slammed a ninth-inning homer off Derrick Turnbow, breaking a tie and leading the Mets to a 9-8 win. Two nights ago, in the series opener in St. Louis, the catcher lined an RBI double in the seventh to break a tie and lead the Mets to an 8-3 victory.
Lo Duca came up with two outs and Jose Reyes on second base. With men in scoring position and two outs this year, Lo Duca has been exceptional, entering last night hitting .385 (5-for-13), which was tied with Carlos Delgado for team best among regulars.
With runners on base this year, Lo Duca was hitting .310 (13-for-42) with 10 RBIs. Among regular Mets, only Delgado (.343) and Wright (.318) were higher entering last night.
“He’s one of those guys that, even when he’s not getting the clutch hits, even when he’s not playing up to what he thinks his standards are, he lights a fire under the team,” Wright said. “He is a tremendous team leader. And I think he’s just got that knack for coming up there in those big situations and getting it done.” In his first season with the Mets, the 34-year-old Lo Duca went into last night hitting .288 with three homers and 13 RBIs (Former Met catcher Mike Piazza, meanwhile, was hitting .255 with four homers and 12 RBIs). Even though most of the focus at Shea is on position players such as Wright, Delgado, Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd, hits like Tuesday’s prove how important Lo Duca is.
“I like laying in the weeds. It’s good,” Lo Ducas said. “We’ve got a lot of good ballplayers on this team, and I take pride in that, in getting the job done when I have to in a big situation. So that’s what I pride myself on. So hopefully I can keep ’em coming.” Defensively, Lo Duca had thrown out only 19 percent of runners trying to steal (6-for-32) entering yesterday, which ranked eighth out of the 10 qualifying NL catchers.
But Tom Glavine, who pitched on Tuesday, gushed about his catcher.
“He’s been great,” Glavine said. “He knows what we’re trying to do, or at least what I’m trying to do, and he takes pride in what he’s doing back there and he has a lot of input on what we’re seeing during the game and how that dictates his calling of the game.
“And it’s one of those things that he takes a ton of pride in. He likes going out there and executing the gameplan, and for a pitcher, it’s fun having a guy like that back there.”
