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| There has certainly been a lot of this for Lucas Duda at Citi Field this year. (Rich Schultz/Getty Images) |
Lucas Duda has been the top power hitter for the Mets over the past two seasons, blasting 51 home runs since the start of the 2014 campaign. Duda's 95 career homers are the already the fourth highest total among left-handed batters in team history. The only other lefty-swinging sluggers ahead of him are Darryl Strawberry (252 HR), Ed Kranepool (118 HR) and Carlos Delgado (104 HR).
Given good health and a multi-year contract, Duda could one day find his name at or near the top of the leaderboard of most of the team's power-hitting categories. But Duda may very well shatter an odd team record this year, especially if he continues to turn Citi Field into the House That Luke Built.
Entering Monday's series opener against the Colorado Rockies, Duda has hit 18 home runs this season at Citi Field. The only batter in Mets history to hit more than 21 homers at home in a single season is Darryl Strawberry, who jacked 24 dingers at Shea Stadium in 1990. The only other Mets sluggers to surpass Duda's current total at home in one year are Dave Kingman (1982), Howard Johnson (1989, 1991), Todd Hundley (1996), Cliff Floyd (2005), Carlos Delgado (2008) and David Wright (2008). Keep in mind that those batters accomplished their home run totals over a full season, while Duda still has nearly two months of home games to add to his total.
Duda has a total of 21 home runs this season. So if 18 of those have been hit at Citi Field, that means he's hit just three homers on the road. If that seems like a large disparity between home and road homers, that's because it is. In fact, no player in Mets history has ever hit as many as a dozen more homers at home than he did on the road in one season, and only nine players have hit as many as seven more, as seen in the chart below.
Player
|
Year
|
Total HR
|
Home HR
|
Road HR
|
Difference
|
Darryl Strawberry
|
1990
|
37
|
24
|
13
|
11
|
Jim Hickman
|
1963
|
17
|
13
|
4
|
9
|
David Wright
|
2008
|
33
|
21
|
12
|
9
|
Marv Throneberry
|
1962
|
16
|
12
|
4
|
8
|
Steve Henderson
|
1977
|
12
|
10
|
2
|
8
|
Hubie Brooks
|
1984
|
16
|
12
|
4
|
8
|
Carl Everett
|
1997
|
14
|
11
|
3
|
8
|
Cliff Floyd
|
2005
|
34
|
21
|
13
|
8
|
Kevin McReynolds
|
1987
|
29
|
18
|
11
|
7
|
Prior to the recent road trip to Miami and Tampa Bay, Duda became the first Met to hit nine home runs in an eight-game stretch. All of those home runs were hit at Citi Field. Duda hasn't gone deep on the road since June 18 in Toronto.
Lucas Duda is already the Mets' all-time leader in home runs at Citi Field with 55, despite not making his Citi Field debut until the final month of the 2010 campaign. David Wright is the only player within striking distance - he has 46 - and no one else has hit more than 30.
Very few Mets players, regardless of the ballpark they call home, have hit the majority of their round trippers in front of the home fans. But Lucas Duda is trying to go where no Mets slugger has gone before. With seven more homers at Citi Field this season, he will become the first Met to hit as many as 25 HR at home in one season. And as long as his road homers don't outnumber his home blasts by more than three during the season's final two months, he will be the first to hit at least 12 more home runs at home than he hit on the road in franchise history.
Lucas Duda has gone from a player who wasn't assured an everyday job at first base entering the 2014 season to the most prolific home run hitter in Citi Field's seven-year history. And that turnaround could cause several chapters in the Mets' records books to be rewritten after this year.
