Lucas Duda took responsibility for failing to run out a popup in the first inning, which ended up dropping in shallow left field.

A day after chastising his team and suggesting they may have quit (which he later retracted), Terry Collins felt compelled to pull Duda from Friday's game for the lack of hustle. The Mets ultimately beat the Marlins, 7-3.

Duda said he was frustrated from missing solid contact on the pitch from right-hander Jacob Turner and jogged to first base for that reason -- although he acknowledged that was no valid excuse.

"I was frustrated and I didn't bust down the line and Terry pulled me out," Duda said. "That's pretty much how it is. I would have done the same thing. I mean, I didn't run. That's part of the game -- you've got to play the game hard. And I didn't run."

Said Collins: "I know he didn't do it on purpose. A routine fly ball, you get caught up in that stuff in the big leagues. But as I told him when he came off the field, we've made a statement here that we're not going to play the game like that, especially right now. Had we won 10 of the last 12, or 15 of the last 20, you can kind of turn your head. But I couldn't turn my head tonight.

"[First-base coach] Tommy Goodwin said he came right back to first base and said, 'Tommy, I'm sorry. I messed up.' He knew it. The other guys knew it. But after what's happened last night and what's happened in the last six weeks, something had to be done."