MET NOTES
With Rick Reed still unable to catch a baseball because of his sprained left wrist and bruised hand, Pat Mahomes will oppose Darren Dreifort when the Mets and Dodgers play a makeup of a snowed-out game at Shea this afternoon.
This is good for Mahomes, who said yesterday that sometimes earlier in his career as a starter, with five days to prepare he would “overthink” about each hitter.
“[This way] I don’t have a lot of time to think about it,” said Mahomes, who this season owns a 1-0 record and a 2.25 ERA in 16 innings, which includes one start.
With Mahomes starting, 35-year-old knuckleballer Dennis Springer will fill the emergency long-relief role today even though he started on Saturday. Springer went 5 1/3 innings in Game 2 that day, giving up three earned runs in a no-decision.
As for Reed, he threw off the mound yesterday, but, like a quarterback warming up, he didn’t catch the ball. He still is having trouble putting on a glove. However, he probably will not end up on the disabled list.
“It’s unlikely,” GM Steve Phillips said.
Bobby Valentine said that there is a possibility that Reed could come back for a start Wednesday vs. the Reds.
“We’ll put a red shirt on him next time he pitches,” joked Phillips.
If Reed is not ready, Springer – if he doesn’t throw in relief – is expected to start Wednesday, with Glendon Rusch pitching Thursday.
There’s encouraging news for Fresno Bobby Jones. The right-hander, who is on the 15-day DL with a strained right calf muscle, threw in the bullpen yesterday. Jones is scheduled to come off the disabled list on May 2 and he thinks he can be ready by then. The orginal estimate for Jones, who was put on the list on April 17, was two-to-four weeks.
“It will definitely not be four weeks,” Jones said.
Jones said he is getting closer, but he still can’t run.
Phillips said that Jones might need to go on a rehab assignment before being ready to pitch in the majors.
After passing kidney stones on Saturday, Jay Payton returned to the starting lineup yesterday. He went 1-for-5 with an RBI single … Valentine said that Rey Ordonez is fine after having a small back spasm in the fourth inning of yesterday’s game. Ordonez stayed in, but came out shortly thereafter when Valentine emptied his bench in the blowout.
After the White Sox-Tigers brawl Saturday, Valentine was asked if he had ever tried to charge the mound. He said one time after a Clyde Wright fastball breezed by his head, he got up to go the mound. But Wright, who had told Valentine beforehand he was going after him, had charged the plate. Valentine remembered with a smile the reason why Wright, a former teammate of Valentine’s, wanted to hit him.
“Obviously, I said something that [peeved] him off, but what’s new?,” Valentine said.