MET NOTES
For the first time since Game 5 of last year’s World Series, Braden Looper will return to the mound at Pro Player Stadium.
“It’s exciting,” the Mets closer said of the likelihood he’ll face his former Marlins teammates this weekend. “There’s always a little added adrenaline rush when you’re facing the team that you were with, especially a team like that where I know that many guys on the team.
“It’ll be fun. I’m glad I got to face them in spring training. That kind of gets the first initial shock out of the way. But I’m looking forward to it.”
Looper might be looking forward to it even more if he were pitching the way he had been until a week ago. After his brilliant start, in which he reeled off 21 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run, Looper has surrendered earned runs in two of his past three outings.
Wednesday in a 7-4 loss to the Phillies, Looper allowed a run in the ninth on one hit and two walks. His ERA is 1.09.
* Jose Reyes received treatment on his sore back at the Mets’ complex in St. Lucie yesterday. His rehab schedule remains day-to-day . . . Mike Piazza‘s 12-game hitting streak is a Mets season-high, and it hasn’t been a series of 1-for-4s. Piazza has been pounding the ball, hitting .419 in the 12 games (18-for-43), raising his average 37 points from .280 to .317. He’s slugged four homers and driven in eight runs . . . Mike Cameron, bothered by the strained ligaments in his right hand, is in a 6-for-56 slide that has dropped his average to .200. That’s lowest among all NL hitters who have enough at-bats to qualify.
* Pitching matchups for the Marlins series: tonight, Tom Glavine (6-2, 2.13 ERA) vs. LHP Dontrelle Willis (4-3, 4.38); tomorrow, Jae Seo (2-4, 5.30) vs. RHP Carl Pavano (4-2, 3.68); Sunday, Steve Trachsel (5-3, 2.83) vs. RHP Josh Beckett (4-4, 3.95).