Mets Have Worst Record in NL

From the New York Times:

While discussing the various injuries and roster moves the Mets were facing heading into Saturday’s doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, Manager Terry Collins mentioned the possibility of left fielder Jason Bay being activated by Tuesday, provided things broke correctly for the Mets, which has not happened much for them so far this season.

“Ideally in a perfect world, yeah,” Collins said. “Which, you know, now, it’s not really perfect.”

If he meant that things could not be much worse, then, yes, the world is not really perfect for the Mets right now. They had lost five games in a row coming into Saturday, were angered that they had to play a second doubleheader in three days, and their mostly ineffective pitching was thrown into even more disarray because Chris Young’s right shoulder continues to bother him.

Collins’s comment came before the Braves beat the Mets, 4-2, sending them to their ninth loss in 10 games as their record fell to 4-10. The Braves used four solo home runs, including one by Chipper Jones, two by Alex Gonzalez and the final one by the rookie Freddie Freeman, to engineer their victory.

Before the games, the Mets placed Young, their most impressive new pitcher, on the disabled list with biceps tendinitis in his right shoulder. The move was made retroactive to April 11. Young, who had been scheduled to start Sunday, last pitched on April 10, and he will miss at least two starts.

The Mets were expected to call up Dillon Gee from Class AAA Buffalo to start in place of Young on Sunday. Gee would be the fourth pitcher the Mets have called up from Buffalo just two weeks into the season.

Although Young and the Mets have played down the severity of this injury, it has to be worrisome because Young is coming off a shoulder injury that limited him to four starts last season. Young said this injury was not related to the old one, and he anticipated it would not prevent him from coming off the disabled list on April 26.

“The irritation of the biceps tendon is just lingering, and the best thing for it is rest,” he said.

Young said he had not had a magnetic resonance imaging test on the shoulder, in part because he did not think it would be helpful, even though an M.R.I. is an often standard procedure with any injury involving the shoulder or elbow. But Young, who had arthroscopic surgery on the shoulder in 2009, said his experience from last year made him reluctant to undergo such testing.

“We did a bunch of M.R.I.’s, a bunch of tests, and a lot of them were inconclusive and it almost created more questions than answers,” he said. “You talk to the doctors, and treating the symptoms is a better solution at this point.”

Young had been scheduled to pitch Friday, but when the shoulder pain flared, his start was pushed back to Sunday. Relief pitcher D. J. Carrasco was tabbed as his replacement.

Carrasco, who had made only one start since 2005, was not awful, but he gave up three solo home runs as the Braves took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning.

The Mets scored runs in the fifth and sixth innings against Braves starter Derek Lowe, who allowed far too many base runners. In the fifth, Josh Thole led off with a single and scored when Jose Reyes hit into a fielder’s choice. In the sixth, Carlos Beltran drew a one-out walk and scored on Willie Harris’s two-out double into the gap in left-center field.

Harris has started 10 of the Mets first 14 games in left field, but his time there is likely coming to an end. Bay, who has been out since spring training with a strained intercostal muscle in his rib cage, has been playing in games for Class A St. Lucie in the Florida State League. If he continues to recover, he could rejoin the Mets in New York on Tuesday.

After Friday’s game was rained out and a doubleheader was scheduled for Saturday, the Mets protested to Major League Baseball because of the strain consecutive doubleheaders would place on their pitching staff. But the home team is allowed to unilaterally decide the makeup date, and with the Mets scrambling to call up pitchers and make roster moves, the Braves chose to force the Mets to play two games immediately.

The decision infuriated General Manager Sandy Alderson, but the Mets had no recourse. Collins was asked if he understood why the Braves would press their competitive advantage.

“Do I understand?” he responded. “I don’t really care to comment on it at all. They told me I’ve got to play. I’ve got to play.”