Jose Reyes won’t be the only Met heading into the second half of the season with a sore hand. First baseman Carlos Delgado suffered a bruised left hand in the first half of yesterday’s doubleheader with Florida, eventually leaving the contentious 3-2 loss to the Marlins.
Leading off the second inning, Delgado got hit by a full-count Josh Johnson pitch, wincing with pain and flexing his hand. He stayed in the game long enough to fan on 90 mph heat leading off the fourth, but with the bases loaded in the very next frame, Willie Randolph lifted him for pinch-hitter Julio Franco.
X-rays were negative, and the Mets are listing him as day-to-day. But considering the way the 34-year-old has been both hurting and slumping, and how Franco has played – he drew an RBI walk, then led off the eighth with a single – it’s hard to picture the Mets trying to play him in today’s series finale.
“He couldn’t tighten the bat in his hands. It’s just a bruise in the knuckle area,” Randolph said before the nightcap, which Delgado sat out.
He was one of three Mets that got hit in the early game, although he is the only one that was forced out of action.
“That happens sometimes. Guys try to pitch inside and every once in awhile it gets away,” Randolph said philosophically. “That’s part of the game. You’ve just got to ride with it.”
What has been hard to ride with has been the recent funk Delgado is mired in.
He is 7-for-46 with 11 strikeouts and just six RBI since the start of the Reds series on June 19. And worse, since aggravating his sore right rib cage on a swinging strike Wednesday June 28 in Boston – he stayed in that game, but missed the next three and DHed in a fourth – he has struggled mightily.
Delgado is just 1-for-16 since his return, with six strikeouts and just one lonely RBI. The break can’t come soon enough for the slugger.