The game that was scheduled to be played last night will now be played on July 2, sandwiched between road trips to Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
Instead of skipping someone’s turn in the rotation, everyone gets pushed back a day, with Mike Pelfrey pitching this afternoon and Tim Redding facing his former team, the Nationals, in the first game of that series on Friday.
This is probably the best-case scenario. With the way Redding has pitched lately, he is much better suited to start against the lowly Nats. This also will allow Johan Santana to start the first game of a very important series against the Phillies, who are tearing up their competition right now. They’ve won 16 of their last 20 games. Santana, who hasn’t really been his usual dominant self, probably could use the extra day.
In other news, Jose Reyes suffered a setback in the rehab of his tendinitis. He said his leg had felt better, but when he tried to run full bore in an extended Spring Training game, he felt pain again. Reyes was scheduled to join the team on Friday, but now he’s just coming back to New York for more tests.
For now, Bobby Parnell will be the setup man in the Mets’ bullpen. According to MLB.com, Jerry Manuel told JJ Putz he will pitch in the seventh inning. Pitching coach Dan Warthen detected a major flaw in Putz’s mechanics, so hopefully with a little time, Putz will be back in the setup role. Otherwise, hello Parnell.