By MARK HALE

Exhibition game No. 2 is scheduled to start in a bit, with the Mets facing the Cardinals. Six Met regulars are playing, with the exceptions being Ramon Castro at catcher (no Paul Lo Duca) and Anderson Hernandez at second (Jose Valentin is out again; he’s been battling a twisted right ankle).

Meanwhile, Lastings Milledge’s right hand could be damaged. Milledge, who got hit on the hand during yesterday’s game, said he needed “to get it checked out” and was going to get x-rays. Milledge was able to throw a ball today, but he didn’t do any hitting.

This would be a pretty bad injury for Milledge if it’s anything significant. He broke his hand in 2004 when he got hit by a pitch.

Yesterday Milledge didn’t need to leave the game, but today he said there was “just a little bit more” pain.

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By the way, today Cards manager Tony La Russa said that he’d rather have Yadier Molina than any big-league catcher. Molina’s a good player, but that’s a pretty ridiculous remark. There’s no way that La Russa wouldn’t prefer Joe Mauer.