MET NOTES
With yesterday’s Met game against Milwaukee rained out, the Amazin’s will play a doubleheader today starting at 4:40 p.m.
Al Leiter (1-4), trying to break out of his recent funk, will start the opener against yesterday’s scheduled Brewer start, ex-Yankee Jim Abbott (0-4). Then Masato Yoshii (3-3) will pitch the nightcap against Milwaukee’s Steve Woodard (3-3).
Leiter and Yoshii are two pitchers on two very different streaks. Leiter’s last outing was a disastrous three-inning, six-run disaster, after which he saw his ERA bloat to 6.12. But Yoshii, who had started the season in horrible fashion, has bounced back to give up just three runs in his last 18 innings, over three starts. And, in a hot streak like this, he isn’t about to let a little thing like a rain-out disrupt his rhythm.
“No problem,” Yoshii said. “These kinds of things happen in baseball all the time. If one gets bothered by it, they shouldn’t be pitching at this level.”
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Leadoff man Rickey Henderson was eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday, but he ran on Monday and still couldn’t turn on his sore right knee. The Mets wouldn’t let him run on it Tuesday or yesterday because of the wet grass, but manager Bobby Valentine seemed hopeful for today.
“We very well could activate him [today]. We would’ve tested him [yesterday]. If he feels really good, I would think he’d be activated,” Valentine said.
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Right fielder Bobby Bonilla’s sore right knee is apparently making progress, and he switched to a lighter brace Tuesday … Mets righthanded prospect Jae Weong Seo, who has been pitching for Port St. Lucie, has been sent to Dr. Frank Jobe in California to have his torn elbow ligaments examined. Jobe pioneered the so-called Tommy John surgery, and if Seo needs that procedure, it would be season-ending and could be career-threatening.
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Tomorrow, Orel Hershiser (2-4) opens the Philadelphia series against Carlton Loewer (2-3) at 7:10 p.m. Bobby Jones (3-2) goes against Paul Byrd (5-2) Saturday at 1:40 p.m., and Rick Reed (3-1) closes the series against Curt Schilling (7-1) Sunday at 1:40 p.m.
