Dodgers 15
Mets 3
PORT ST. LUCIE – Nine days ago, Mike Cameron said the pain in the bone spur under his right big toe had subsided and insisted he was having no difficulty. Last night was pretty good evidence of that.
In the Mets’ 15-3 loss to the Dodgers, Cameron showed off his athleticism twice, sprinting well both occasions.
In the second inning, Cameron smacked a hard single to left and moved to second on Jason Phillips’ single. Cameron then exhibited some heads-up baserunning, stealing third when he noticed that Dodger third baseman Adrian Beltre wasn’t covering the bag and later scoring on a wild pitch.
Cameron also made a terrific defensive play in the third when Jose Hernandez shot a liner into the right-center-field gap. Racing over, Cameron stabbed the bounding ball with a sliding stop, cutting the ball off and firing it back in to the infield. Hernandez had to settle for a single.
“He knows only one way to play and that’s hard,” Art Howe said.
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Jae Weong Seo rolled through the first two innings, retiring the side in order each time. But in the third inning, he was rocked, allowing seven runs and recording only two outs before being pulled.
Seo’s outing was actually interrupted just three pitches into the game when a transformer blew in the area, causing several light failures. After an hour-long delay, play resumed, and Seo went back to the mound. But he refused to blame his poor outing on the 60-minute recess.
“I just didn’t make my pitches,” he said. “I felt on the mound I lost command of all my pitches.”
Seo was hit hard in his previous outing, also against the Dodgers, surrendering eight runs in 42/3 innings. His spring ERA is 9.53.
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Kaz Matsui batted righty three times last night and, coincidentally, faced another Japanese player named Kaz the first two at-bats in southpaw Kaz Ishii. Matsui flied out to right before walking and scoring a run, and later he singled off reliever Tom Martin. Matsui also faced NL Cy Young winner Eric Gagne for the first time and grounded back to the mound. The shortstop was impressed with the star closer. “Wow,” said Matsui, who also committed his first error of the spring when he threw a ball away in the eighth inning.
The Mets want a backup middle infielder and an excellent defensive one is available, but the Mets are not interested in Rey Ordonez, who has left the Padres . . . Karim Garcia (left wrist tendinitis) has missed the last two games and will be re-evaluated today.
