PHILADELPHIA — Make room for Josh Thole on the Mets’ all-time blooper reel.
The catcher snoozed for at least a few seconds during last night’s second inning at Citizens Bank Park and ended up embarrassed.
Thole was on first base when R.A. Dickey delivered a sacrifice bunt. Thole reached second, then inexplicably turned around and jogged back toward first. He was tagged out to end the inning.
Jimmy Rollins had signaled to Thole that he could slow down coming into second, but Thole said such practice is standard, and the Phillies shortstop wasn’t attempting to deceive him.
Thole said he merely blanked out on the play.
“I saw the ball on the ground in fair territory,” Thole said following the Mets’ 5-2 victory over the Phillies. “The video is incredible. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
The wake-up came on his way back to first base.
“I looked at the umpire and kind of got a weird stare from him,” Thole said. “I looked back and the ball was on its way to first and I didn’t know what to do.”
Daniel Murphy won’t take it as an insult if the Mets want him to play third base.
With it possible — perhaps even likely — David Wright will be placed on the disabled list today, Murphy is prepared to move from second to third.
“[Justin Turner] is a better second baseman defensively right now than I am,” Murphy said. “We all have eyeballs. He’s more skilled there than I am.”
Team officials have suggested that Murphy, who has struggled in his transformation into a second baseman, is best suited to play third. Manager Terry Collins yesterday reiterated Murphy would only play third if Wright, who has a broken right pinky, needs a DL stint.
“I feel comfortable there,” Murphy said. “I haven’t taken ground balls there [recently], but I definitely feel comfortable. I’ll talk to [Collins] and if he writes it, I’ll go and play hard.”
Murphy said he’s still a work in progress at second.
“Obviously I’m not where I want to be,” Murphy said. “I have to turn the double play, there are no ifs ands or buts about that. It’s come a long way, but each time I drop one of those things on the ground I realize how far I’ve got to go.”
Andres Torres has played catch, but not begun running as he rehabs a strained left calf muscle. Torres aggravated the injury on Opening Day and was placed on the DL a day later.
Collins batted Turner in the No. 3 hole against Cliff Lee last night because of his penchant to make contact.
“He did that all of last year and the one thing he did and when he’s swinging, he drives in runs,” Collins said.
The manager also indicated he didn’t want to rearrange the rest of the lineup to accommodate Turner, who was playing in Wright’s spot.
The Mets entered play batting .167 (9-for-54) with runners in scoring position. That included an 0-for-6 with RISP in Wednesday’s 4-0 loss to the Nationals.