MLB

Mets’ Wright impressive in return

JUPITER, Fla. — David Wright was in the Mets lineup for the first time this exhibition season and nobody else got hurt, so yesterday had to rate as one of the their better days of spring training.

“All in all it was a good day,” Wright said after playing four innings at third base and going 1-for-2 in the Mets’ 6-3 victory over the Cardinals. “Just the fact I feel healthy and I feel like I’m ready for [today].”

Wright, who spent the last three weeks recovering from tightness in his left rib cage, will be given today off, then resume his pursuit of obtaining enough at-bats before Opening Day, perhaps with a trip to the minor league side of camp tomorrow.

Manager Terry Collins would like to see Wright get about 30 at-bats over the final seven days of camp.

Wright’s debut was a success just in the fact he survived, but his first-inning single against Jake Westbrook was welcomed, as was the diving stop he made on Rafael Furcal’s second-inning grounder. In his second at-bat, Wright grounded out to shortstop.

“I lost my patience early due to all the nicks, but hopefully right now it’s going to pay off,” said Collins, who is still optimistic the Mets will have their entire starting lineup healthy for the April 5 opener at Citi Field against the Braves.

Wright equated yesterday to March 5, when the Mets played their exhibition opener. So don’t expect to immediately see Wright play nine innings, as he still attempts to get his baseball legs.

“I’m sure I’ll be a little sore [today], but it will be that good sore like it’s the first game I’m playing in spring training,” Wright said. “But hopefully I can get caught up in the next eight or nine days and we can go from there.”

Wright faced a similar quick turnaround last year, when he missed two months of the regular season recovering from a stress fracture in his back. Once he was cleared to begin playing minor league rehab games, Wright got only about a week’s worth of at-bats before rejoining the Mets after the All-Star break.

Johan Santana, the Mets’ starting pitcher yesterday, was most impressed with Wright’s diving stop near the third-base line that robbed Furcal of a hit, for the final out of the second.

“We need him, there is no question about it,” Santana said. “He made a play right away. I told him to guard the line [against Furcal] and he did it, just like he always does, and it was good to see him back.”

Wright said he enjoyed playing behind Santana against major league competition. That had last occurred in September of 2010. Last year, they spent much of the summer rehabbing together in Port St. Lucie, when Santana was strengthening his surgically repaired left shoulder.

But the biggest thing for Wright was finally playing an exhibition game.

“You can do all the working out and conditioning and everything that you want, but playing in a game is different when you get up, down and you prepare for your at-bats the way you do,” Wright said. “I’m just trying to get comfortable.

“The smaller details of the game add to kind of thinking about it rather than going out there and reacting, and that’s what the next week or nine days is going to be for, just kind of getting it to where [the game] is a reaction rather than having to think about it too much.”