MLB

Isringhausen Mets’ closer, for now

It’ll be age before youth.

Terry Collins said yesterday that Jason Isringhausen was in line to be the Mets closer against the Phillies, meaning that this weekend the veteran righty is expected to be the first reliever to assume Francisco Rodriguez’s duties.

With K-Rod traded to the Brewers, Collins explained why Isringhausen was his choice. Against an elite team like the Phillies, with an expected passionate home crowd and with Isringhausen pitching well recently and owning hefty closer experience (293 career saves), Collins believed Isringhausen was a better option than either Bobby Parnell or Pedro Beato.

“[Isringhausen] has got the demeanor right now of ‘I’ve been there before and this is a big series coming up,’ ” Collins said before the Mets lost the opener, 7-2.

BOX SCORE

That said, Isringhausen hardly has the job locked up. Collins had said Thursday that he planned to use a committee, and he admitted yesterday that he won’t use Isringhausen, who turns 39 in September, three days in a row.

The Mets would also presumably like to determine if either Parnell or Beato can be the closer long-term. If not, it’s a position they’ll likely have to address in the offseason.

“It will be night-to-night,” Collins said. “I want to get Bobby in there and Pedro in there. I do believe in the next couple of weeks there will be a guy that we go to for the majority of [the saves].”

Isringhausen accepted the assignment with a shrug.

“It’s what I’ve done for the last few years,” he said, adding that pitching the eighth also required a lockdown mentality. “If I don’t get my job done, then Frankie doesn’t get the ball with the lead.”

Isringhausen won’t deny that reaching 300 career saves matters to him.

“That was one of the reasons I came back,” he said.

He ranks third among current players in career saves, behind Mariano Rivera and Francisco Cordero.

–Additional reporting
by Mike Puma

mark.hale@nypost.com