The left side of Frank Francisco’s body has been hen-pecked.
The Mets closer, who made news by calling the Yankees “chickens” leading into this weekend’s Subway Series, was unavailable last night because of a sore left side. The injury is alarming, and manager Terry Collins surprisingly was tight-lipped about it, but admitted he was unsure how long Francisco would be out.
Asked if he was OK, Francisco replied: “I don’t know.”
Francisco said after saving Friday night’s series opener, his side felt “a little sore.” It did not get better yesterday.
“[Yesterday] I feel a little worse,” he said. “I went outside to throw, feel sore. So take the day off.”
The question is whether Francisco will need to take multiple days off. The closer will re-evaluate himself today. The Mets’ bullpen is a disaster, and though Francisco hardly is Mariano Rivera, he is their established closer and easily their best right-handed reliever.
If Francisco is out for tonight’s series finale against the Yankees, or if he is out for an extended length of time, there is no natural replacement.
It would figure that if Francisco is unavailable tonight and the Mets have a save situation, Collins most likelywould employ hard-throwing righty Bobby Parnell to be the closer. But the manager could also summon lefty specialist Tim Byrdak if the Yankees had, for example, lefties Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano due up in the ninth.
“Just another inning,” Parnell said of closing.
Francisco was the headliner on Friday thanks to his “chickens” comment in The Post. He clarified his comment before the season opener, saying he meant the Yankees “complain a lot, for every call, for everything.”
Francisco then closed out the Mets’ series-opening win on Friday, putting two Yankees on base in the ninth but striking out Granderson and getting Mark Teixeira on a game-ending pop-out.
For the season, Francisco has 18 saves and a 4.97 ERA in 31 games.