MIAMI — The Curse of the WBC has flattened Captain America. Slugger David Wright is down and out with a rib injury, and the Mets only can hope it doesn’t turn into the dreaded oblique injury.
Wright said he doesn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize his chances to play Opening Day, but strange things happen around the Mets and the World Baseball Classic.
The Team USA slugger was scratched from last night’s 3-1 loss to the Dominican Republic at Marlins Park just prior to first pitch because of sore left ribs. He went back to Port St. Lucie and will be checked out by Mets’ doctors today when more will be known. He said he has quietly been dealing with the injury for a week.
“It’s more the back side of the ribs right now,’’ Wright said. “It’s kind of been the same since it happened. Just recently I’ve been going into the training room and getting some treatment on it. That’s when the red flags went up with the Mets.’’
Captain America is back to being plain old Mr. Met.
Wright suffered a rib cage injury last spring training with no help from the WBC and was shut down for an extended period of time. He said this is not the same injury.
Wright wanted to play and had his spikes on, but was pulled from the lineup after the Mets and Team USA officials consulted. Wright said his injury occurred just about the same time as Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira went down with a serious wrist injury.
Team USA manager Joe Torre said Wright would not return for tonight’s do-or-die game against Puerto Rico and that Wright is done for the tournament.
“The Mets made an inquiry after batting practice,’’ Torre said. “I told [Wright] there is no game that’s more important than your welfare. Chances are, nothing would have happened, but I don’t like ‘chances are’ in regards to someone’s health … hopefully it’s nothing serious.’’
Wright, who was hitting .438 in the WBC with 10 RBIs, said he could have played.
“Hopefully that [injury] is not the reason [for the hot streak,” Wright said jokingly. “I was trying to hurry up and get out on the field before I got the phone call. I don’t feel [pain] much when I play,’’
“It’s more just lounging around, [and] I’ve been having a hard time sleeping because you get caught in a certain position and it wakes you up in the middle of the night. It’s more so when I’m not doing anything, when I’m sitting around, it barks and bothers me.
”Once I get it heated up and get going, I feel pretty good. I owe it to the Mets to listen to them and to be ready for Opening Day and that is extremely important to me.”
Wright said he wants to play in future WBCs.
“I can only hope that I haven’t played my last game for Team USA,’’ he said. “This is a wonderful tournament. By no means does this injury have anything to do with the format of this tournament, or playing in this tournament. This is one of those freak things where I woke up one day, and I was a little sore.’’
Wright said he spoke with Mets general manager Sandy Alderson.
“He said that he knows that I’m disappointed, and I told him that I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize Opening Day,’’ Wright said. “They obviously want to be cautious and make sure I see the team doctor. We’ll go from there. [Sandy is] disappointed because he obviously enjoyed the tournament, but he said, and I think we both agreed, that’s it’s a decision that has to be made.”
Captain America is on the shelf.