MLB

Dickey’s day short, but sweet for Mets

R.A. Dickey knew this was not the time to be a hero, or actually, not the time to be stupid.

The Mets’ starting righty knuckleballer was achy with a tight left glute and he had just labored — really labored — through the fifth inning. He knew it wouldn’t be wise to try to pitch the sixth, especially with the Mets in what has been a rare position — having a shot to beat the Yankees.

“In between the fourth and fifth, it really tightened up. I went back out there for the fifth but by the end, it really spasmed around the area. So I wasn’t going to do us any kind of service going back out there for the sixth,” explained Dickey, whose very effective five innings of two-hit, one-run starting work was sort of lost in the endgame heroics of the Mets’ 3-2, 10-inning win over the Yanks.

BOX SCORE

“We were in a place where we were in the game,” Dickey said. “I wasn’t going to go back out there with less than my best stuff and jeopardize us winning.”

So Dickey told Terry Collins he “overextended my stride a little bit, my body pushed out on my hip” and he “tweaked” the area under his left glute.

Dickey said he suffered a “similar” injury last season, in July, in Los Angeles. Proclaiming he’s “always optimistic,” Dickey reminded that he pitched on three days’ rest last season and hopes to do so again. He’s not the only optimistic one.

“Dickey should make his next start,” GM Sandy Alderson said.

But Collins expressed some worry.

“I think he actually did it one day in batting practice. He was fine when the game started and it acted up again. I’m a little concerned about it because he got a stinger that went down the sciatic nerve into the hip,” Collins said. “We’ll see how he is [today].”

So Dickey yanked himself after his second sound outing against the Yanks this season, having beaten them in the first Subway Series in May. This time, he kept the Yanks hitless until the fifth.

“That’s a good lineup. I had a good knuckleball, especially early on,” Dickey said. “That last inning I was kind of running out of tricks. I was slowing it down, speeding it up. I had a good feel for it.

“But that last inning was really a telltale sign that I needed to be honest with what was going on.”