The euphemism for the day is “almost.”
As in manager Terry Collins’ observation concerning David Wright’s absence from the Mets: “There are certain guys you almost can’t afford to lose and he would fit that category for us.”
“Almost can’t afford to lose” means “uh oh.”
Which translates into the Mets losing 4-3 in 12 innings to the Royals yesterday while Wright watched from the home team’s dugout. It was the first of many for which he will be no more than an innocent bystander while recuperating from a Grade 2 strain of the right hamstring that is expected to sideline the third baseman perhaps up to five weeks.
“Inevitable” is what Wright called the injury (not the defeat) after playing through tightness for nearly a week. He did not and would not second-guess his decision to soldier on after initially feeling symptoms last weekend in Washington.
“I don’t think it could have been prevented unless the first time I felt it I went on the DL, and that’s not going to happen,” said Wright, who sat out last Sunday’s game in D.C. before playing four in Miami and the one at home on Friday in which he finally went down.
“I have a pretty good sense of what my body can and can’t take. I had the mindset to try and keep myself under control, to keep it to 75 or 80 percent, but you can’t play that way. I tried to beat out that grounder, my instincts kicked in.
“It was inevitable.”
It’s not as if the Mets were really socking the ball or knocking those home runs over the wall even with Wright occupying third base and the third spot in the order. Now the team has the unenviable task of trying to paper over his absence and retain a semblance of watchability on the days neither Matt Harvey nor Zack Wheeler is on the mound.
Note to those with tickets to today’s matinee against the Royals: You’re in luck. Wheeler gets the start, moved up because of the reconfiguring of the rotation necessitated by switching Carlos Torres back into the bullpen.
The Royals, 55-52 after pinch-hitter Justin Maxwell took David Aardsma deep leading off the 12th, had come to Queens for the first time since 2002 with a nine-game winning streak and the pretense of making a run at their first playoff berth since they won the World Series in 1985.
That’s 1985 … a postseason drought of 27 years that encompasses a stretch in which the club has not finished above .500 since 2003, the Royals’ only winning season since 1994.
Good grief. The Mets by comparison are the Evil Empire. Actually just about everybody in baseball is, maybe even the Pirates.
Justin Turner, who took Wright’s spot at third base, went 1-for-4 while collecting one of the four hits the Mets mustered in six innings against Bruce Chen, who has been around so long it seems he entered the majors as part of a rotation with Warren Spahn.
Josh Satin, who took Wright’s spot batting third, went 2-for-5 including the two-run single in the eighth that lifted the Mets into a 3-3 tie after they had trailed 3-1.
“We’ve got guys determined to show people that they belong here,” Collins said. “Guys are fighting for their major league lives here.”
Guys like Turner and Satin.
Aardsma, the closer in Seattle in 2009 and 2010 before a rotator cuff injury derailed his career, couldn’t nail down the save Friday night when called upon by Collins to fill in for the ailing Bobby Parnell.
Yesterday, the 31-year-old right-hander lost the game in yielding the home run to Maxwell on a 3-2 pitch after falling behind 3-0.
Aardsma: first in the baseball dictionary and last in the hearts of Mets fans.
Before Aardsma entered the game, four relievers had combined to retire all 15 Royals they faced. That included a three-up, three-down performance by Pedro Feliciano, who on Friday returned to the majors for the first time since 2010 following a series of injuries and got the only man he faced.
Amazing what three years of rest can do for you.