PORT ST. LUCIE — The Mets could be tipping their hand about their plans for pitching phenom Jenrry Mejia.
Mejia pitched the ninth inning yesterday and struggled, but he is scheduled to take the mound again today, possibly indicating he is being groomed for a relief role with the big league club.
The 20-year-old Mejia surrendered his second run in 9 1/3 innings this spring, allowing a single, a four-pitch walk and a run-scoring wild pitch in the Mets’ 7-3 loss to the Twins at Tradition Field.
Afterward, Mejia said he felt fine and reminded reporters, “Nobody’s perfect.”
But the fact Mejia is slated to pitch again this afternoon against the Cardinals in Jupiter could be telling. Mejia has pitched just one inning in each of his past two outings. Now he is going to pitch on consecutive days for the first time this spring. It all points to the Mets testing Mejia to see if he is prepared for a regular-season bullpen role.
Manager Jerry Manuel said that Mejia’s command was “a little bit off” yesterday.
“He’s going to have times like he did [yesterday],” Manuel said.
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Catcher Omir Santos smacked a solo homer off Twins starter Kevin Slowey. Jason Bay had a terrific game, going 2-for-2 with a walk and a run scored, to lift his spring average to .357. Fernando Martinez batted leadoff and went 1-for-5 with a single to drop to .500.
Ruben Tejada went 2-for-5 with two doubles and made an alert play at shortstop. With Twins catcher Wilson Ramos on third, Tejada fielded a grounder and caught Ramos off the base.
“He played extremely well,” Manuel said of Tejada.
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John Maine starts today against the Cardinals, and besides Mejia, others expected to pitch are Francisco Rodriguez and Kiko Calero. Adam Wainwright goes for the Cards.
After taking a comebacker off his right knee on Thursday night and leaving the game, reliever Pedro Feliciano did not pitch yesterday. But he said he feels OK and hopes to pitch again Monday.