Mets' Paul Blackburn escapes with bruise, could make next start
Mets starting pitcher Paul Blackburn works against a Padres batter during the first inning of a game Friday in San Diego. Credit: AP/Gregory Bull
SAN DIEGO — Paul Blackburn escaped his Friday night scare with just a bruise — no fracture — of his right hand and might even make his next start as scheduled.
A trip to the injured list still is possible, manager Carlos Mendoza said, but the Mets won’t have a better sense until Blackburn tries to grip a baseball and throw on Sunday.
“If it’s a no go for him when he tries to play catch tomorrow, we’ll have to make a decision,” Mendoza said Saturday afternoon before the Mets played the Padres. “The good thing is we got good news.”
Even if Blackburn does need to be sidelined, this is a better outcome than a broken hand, which very well could have been a season-ender. After several years of weirdness on the injury front — finger inflammation, torn fingernail, foot stress reaction in the past three seasons — Blackburn was relieved to get positive physical fortune even though he was “definitely sore.”
“Just fallen on some bad luck,” he said. “So definitely good that it’s not broken and we can go from here.”
Mendoza said: “One, just glad it didn’t hit him in the head or in the face, because that was pretty scary . . . Watching him last night, it was pretty swollen. We just needed to wait. And obviously this morning good news. We dodged a bullet there.”
In the third inning of Blackburn’s start against the Padres, a line drive off the bat of David Peralta came right back at the righthander, who threw up his pitching arm in self-defense. The ball caught him on the outside of his hand, below his pinkie, and he exited the game
X-rays that night were inconclusive, but a CT scan Saturday showed no cracks in the bone.
“We’re essentially just trying to flush inflammation out, play it by ear as far as pain tolerance, inflammation and obviously spinning pitches and stuff,” Blackburn said. “We’ll figure it out in the next couple days or so.”
With the Mets’ off day Monday, they could wait until as late as Saturday before using a fifth starter, whether that’s Blackburn or a replacement.
Extra bases
Unsure if they would need to activate another pitcher, the Mets had righthanded reliever Huascar Brazoban — demoted to Triple-A on Friday — stick around for Saturday. He remains an option if Blackburn lands on the IL . . . Anticipated annual occasion: The Mets will hold their fantasy football draft Sunday after they get to Phoenix. They choose draft order by picking names out of a hat.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
