Mets' Starling Marte scratched from lineup again with a migraine
Starling Marte of the Mets reacts after striking out during the fifth inning of a game against the Padres at Petco Park on July 8 in San Diego. Credit: Getty Images/Denis Poroy
Starling Marte was scratched with a migraine about half an hour before first pitch Tuesday - the second time in three games that Marte has been incapacitated due to the ailment.
Marte was originally slated to play right and bat sixth. Instead, Mark Canha played right and batted eighth, while Francisco Alvarez moved up to the sixth hole. Marte also missed Saturday's game with a migraine.
"He spent most of the game in a dark area without any light and noise," Buck Showalter said of Saturday's migraine. "He was sick to his stomach."
Diaz doing long toss
Showalter confirmed that Edwin Diaz is playing catch at 150 feet – something first reported by Diaz’s brother, Reds closer Alexis Diaz, at the All-Star Game last week – but remained typically tight-lipped on Edwin’s progress.
“I’ve even tried to stay away from, 'OK, best-case scenario, when would it be?'” Showalter said of a possible return date. “I don’t think that’s fair to the trainers and the medical people, and I don’t think it’s fair to our fans necessarily and, most importantly, Edwin. Edwin is meeting every benchmark of a very serious injury. It’s an injury where, if you’re a basketball player, your career would probably be over. So, we’re taking it step by step and, when he pitches, we’re going to be sure we crossed all the right hurdles to get there. There’s still some unknown there.”
Diaz previously has said he wants to come back this year, but the injury – a torn patellar tendon in his right knee – is severe enough that it could cost him the entire season. And though there’s no world where the Mets would want to rush back their All-Star closer, that’s only further compounded by the fact that this might end up being a lost season.
“He’s doing really well,” Alexis Diaz told Newsday. “He’s been recovering pretty fast. He’s a true athlete and really can recover quickly, so I hope to see him out there really soon.”
Typically, the next step would be for Diaz to get on a mound.
Baty mentally tough
Despite going into Tuesday’s game 1-for- his last 14 with eight strikeouts, Brett Baty has impressed Showalter with how he’s handled the mental aspect of his struggles.
“I’m looking more at how he’s handled some of the adversity – how he’s handled some of the failure,” Showalter said. “This guy’s been hitting third and fourth on every team he’s ever played on since Little League, probably. You reach a level where everybody’s good and mistakes get compounded. I’m more interested in how you handle that because we’re all going to have some failure.”
Baty, who also misplayed a ball that cost the Mets a win Saturday, hit seventh against the White Sox Tuesday and hit a solo homer in his first at-bat. He entered the game hitting .185 in July, leading to speculation that the Mets may decide to option him back to Triple-A.
“As long as it’s two steps forward, one step back, I’m OK,” Showalter said. “He’s going to seek his level. Nobody’s smart enough to tell you exactly what it’s going to be. A lot of those people see a player play for two or three days and say, 'Oh, he’s going to be exactly this the rest of his career.' You ain’t that smart. Spare me.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
