In a world where Daniel Murphy
(nine) has more home runs than David Wright (eight) in less at-bats,
you know something is screwy with the Mets this season.
Team home runs:
26) Oakland – 116
27) Houston – 115
28) Pittsburgh – 109
29) San Francisco – 99
30) New York (NL) – 81
Yeah, it’s that bad. I’m no
prognosticator, but if you were to project the Mets’ current pace, they
would finish with roughly 96 home runs, their lowest tally since they
hit just 93 in 1992. Bobby Bonilla (19), Eddie Murray (16) and Darryl Boston
(13) were the only ones to make it to double-digits on that squad.
As the current Mets enter play on
Tuesday, Gary Sheffield leads the team with just 10 home runs. And he
probably won’t even play again this season. Just for comparison’s sake,
the Rockies and Yankees have eight players with 10 home runs or more.
Yankees place Nestor Cortes on 15-day injured list with left rotator cuff strain
Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
The Yankees placed Nestor Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a left rotator cuff strain that will sideline the left-hander for at least two starts.
The move is retroactive to Monday and Cortes will be shut down for at least 15 days.
After Tuesday’s game, Cortes said the shoulder has been bothering him between starts and more so after he pitched five innings May 30 in Seattle.
“I took two days off and when I got to LA and threw that first day, I didn’t feel right,” Cortes said Tuesday. “But it was first day coming back from pitching so I knew it was going to be nagging a little bit. So I waited a little bit.
“That second day in LA was when I said something because it felt like I had pitched yesterday. So I wasn’t recovering in time.”
Cortes is 5-2 with a 5.16 ERA in 11 starts and has particularly struggled later in outings. Opponents are hitting .447 when facing him for the third time in a game.
Last year, Cortes was an All-Star and went 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 28 starts.
Randy Vásquez was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre to take Cortes’ spot in the rotation and will make his second career start in Thursday’s doubleheader. Vásquez made his major league debut May 26 against San Diego when the Yankees needed a starter because Domingo Germán was serving a 10-game suspension for using sticky substances.