Add Starling Marte — again — to a long list of Mets scares this season.
The right fielder was pulled from their game Wednesday night in the bottom of the sixth inning after his right forearm absorbed a 97-mph sinker from Brewers starter Corbin Burnes.
The Mets said X-rays on his forearm were negative, and Marte sustained a contusion. The team called him day-to-day.
“Hopefully, we got lucky again, but it hurts,” manager Buck Showalter said after the 10-2 loss to the Brewers at Citi Field.
It represented the 43rd time a Mets batter has been plunked by a pitch, the most in the majors. None of the previous — including head shots to Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor — led to an injured list stint, but the wounds add up.
“Obviously, going to have some swelling there,” Showalter said.
Starling Marte exits after getting hit in the right forearm in the sixth inning of the Mets’ 10-2 loss to the Brewers.AP
Starling Marte is tended to by a trainer after getting hit by a pitch in the right forearm.Corey SipkinIt was the fifth time Marte has been hit this season. He was playing in just his third game since sitting for three games last week with left quadriceps discomfort.
James McCann has begun worrying about his swing during batting practice again and is no longer worrying about his hand. That makes McCann believe he has recovered from the broken bone in his left hand that has kept him out for more than a month.
The Mets catcher, who has been out since May 10 following surgery for broken left hamate bone, will begin a rehab assignment Thursday with Double-A Binghamton, one he hopes will be short.
Hamate surgery generally requires about a six-week absence, and McCann is just over four weeks removed from his procedure. He has been around the Mets and has been catching with his right hand in the hope the workload, leg strength and consistent squatting will expedite his return.
McCann surveyed others around the league who have had the surgery and was told that there would be pain — which would suddenly go away one day.
“That’s exactly how it went,” McCann, who has been taking batting practice since late last week, said Wednesday. “[One day], I just realized that I was no longer thinking about my hand. I was thinking more about my legs or about being on time. So that’s when I kind of realized we made progress, where I’m not worried about what my hand feels like.”
McCann will travel to Bowie, Md., where Binghamton is playing, to test his hand further.
He hopes his off-hand catching and his recent work against the Mets’ new, high-tech pitch machine that replicates a pitcher’s delivery will help his case that he can be activated and return to the majors soon.
“It’s hard to say,” when he will be ready, said McCann, who posted a .551 OPS in his first 21 games.
The Mets optioned outfielder Khalil Lee to Triple-A Syracuse and called up righty Yoan Lopez.
Wednesday — a day neither pitched — was a bad day for Chris Bassitt’s ERA and a good day for Stephen Nogosek’s.
Major League Baseball announced a pair of scoring changes from the 13-2 loss in San Diego om June 8. What had been ruled an error on Tomas Nido became a bunt single from Ha-Seong Kim, which meant all five runs scored in the inning were earned. Bassitt’s ERA has jumped from 3.89 to 4.01.
Later in the game, Kim hit a foul ball that was not caught by J.D. Davis. The play now has been ruled an error on Davis, which means none of the four runs charged to Nogosek were earned. His ERA dropped from 3.55 to 0.71.
