Wright's broken pinkie casts pall over CitI

Wright's broken pinkie casts pall over CitI

Howard Simmons/New York Daily News

A dejected David Wright can't bear to watch action on field as he's forced to sit with broken pinkie.

Just when things were going well for the Mets, when momentum was swinging their way, when they had gotten off to a fast start, reality brought things to a halt.

The injury bug struck, hitting the pinkie finger on David Wrights right hand. Its the one that helps him grip the bat. The same bat that he had been swinging so well over the first four games of the season. The one he used to help the Mets jump out to a 4-0 start.

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An X-ray taken at Citi Field during the Mets disjointed game against the Nationals on Tuesday night revealed that Wright has a small fracture at the middle joint of the finger. The team called it a non-operative injury.

Almost on cue the Mets became non-operative, crumbling under a pile of defensive lapses and shaky work from the bullpen and losing, 6-2, to Washington. It was the Mets first loss of the season.

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You begin to wonder if there is some kind of cosmic conspiracy to ruin anything good that happens for the Mets. Theres nothing you can do about it, Wright said. You try to go out there and not get hurt. You never know. I never thought Id manage to fracture a finger trying to dive back into first to not get picked off.

There is a cloud of uncertainty hanging over Wright. He doesnt know if he will feel better once the swelling goes down a nd whether he can return to the lineup quickly or end up on the DL.
I learned from last year in the spring you cant put a timetable on it, he said.

As hot as the Mets have been to start the season, Wright had been hotter. He was batting .583 with an RBI in each of the four games this season, chasing his own franchise record of an RBI in six straight games to start the season.

The Mets now have a hole in the middle of their lineup because Wright is the lone threat there. The way that he was hitting, he had become even more dangerous. The Mets have pop with Lucas Duda. But with Jason Bay in a lingering batting funk he popped out to third and struck out to a chorus of boos in his first two at-bats they dont have dependable power like Wright possesses. Bay will face more pressure than ever to produce with Wright out of the lineup.

To his credit, Terry Collins is treading carefully with Wright.

Swinging the bat is pretty painful for him. I di dnt want him to mess up his swing, he said.

Collins also didnt want a repeat of what happened with Wright last year when he played three weeks with a broken bone in his back, making the problem worse and then missing 3 months.

He never said a word (about the back) until he went into the training room one day and said I think I need to check this out, Collins said. This one (the pinkie) Im going to take it out of his hands.