The injury came first. Then Burke Bradenhop provided the insult.
The Mets and David Wright learned the slugging third baseman has a stress fracture in his lower back, and will miss at least 10 days, general manager Sandy Alderson announced at Citi Field seven hours before dropping a 2-1 decision in 11 innings to the Marlins.
Bradenhop, who threw a scoreless tenth to earn his first win of the season, singled home Mike Stanton on a 3-2 count with two outs in the 11th off of Ryoto Igarashi (2-1).
The start of the game was delayed for 80 minutes due to rain. The grounds crew spread dirt throughout the infield in a bizarre scene that saw Alderson, Terry Collins and Marlins GM Michael Hill and manager Edwin Rodriguez repeatedly huddle with the umpiring crew and walk the basepaths ostensibly to test if it was playable.
The loss capped a gloomy day in Flushing that had little to do with the steady drizzle.
Alderson is sending Wright to get a second opinion, but even if the original diagnosis holds no surgery will be needed. The GM, who also reported that Jenrry Mejia (Tommy John) and Chris Young (tear of anterior capsule of the right shoulder) underwent surgeries at The Hospital for Special Surgery earlier in the day.
“It would be a non-surgical course of treatment,” Alderson said. “According to the information we have now, it would be rest for the next 10 days or so followed by baseball activity. But we are talking about something that would require him to rest for a period of time.”
Alderson, Wright and manager Terry Collins believethe injury occurred in the 6-1 home loss to Houston on April 19. Wright collided with Carlos Lee while attempting to tag the Astros left fielder. Initially, Wright and the organization thought the injury was muscular in nature, and he played while taking anti-inflammatory medication.
In the 23 games following the collision with Lee, Wright was 15-for-83 with four homers, nine RBI and 11 runs scored. He is hitting .226 with six homers, nine stolen bases, 18 RBI and 23 runs scored this season.
“This has been downplayed on his part,” Alderson said of Wright. “He’s not the kind of guy who likes to come out of the lineup, much less potentially go on the disabled list. This is something we felt we just needed to check out, to make sure it wasn’t something serious. David, himself, was surprised by it and so were we, to a large extent.”
Added Collins, “He was swinging the bat pretty good.”
Collins replaced Wright in the lineup last night with Willie Harris, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the No. 2 spot. Neither Alderson nor Collins seemed inclined to make a trade or move Daniel Murphy to third when both were asked about the team’s options.
Conceivably, infielder-outfielder Nick Evans or third baseman Zach Lutz could be called up from Triple-A Buffalo. Evans has played in 100 Major League games over the last three seasons with four homers and 21 RBI. He is hitting .248 with five home runs and 16 RBI with the Bisons, while Lutz has a .308 average, a homer, five RBI and 25 runs scored.
Wright’s is just the latest in a line of injuries the team has suffered this season. Ike Davis, Pedro Beato, Bobby Parnell, Johan Santana, Young and Mejia have missed portions or all of the first 40 games of the season.
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