Parnell arrives to fill Mejia's bullpen spot

Bobby Parnell arrived from Triple-A Buffalo last night with a chance to fill an important role in the Mets' bullpen.

Manager Jerry Manuel said the hard-throwing righthander will get a chance to pitch "late, not early" as the Mets continue to seek dependable setup men. "Hopefully, he can get it going," Manuel said. "The information that we've gotten is when he's having trouble, it's been in the second inning. I'm going to try to use him just one inning. If he goes out there and punches out three straight guys, I'm probably going to send him back out there."

Parnell, 25, called up to replace Jenrry Mejia, entered in the eighth inning and walked one and struck out two.

Wright stuff?

David Wright moved closer to Phillies third baseman Placido Polanco in the latest All-Star voting but still trails by 130,000 votes. The Mets will give out 20,000 "Make Wright #1" foam fingers before tonight's game encouraging fans to vote for Wright.

Trainer's room

General manager Omar Minaya explained why the Mets did an about-face and did not send John Maine to the doctor Monday as planned: Maine wanted to go see his own doctor. The Mets agreed to let Maine - on the disabled list with "weakness" in his right shoulder - get a second opinion.

Perfect thoughts

Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga - he of the Jim Joyce-ruined near perfect game - will start Thursday night against Hisanori Takahashi. Galarraga, whose class after Joyce's bad call has earned him praise, gave a qualified yes when asked whether baseball should expand instant replay. "I think stuff like . . . what happened to me, it'd be nice to have it," he said. "It's a tough decision. I say yes because it would help baseball. It would help the game in the long run."

With Kimberley A. Martin