Loss of Reyes is like car without engine

The prospect of losing Jose Reyes for even a short period of time was not something his teammates wanted to think about after Saturday's 5-2 loss to the Yankees at Citi Field.

From a statistical standpoint, Reyes has been without peer this season, but his effect on the Mets goes well beyond that.

"Just his energy and his presence and how much fun he has, both on and off the field," Justin Turner said. "He lets everyone know that it's OK to have fun out there. That's the biggest thing he brings to the team.

"Obviously, he's a great player. But he brings much more to the plate than batting .350 [actually .354 after going 1-for-1] and playing shortstop. I think I've only seen him mad twice -- and one was Friday night."

Turner was talking about Alex Rodriguez's phantom tag on Reyes when he tried to go from second to third on a botched relay throw. Reyes was trying to fire up the Mets, who were down 3-1 at the time, but instead defused one of their best rallies.

The Mets know that if Reyes is out for any prolonged period, they lose their engine, and maybe any chance they have of remaining in the wild-card race. It was impossible to hide those feelings after Reyes had to be removed from Saturday's game in the third inning because of tightness in his left hamstring.

When asked to quantify Reyes' value to the Mets, Jason Bay smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, there's a thousand ways to do it, most of which would be he's one of the best players in baseball right now," Bay said. "It doesn't matter what position, whatever you're talking about, for whatever team that might be.

"It's a blow. I'm not writing him off -- I don't expect him to pop back out there tomorrow. But a couple days, we could weather that. You say all the things, 'Hey, we gotta step up, this and that.' But the reality is look what he means to us. He means a lot."