Manuel: Niese earned his spot as No. 3 starter

When the Mets decided to move Jonathon Niese up to the No. 3 spot in the rotation right before the season, it was seen as more of a slap at John Maine and Oliver Perez than an endorsement of Niese.

Manager Jerry Manuel took pains to say, no, that's not accurate. He changed things around to get better matchups in the season's first two series, but Manuel also insisted Niese had earned the promotion.

Niese had his best outing of the season on Monday when he threw 52/3 innings against the Cubs and was charged with one unearned run. He allowed eight hits and three walks, but showed a knack for getting out of trouble. Seven strikeouts helped.

"I thought he was very good," Manuel said. "We felt out of spring that he was actually a guy that was throwing the best probably out of the five. We thought he was throwing real well, so there wasn't much hesitation in bumping him up."

Niese, who got a no-decision in the Mets' 6-1 win, is 0-1 with a 4.32 ERA in three starts. He has been working on a cutter; it had slider-like action on Monday and was a strikeout pitch.

"We felt that what we saw last year . . . we were seeing some of the maturation process," Manuel said. "That seemed to have continued in spring training. The evolution of his repertoire. He seems to be enjoying the fact that he can do different things with the baseball and compete at the major-league level. That's a good sign. That's a very good sign."

Overall, Mets starters had a 4.46 ERA before last night. That's 10th in the National League.

Franchise to appear

Tom Seaver will appear with Gil Hodges' widow, Joan, at 3 p.m. Thursday to re-christen the Seaver and Hodges entrances at Citi Field.

The VIP entrances on the first- and third-base sides of the stadium were renamed before the season. They had been called the "First Base" and "Third Base" VIP entrances before the ballpark was remade to better honor the team's history.