Mets' Eduardo Escobar feeling better, enters game as Luis Guillorme exits
New York Mets' Luis Guillorme scores behind Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler during the fourth inning of an MLB baseball game at Citi Field on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
On Friday night, Eduardo Escobar was worried that he might miss the rest of the season. On Sunday afternoon, the third baseman was there to save the Mets’ bacon in their 6-0 win over the Phillies at Citi Field.
Escobar left Friday night’s extra-inning loss with tightness in his left side and was sent for an MRI exam that came back clean. It helped him avoid going on the injured list, and two days later, he felt enough improvement to enter the game with the Mets in a tough spot.
Luis Guillorme scored from second on a single in the Mets’ four-run rally in the fourth inning, but he crossed the plate grimacing. He was removed from the game with what the Mets termed left groin tightness and is scheduled for medical imaging tests on Monday. Escobar entered the game to replace him.
“It was either when I stepped on third or the step after that when it grabbed me,” Guillorme said.
Escobar first felt something along his rib cage while swinging a bat and again while making a couple plays in the field. “So I went into the cage to take a couple of swings [and] see if I could maybe loosen it up a little bit, but I started to feel worse at that point,” he said through an interpreter.
“I was scared because an oblique is not like a hamstring where it’s a certain amount of time [to get healthy],” he added. “With an oblique, it might be three months, and from the stories that I’ve heard from other players that have gone through it, it takes a while, and I really didn’t want that. When you mess up your oblique, it’s a really bad injury.”
He said he still feels it a bit when batting righthanded and when he runs, but his condition is “much better.”
Infielder Gosuke Katoh, who is not on the 40-man roster, has been in the clubhouse the last two days and is going on the road with the club. He could be an option if Guillorme requires a stint on the injured list.
Notes & quotes: The Mets are 14-0-2 in their 16 series against NL East opponents. They are 27-6-3 in series this season.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
