Reyes won't rush return

Jose Reyes accompanied the Mets to Philadelphia after Sunday's loss to the Brewers. He will not play in the series against the first-place Phillies, however, and might not return to the majors until the weekend at the earliest.

Manager Terry Collins said the Mets hope to have Reyes play in a minor-league rehab game by the end of the week. Reyes ran at Citi Field Sunday and will do so again at Citizens Bank Park , with the difference being he will attempt to run the bases Monday for the first time since going on the disabled list Aug. 8 with a strained left hamstring.

Sunday, Reyes ran sprints in the outfield and from home to first. He also ran around the cutout where the infield dirt meets the outfield grass.

"No problem, so that's good," he said. ", we're going to run with more intensity and we'll see what happens."

Reyes, the National League's leading hitter at .336, has been through this before. Even though he's eligible to come off the DL Tuesday, he's not going to rush it.

"I don't want to be on the field too soon when I'm not ready," he said. "Even if I'm not 100 percent, I feel like I can play. I want to be on the field. But hamstrings are very tricky. One day, you feel good and you try to run the next day and you can blow the hamstring out. I don't want to say take my time, but I need to make sure I'm ready to go before I get on the field."

Pen notes

Collins said Bobby Parnell would have been the closer Sunday if the Mets had a lead to protect in the ninth inning. But he wouldn't label Parnell the everyday closer, although he did remove Pedro Beato from consideration because Collins believes he's "tired.

"I can't reiterate enough that we don't have a closer," Collins said. "Right now, I'm going to close with Bobby today. I might close with Bobby tomorrow. Tuesday, it might be I don't know. I don't have an answer to that."