PHILADELPHIA — On a day when the Mets’ rotation took a big hit, starter Jeremy Hefner fought back by holding off the Phillies.
Hours after lefthander Jon Niese was diagnosed with a partial tear of his rotator cuff and put on the 15-day disabled list, Hefner said the impact of that injury was on his mind before he took the mound Friday night.
“I thought about it before the game, knowing he went down and the bullpen had to pick us up (Thursday night) and that I had to grind it out,” Hefner said. “That news hit us in here. You want to be able to help the team get through it. I wanted to do my part.”
Hefner helped boost the Mets with his fourth quality start in his last five outings, new leadoff hitter Eric Young Jr. had two RBI, rookie center fielder Juan Lagares had three hits, including the go-ahead double, and the Mets rallied for a 4-3 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
The Mets (29-41) won for the fifth time in seven games and snapped a five-game losing streak to the Phillies (35-39). Hefner (2-6) went six innings, holding Phillies to three runs (two earned) — all in the second inning, when he fell into a three-run hole — on 10 hits, walking one and striking out seven. He and the Mets dropped Cole Hamels, the major-league leader in losses, to 2-11.
Hefner put runners on base in all but the first inning. In the fifth, the Phillies had the bases loaded with two outs when Carlos Ruiz hit a long fly ball to center field that Lagares ran down to get the Mets out of the inning.
“I was holding my breath,” Hefner said.
Right now, that is what the Mets are doing with Niese. The MRI confirmed that the shoulder pain that caused him to leave his start Thursday night was a partial tear of the rotator cuff. Team doctor David Altchek felt the tear was small enough that it did not require surgery now, according to assistant general manager John Ricco.
Niese will rest for two weeks to see if the tear begins healing.
“The MRI showed a partial tear of the rotator cuff. Surgery is not indicated at this point,” Ricco said. “We’ll let it rest for two weeks. He’ll work with the physical therapists and then take another MRI in two weeks to see what it looks like.”
At that point, surgery is still possible, but the Mets are hopeful “it will start healing itself and he won’t need surgery,” Ricco said.
Niese has been dealing with neck and shoulder issues most of the season. Coming off a career-best 3.40 ERA last season, Niese has a 4.32 ERA in 77 innings over 14 starts. He missed a start a few weeks ago because of tendinitis in the shoulder, but Ricco said that this was a new injury, not one that was visible on the MRIs taken to diagnose the tendinitis.
Niese, the only lefthander of note in the Mets system, has not only been considered a big part of the franchise’s plans to rebuild on strong young pitching, he came into the season considered the team’s ace.
Without him, the Mets still have five healthy starters remaining in Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Hefner, Dillon Gee and Shaun Marcum.
Still, as Terry Collins said of the injury, “This is huge for us. This was our No. 1 guy coming out of spring training. This does not help us.
“We are very, very, very lucky that we have a Zack Wheeler in our organization and we have some more coming. This tells you that you cannot have enough starting pitching.”
