SAN FRANCISCO — Jeff McNeil’s high impact collision with a left-field side wall at Oracle Park cost him the final six innings Wednesday, but likely won’t keep him from playing the Mets’ next game.
The Mets utilityman was diagnosed with a left knee contusion after sliding into the wall to catch a fly ball hit by Donovan Walton in the third inning of the Mets’ 9-3 loss to the Giants.
McNeil finished the inning, but was removed for a pinch hitter in the fourth when his turn at bat arrived.
“It was a pretty good collision,” said McNeil, who was also tested for a concussion. “Giants fans were saying, ‘Good effort,’ they were giving me a hard time, being down [9-1] I think they respected the effort and the catch.
“It was a good play. I wasn’t expecting to hit the wall at all. That ball was a fair ball and when you slide and catch a ball, you are in fair territory, you don’t expect to hit a wall, and I did.”
McNeil said the fact the Mets were losing by such a wide margin didn’t enter the calculus as he pursued the ball.
“That’s kind of who I am,” McNeil said. “That is how I have played the game for my whole life and I don’t ever think I am going to stop playing hard. You don’t want to let that ball drop and have a double so you know I am going to go all out and keep making those plays.”
Stephen Nogosek was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse when Thomas Szapucki was recalled.
The right-hander Nogosek had pitched 2 ²/₃ shutout innings in relief on Tuesday, a fact that wasn’t overlooked by manager Buck Showalter, as the Mets rallied from an 8-2 deficit. In his other major league appearance this season Nogosek pitched three scoreless innings against the Nationals.
Third base coach Joey Cora is expected to rejoin the team on Saturday, according to Showalter.
Cora, absent because of a family matter, has been replaced at third base by bench coach Glenn Sherlock the past three days. Showalter jokingly noted before the game that the Mets had scored 25 runs in two days with Sherlock as the third base coach.
The Mets acquired outfielder Daniel Johnson from Cleveland for cash. Johnson was assigned to Triple-A Syracuse.
