Stanton in lineup a day after bruising wrist

MIAMI -- The Marlins may have lost the game on Wednesday afternoon, but they regained their most feared slugger on Thursday.

Giancarlo Stanton, who bruised his left wrist in Wednesday's 6-1 loss to the Cubs, was back in the starting lineup for the series opener with the Mets at Marlins Park.

"I could have played still," Stanton said Thursday afternoon. "But it looked like [the game] was just about out of hand already. So the smartest decision was to get out of there."

Stanton was shaken up in the first inning, crashing into the wall in right on Chris Coghlan's double. After impact, the right fielder was shaking his left arm.

"I reached back kind of over my head," Stanton said. "So I think [my wrist] hit before I could look back, and then I spun."

In the bottom of the first inning, Stanton blistered a home run to right-center. But in his third and final at-bat of the game in the fifth inning, he struck out and grimaced as he walked away.

Stanton paces the National League in home runs (20) and RBIs (57).

"In another sport, that wouldn't be a big deal," manager Mike Redmond said. "But in baseball, you realize in your swing and grabbing the bat and all that you do, how much you use your hands. But he's fine. He says he's good to go. That was good. At least we got him out of there yesterday. We got him a chance to get it iced down, calmed down."