Knee woes continuing to hamper Cuddyer

SAN FRANCISCO -- For the sixth time in eight games since injuring his left knee last week in New York, Michael Cuddyer was out of the Mets' starting lineup Wednesday against the Giants.

"He's pretty sore again," manager Terry Collins said, writing up a lineup card without Cuddyer's name in it for the second straight day.

That runs directly contrary to what Collins indicated Tuesday, answering, "No, not really" when asked directly if Cuddyer's knee was bothering him. The outfielder clarified later in the day that he still felt some discomfort, but felt well enough to play; he wound up sitting out the entire game.

Sporting a heavy ice pack on the joint Wednesday morning, Cuddyer now plans to revisit with doctors Thursday in New York, eight days after receiving cortisone and lubricant injections in his left knee. Had the Mets put Cuddyer on the disabled list to begin with, he would have been eligible to return for their first game after the All-Star break. But because he has appeared in four games since his injury, starting two of them and making 12 plate appearances, that is no longer possible.

The Mets, however, insist that there was no reason to put Cuddyer on the DL at the time. His knee simply flared up in his last game on Monday, growing progressively worse as the night went on. Cuddyer went 2-for-4 in that game, his first multihit performance since June 19, even racing from first to third on a Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit and scoring in the ninth.

"I asked him later about his knee and he said, 'It was good enough to score,'" Collins said. "That's just him. He's going to run hard no matter what."

In the first season of his two-year, $21 million contract with the Mets, Cuddyer is batting .240 with six home runs and a .648 OPS. Eric Campbell started in his place Wednesday at AT&T Park.