Mets lose David Wright, Michael Cuddyer to injuries vs. Phillies

NEW YORK -- New York Mets captain David Wright suffered a pulled right hamstring in the eighth inning Tuesday and sounded prepared for a trip to the disabled list.

Wright will undergo an MRI on Wednesday morning at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. The club already has decided to fly in Eric Campbell from Triple-A Las Vegas as a likely replacement.

Wright suffered the injury while stealing a base in the team's 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. He tried to stay in the game, but asked to depart five pitches later.

Wright suggested it likely is smarter to miss two weeks now than to try to play through the injury and potentially worsen his situation. He learned that lesson when he tried to play through a right hamstring strain in 2013. He injured the muscle more severely and ultimately missed seven weeks.

"A couple of feet before the bag I just felt my hamstring grab," Wright said. "I thought it might be something that I could stretch out a little bit. But then I took a couple of secondary leads and just realized that if the ball was put in play I wouldn't have been able to do anything positive, that's for sure. It took a couple a pitches and it didn't get any better. That's when I thought I'd rather say something and hopefully catch this thing before I make the same mistake I made a couple of years ago, when I tried to play through it and made it worse.

"Anytime you feel something like that, you hope that it goes away. And this just didn't go away."

Wright says this injury does not seem as severe as the 2013 hamstring injury, at least now. He was unable to walk two years ago.

Still, manager Terry Collins called the current injury a "major problem." Collins concluded it was severe because Wright, usually stubborn about playing, volunteered to leave the game.

The Mets suffered three injuries in Tuesday's game. Left fielder Michael Cuddyer and shortstop Wilmer Flores were hit on their hands with second-inning pitches from Phillies right-hander David Buchanan.

Cuddyer was forced to leave the game. X-rays of his left hand were negative, and Cuddyer hoped he could play on Wednesday. Flores, who had swelling in his right hand, completed the game.

"I feel all right," Cuddyer said. "I'm obviously relieved it's not broken. It's a little sore, but I'll be fine. I don't think it's severe. As of right now, I don't think I'll need any days [off], but we'll see how it feels in the morning."

The Mets, who opened the season with a four-man bench and eight-man bullpen, had to use backup catcher Anthony Recker to finish Tuesday's game once Wright departed.

The Mets toyed with the idea of using first baseman Lucas Duda at third base and Recker at first base, where he has some experience. They ultimately dispatched Recker to the hot corner. Recker had a third-base glove in his locker, which he had been given by former minor league teammate Jeff Baisley to practice infield grounders.

Campbell was the odd man out in spring training when the Mets decided to carry a four-man bench. Capable of playing the corner infield and outfield positions, he is hitting .550 (11-for-20) with two homers and six RBIs in six Pacific Coast League games. He was pulled from Las Vegas' game on Tuesday night at Sacramento in the third inning.

Wright would only acknowledge the DL as a "possibility."

He then made the case for landing there.

"The last thing I want to do is go out there and do what I did a couple of years ago, where I feel something, you don't say anything, you try to play through it and you end up missing a significant amount of time rather than something that's relatively shorter," Wright said.