Mets Morning News: Ankiel uses a different glove, Wheeler coming soon to a ballpark near you?

Meet the Mets

The Mets lost their fourth game in a row yesterday in a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals. Old friend Carlos Beltran allowed the Mets to plate a pair in the second inning when he misplayed a Daniel Murphy line drive, but that only served to make up for the two runs surrendered by Jeremy Hefner in the first. Still, the Mets continued to rally, taking the lead when Cardinals shortstop Daniel Descalso couldn't get a grip on an infield ground ball hit by David Wright.

Those three runs would be all the Mets would score, though. St. Louis tied the game in the third, but didn't take the lead until the seventh inning. Another former Met, Ty Wigginton hit a line drive that barely eluded the newest Met Rick Ankiel. That turned into a double, and one batter later Wigginton came around to score on a bizarre play in which Scott Rice was hit with a ground ball that deflected into foul territory. With both Rice and John Buck in pursuit, home plate was left wide open, allowing Wigginton to score all the way from second base.

Rice recovered to strike out Beltran, but the Mets were done in right after that when Matt Holliday hit a two-run homer off of Scott Atchison.

Perhaps the Mets and Cardinals would still be playing baseball in St. Louis if Ankiel had just managed to snag that line drive hit by Wigginton. It certainly wouldn't have hurt matters if he had been wearing his own glove. But he wasn't. With Ankiel's equipment still in transit from Houston, the outfielder played the game using Jon Niese's glove.

Meanwhile, Atchison was not feeling 100 percent well when he gave up the home run that effectively ended the game. The veteran righty was experiencing finger numbness and elbow soreness. Terry Collins doesn't expect him to be available for the next few days, and Atchison will be further examined today.

Before the game, Sandy Alderson told radio show host Mike Francesa on WFAN that top prospect Zack Wheeler's progress at triple-A was encouraging and that he's more concerned with creating "the right moment" for Wheeler's major league debut than about him acquiring Super-2 status. You can read a transcript of the entire interview right here.

While we're waiting for that perfect moment to manifest itself, why not give Collin McHugh a whirl in the bigs? He's managed to look pretty, pretty good in his last few starts and at the very least will limit free passes in a major league start.

Yesterday at AA

Ben Berkon looked at a trio of outfielders that would improve the Mets' outlook this year. More importantly, there's actually a reasonable possibility that New York could acquire one of the three if they so desired. I'm particularly fond of Gerardo Parra, who finds himself in a quite crowded outfield in Phoenix.

Here's the "juicy" details on the Rick Ankiel signing, in case you missed it. Andrew Brown was sent down to the minors, Jenrry Mejia was shifted to the 60-day disabled list, and Juan Lagares will continue to receive inadequate playing time in the majors.

Around the NL East

The Nats defeated the Dodgers 6-2 last night behind another stellar outing form Jordan Zimmermann, but the big story was Bryce Harper's scary collision with the Dodger Stadium wall. Harper received 11 stitches and suffered bumps and bruises on his shoulder, neck, and knee. The good news is that the budding superstar did not have signs of a concussion, and he's only expected to miss one or two games.

Justin Upton returned to Chase Field in Phoenix and recorded four hits, including a round-tripper, in Atlanta's 10-1 smoking of the Diamondbacks. While Upton is hitting .289/.395/.644 with the Braves this season, Martin Prado is only managing a .233/.285/.346 with the Snakes. Looks like a GRATE TRAID so far.

Around MLB

It's been a good day for Aarons this week. I got to write my first Mets Morning News, and Twins rookie Aaron Hicks had a spectacular game last night. He hit two home runs and made what looks like the best catch of the season so far (eat your heart out, Ben Revere) to rob Adam Dunn of a home run. Minnesota defeated the White Sox 10-3.

In Detroit, the poor Astros lost to the Tigers 7-2 and also saw second baseman Jose Altuve crash into outfielder Jimmy Paredes. Altuve suffered a partially dislocated jaw, which apparently isn't as bad as it sounds, because he may not miss any time at all.

Finally, Billy Butler busted out for five hits and five RBI in Kansas City's 11-4 romp over the Angels. Butler raised his average from .228 to .261 over the course of the game.