Paul LoDuca on his WFAN spot, when asked about Delgado's
struggles, said that his hand is bothering him but won't say
anything about it.

“Carlos
is struggling a little bit, I think he's having a little issue with his
elbow or hand but he won't tell anybody about it. He's a streaky hitter
anyway and hopefully he'll get hot. He hasnt gotten into a groove. He's been
hitting into some tough luck.”

In a Journal News report yesterday, they chronicled Delgado's bumps and bruises.

The pain began in early March when tendinitis in his left elbow limited him for much of the month. On June 30, Delgado strained his right rib-cage muscle
and missed three games, and a week later, he was hit on the left hand
by a pitch.

Regarding the stuff in the papers about him, Paul said

“the Mets have already spoke for me and thats all you need to know and thats that.”

“I want to talk baseball. the teams having a great year and im having fun here, I want to thank the fans in Nnew York and it means a lot to me.”

On the gambling allegations. He said its strictly on horses. Sometimes its guilt by association when it comes to this stuff. He said there are no loansharks looking for him, he chuckled and then continued saying there are no people looking for him off the field.

When asked if someone is out to get him, he said you never know. Its too hard to comment, to wonder what if.

“Im just gonna go on. I spent 9 years in the minors…This is the most fun ive ever had. My teammates have been awesome, awesome for me. They've really stuck by me.”

On his focus and excellent play despite all the attention in the papers. He gave credit to Rick Down, the Mets hitting coach. He worked with him in LA. everyday working in the cage. He's trying to stay in on the ball, go the other way with it. He said he's lucky to be in this lineup. He's getting good pitches to hit.

On the past two games, we just got beat up the past two days, hopefully we can come back tonight.

On Pedro's start he said it was just one of those innings. He went out to talk to Pedro. When he threw that first fastball 88 mph he knew something wasnt right. We booted a couple of balls. We needed to be mentally stronger. He said its a tough ballpark. If you walk guys its gonna turn into 6-7 innings. Hopefully (Pedro's injury) is nothing serious. He thought during the game, we have a 15-14 game lead, we dont need him right now. I wanted him to get off that mound.

On last nights game, it was one of those nights, El Duque struggled with his breaking ball, it hung in. He said they're running into a hot team right now hitting wise. He said the Mets are gonna have our work cut out for us the next couple of days. He said they really didnt play good in Washington and they need to pick it up. “We're in a lull right now.”

On Milledge he said he's gonna be fine. He said this park is weird, you dont know if its shallow or deep. Beningo made a remark saying it wouldnt hurt to have Milledge catch a ball and Lo Duca said

“You can't have me ripping on my players man!!!”

Paul said Lastings has been a little bit tentative, he has a reputation to be a good fielder. He's the youngest playing in the National League.

On the Phillies, he we want to win at least one of these game.

“You dont want to give anybody any kind of hope. We still got a long way to go. We need to keep going, keep plugging along. Hopefully we can come out today and Tommy can give us a solid outing and we can score some runs for him.”

Asked if  any chemistry letdown has resulted losing Nady…

“No i dont think so. Bert is a great guy. You miss guys like Xavier Nady, he's a great person, great guy to have in the clubhouse. We just havent really played that well. X was a big part of our team, but Bert is a great addition. We still have a great chemistry in our locker room. Hopefully we arent getting complacent. these games might have given us a kick in the butt we needed.”

On the bullpen…

“Heilman's pitches have been live. He's got his fastball command back. Bradford has been doing well. Bullpen has been picking up the slack. Ring has been solid.”

On Ramon Castro…

“I tried to call Ramon yesterday, he said he's 75%, I think he's pretty close. We miss him too, he's a funny guy. We miss him in the clubhouse. We miss Ramon.”

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