NEW YORK -- Robinson Cano, who has been out with a left quad strain, was in the Mets' lineup against the Giants on Wednesday, starting at second and batting third, but he exited New York’s 7-0 victory in the top of the fifth inning with tightness in that same muscle.
Cano had grounded into a double play in the bottom of the third and appeared to be running gingerly on the play. He played the fourth inning in the field before being removed the following inning. Cano went 0-for-2, but he drove in a run on a groundout.
Cano indicated after the game that his quad did not feel the same way it did when he landed on the injured list, saying that he felt more than just tightness previously when he’d been sidelined. The team will evaluate him Thursday morning.
Before the game, Cano acknowledged that he wasn’t yet at 100 percent and would need to play to help get back to that point.
“It’s an injury,” Cano said. “That’s a muscle. You have to stretch it and stretch it. The more that I play, the more it’s going to get stretched and go back to normal.”
After the game, Mets manager Mickey Callaway said there was no regret about activating Cano Wednesday.
“We knew that he was ready to be activated and play,” Callaway said. “He looked great running down the line, he looked great fielding. He expressed to us that he was ready to go. And so we activated him.”
Cano was on the injured list from May 23 until earlier on Wednesday. At the time he went on the injured list, Cano was batting .241/.287/.371 with three homers and 13 RBIs.