Pen questions

Christian Red & Roger Rubin at The NY Daily News writes about the Mets Bullpen and who is going to step up into Dauner Sanchez's role now that he is out for the season:

Randolph has instructed the members of the Mets bullpen to be ready for anything. Since Duaner Sanchez was injured in a taxi accident last week, there have been a lot of questions about who would be pitching the eighth inning.

General thinking was that either Aaron Heilman or newly acquired Roberto Hernandez would get the call in those situations. Randolph said he will go on matchup statistics and gut instinct.

He mentioned just about every member of the pen from Chad Bradford to Royce Ring as pitchers to protect a lead in the eighth inning.

"Everybody needs to be ready," he said.

Heilman has gotten the bulk of the work, hurling the eighth inning in four of the six games since Sanchez's accident.

Sanchez was at Shea yesterday to get treatment on his surgically repaired shoulder.