Batting Practice

David Lennon at Newsday, writes about the Mets in Spring Training:

One annual rite of spring (training) is that anxious moment when batters finally step in the box to face pitchers, and that happened yesterday when the Mets had their first full-squad workout. Usually, the batters are the ones lagging behind, but David Wright shook up Oliver Perez by smacking a vicious line drive that caromed off the protective screen.

Perez smiled back at Wright, then walked to the front of the mound and moved the netting to the left, giving him a little more shelter. Later, when Paul Lo Duca slapped a soft single off Chan Ho Park, someone yelled over, "Look at that! He can roll out of bed and hit!" Lo Duca has been weakened lately by food poisoning but is slowly improving.