NEW YORK -- Despite producing since his call-up, rookie Brandon Nimmo found himself out of the starting lineup the last two games with the New York Mets facing left-handed starters.
Now, manager Terry Collins likely will find himself making the similarly unpopular decision to sit Wilmer Flores for much of the upcoming four-game series against the Washington Nationals.
Although Flores produced two homers on Wednesday in a 4-2 rubber-game win over the Miami Marlins, Collins conceded afterward that it will be difficult to get recently added Jose Reyes and Flores in the starting lineup together against right-handed pitching.
The Mets next face a southpaw in Sunday's first-half finale when Gio Gonzalez starts for the Nationals.
"Look, it's going to be hard to get both guys in there at the same time," Collins said. "One of them is going to have to sit. But, yet, we've got a hot hitter sitting on the bench that we can run up in any big situation during the game when we have to have him. It's going to make us a different-looking club."
Flores has produced a pair of two-homer games in a four-day span roughly coinciding with Reyes' arrival. After opening the season as a backup infielder and struggling with limited at-bats, Flores stepped into a regular role at third base with David Wright injured and has been productive at points. He is hitting .313 (31-for-99) with four doubles, six homers, 19 RBIs and 13 runs scored in 31 games since June 3.
Reyes should get the bulk of the duty at third base, though. So while Flores had a chance to start in the infield against left-handers Wei-Yin Chen and Justin Nicolino the past two days, playing time should now become more scarce.
Reyes had two doubles on Wednesday and clearly is the priority.
Flores originally was slated to start at first base on Wednesday in place of lefty James Loney, but he moved over to third base and Reyes shifted to shortstop once Asdrubal Cabrera was scratched.
"Having Jose here is going to make us a better team," Flores insisted.
Flores downplayed the correlation between his uptick in production and Reyes' arrival.
"No, no," Flores said about Reyes' presence motivating him. "I never think about that. I just go out and play."
Still, Collins believes there's a link.
"He came in here, was not playing very well in a backup role, having a tough time adjusting to it," Collins said of Flores. "David goes down. [Flores] is playing third. He was doing OK. All of a sudden we sign Jose and he got hot. … They're very proud. They don't go down without a fight. I'm sure he said to himself, 'Look, if I don't get it going, I'm going to lose some playing time.' He's swung the bat great in the last five days."
