On the Mets beat

After Mike Pelfrey fell to 0-5 on Saturday, Mets manager Willie Randolph said this:
“He’s going to get another opportunity to take the ball next time. The young man is learning how to pitch at this level. He’s going to take his ups and downs.”
Randolph wasn’t kidding about the “downs” part. When Pelfrey reported to work yesterday, the manager told him he was going down to Triple-A New Orleans. That’s where his next opportunity to take the ball will come.
Pelfrey’s demotion was made necessary in part because of his record, and also because of the pulled quadriceps muscle suffered by Moises Alou on Saturday. Alou, who was already batting a sore left knee, appears headed for the disabled list. He reported no improvement yesterday, but the Mets wanted to wait a few days to see if their 40-year-old leftfielder heals more quickly than he fears.
“I’m not very optimistic,” said Alou, who played in only 98 games for the Giants last season because of ankle and back injuries. “It’s not a good feeling. Unfortunately, I had my knee that was bothering me so I couldn’t work on my leg for a couple of weeks.”
To replace Alou in the lineup and Pelfrey on the roster, the team called up prized prospect Carlos Gomez from New Orleans and started the 21-year-old in rightfield against the Brewers. With Lastings Milledge on the minor-league disabled list and Ben Johnson just having returned from the DL, the Mets decided to give a quick look to one of the prize jewels of their organization.
Gomez doubled down the leftfield line in his first big-league at-bat.