How many times has a shortstop thrown the ball away with Kirk Nieuwenhuis sliding into second base on a potential double play? In my head it’s three times. Is that right? Does anyone have a better memory than mine?

It definitely happened last night. Mark Buehrle hit Nieuwenhuis in his jersey, putting him on base for the only time in the game. With one out and Daniel Murphy hitting, Nieuwenhuis actually broke back toward the first-base bag as Buehrle came home, fearing a pickoff. But after Murphy bounced one to the right side, Nieuwenhuis still wound up bearing down on Reyes as he attempted the double-play turn.

Reyes might have misfired with anyone (or no one) sliding in, and Murphy might very well have been safe regardless. And even if it has happened three times, it’s not nearly enough to call it more than a series of coincidences. But it’s the type of thing we like to credit to Nieuwenhuis’ football build and mentality, which are part of what make him a fun player to watch when he’s going well — even if most players are pretty fun to watch when they’re going well.

In any case, whether due to Nieuwenhuis’ balls-out bro-dom or just good luck, the fielder’s choice wound up making a big difference in the game last night. It provided an at-bat for David Wright with Murphy on first. Buehrle left an 0-2 pitch out over the plate and Wright put it on the Party Deck to give the Mets a 2-1 lead that they’d never relinquish.

It was a pretty good symbolic sequence of things going right for the Mets: new-Met Nieuwenhuis gets on, new-Marlin Reyes throws a ball away to possibly keep the inning alive, and Wright hits a home run that would have been a long out last year (and it likely would have been — watch the replay: Emilio Bonifacio had time to slow up for the wall then try to jump for it). And then for added emphasis Lucas Duda smacked a single.

Oh, and R.A. Dickey threw seven strong innings despite the chill.

Over at Amazin’ Avenue, Matthew Callan takes an entertaining look at Ike Davis’ habit of complaining about called strikes. As Callan notes, Davis has been victimized by some particularly brutal calls lately, but there’s a chicken-egg component to that.

Jose Reyes returned to Citi Field today. By 3:35 p.m., there were some 30 members of the media waiting in a clumsy semicircle around an empty spot in the visitors’ dugout left vacant for Reyes. By 3:50 when Reyes emerged, there were probably 50, armed with voice recorders and video cameras and microphones of various sizes.

“He’s innocent!” Someone shouted as Reyes took his seat.

“You want to interview somebody?” Reyes said, and everyone laughed, and then Reyes answered a bunch of questions and said a bunch more things that you’ve probably already read by now and freaked out about. And then a few hours later the Mets and Marlins played a baseball game good enough to remind everyone that the things baseball players say are generally far less interesting than the things baseball players do on baseball fields, since those are the reasons we care so much about them in the first place.

Which is to say: In the top of the first inning, Reyes torched a flyball to center field that Kirk Nieuwenhuis ran down and Emilio Bonificaio lined a single past Ruben Tejada, then Johan Santana didn’t allow another ball out of the infield until the sixth inning. He struck out 11 batters in 6 2/3 innings, hitting spots with his fastball and flummoxing rubes with his changeup and slider.

Say what you will and already have about the Mets’ injury woes. Jason Bay, Mike Pelfrey and Andres Torres are hurt, sure. But a man who’s practically a medical miracle took the mound for the Mets today and struck out 11 Marlins. Remember that part of it too.

This baseball game also featured:

– Josh Johnson nearly equaling Santana.

– Two plays at the plate — one for each team. Daniel Murphy was caught trying to score on a close play on a pitch that got away from John Buck. In Santana’s last inning, Giancarlo Stanton singled then Gaby Sanchez lined a double off the wall in left and giant awesome Giancarlo Stanton came charging home. Mike Baxter bobbled the ball, then his throw pulled Tejada toward second base. Tejada spun and fired home in plenty of time to get Stanton, but the ball short-hopped Josh Thole and went through his legs.

– With two outs in the seventh, four different Marlins pitchers (Johnson, Randy Choate, Steve Cishek and Mike Dunn) combining to walk four consecutive Mets to force home the tying run. Ozzie Guillen looked like he was endeavoring some sort of performance-art meta-criticism of Terry Collins’ managing. It was great.

– A running, diving catch from the aforementioned Stanton.

– A Lucas Duda line drive that both put the Mets ahead for good and felled pitcher Edward Mujica, prompting parts of the crowd to start chanting, “DU-DA! DU-DA!”, which, given the sight of Mujica splayed in front of the mound, seemed pretty merciless and made the whole scene seem like something out of Gladiator.

– Did I mention Johan Santana struck out 11 guys in 6 2/3? He looks sad here but he shouldn’t be:

…knocking on wood with crossed fingers, nearly everyone is healthy.

– Me, here, like six hours ago.

Since I wrote that this morning, the Mets have placed Jason Bay on the disabled list with a fractured rib and Mike Pelfrey on the disabled list with right elbow inflammation. Neither gave a timetable for his return. Bay suggested reporters “WebMD it” and said that he’ll return to baseball activity when he’s pain-free. Pelfrey insisted he feels great, though Sandy Alderson did not rule out ligament damage.

So we’ll see how that all goes. In the meantime, we’ll see Mike Baxter, Scott Hairston and likely Jordany Valdespin in left field, and presumably Chris Schwinden on regular rest in Pelfrey’s turn in the rotation on Friday. Lefty Rob Carson will join the team until it needs a starter to replace Pelfrey.

I could point out now that the Phillies still have Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cliff Lee on their disabled list, but I assume you don’t want to hear it, even if as of last week you didn’t want to see Pelfrey throw another pitch or Bay top another grounder to the third baseman. The Mets are cursed!

For what it’s worth, I cracked a rib on the first play of my first-ever middle-school football scrimmage. I tackled a running back, and as we went down, he stuck his knee up and into my chest. I thought I just got the wind knocked out of me in some new uncharted middle-school-football way and tried to play through it, then finally broke down crying in my dad’s car after practice two weeks later when the pain hadn’t subsided. I couldn’t breathe deeply without feeling like I was being stabbed. Outside of hernia surgery, it’s the most physical pain I’ve ever endured — and I have M.S. and Crohn’s disease and I’ve broken a few other bones. Obviously every injury is its own unique thing, but it speaks to the typical toughness of the professional athlete, I think, that Bay said he felt “a little sore” today.

*- Unless crossing fingers negates the effects of knocking wood, in which case, my bad.

The Mets put Jason Bay on the disabled list today and recalled infielder Zach Lutz from Triple-A.

Bay had quietly been on something of a hot stretch before fracturing his rib on an attempted catch last night. Lutz has always hit at every level and was destroying the ball to the tune of a .333/.425/.556 line in the early goings at Buffalo. He can’t play left field, though, which means we’ll likely see lots of Scott Hairston and Mike Baxter until Andres Torres returns, and that if Bay’s still out Kirk Nieuwenhuis will probably stick around a while longer once Torres is healthy.

Nieuwenhuis has actually never played left field in the Minors, but presumably he could handle it. And I wonder if the club feels comfortable enough with Jordany Valdespin in center to use him there a couple of times. It’ll be reasonably interesting to see how this shakes out, with two intriguing young players joining the Mets in as many days.

Both Lutz and Valdespin have their issues — Lutz has struggled to stay healthy in the Minors and Valdespin lacks discipline at the plate and on the basepaths. But both have some upside: Lutz has a career .289/.383/.490 line and Valdespin is a terrific athlete.

Mostly I just wanted to make a Lutz reference though.