NEW YORK — Right-hander Bartolo Colon was scratched from his scheduled start for the New York Mets Monday after he flew home to the Dominican Republic to be with his hospitalized mother.
Mets manager Terry Collins said Monday morning that Colon’s mother was “extremely ill.” Colon told ESPNDeportes.com earlier this season that his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in April.
Collins said the Mets would place Colon on the bereavement list, but not until Tuesday because the club couldn’t get a pitcher to Citi Field in time for Monday’s 12:10 p.m. ET matinee. The Mets could activate right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka from the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, but he wasn’t available Monday because he threw 69 pitches in a rehab start for Double-A Binghamton on Saturday.
Right-hander Carlos Torres took Colon’s place and will be backed up by right-hander Buddy Carlyle and left-hander Dana Eveland.
It was Torres’ first start this season. He has twice thrown at least four innings in relief. He threw four innings June 15, when Matsuzaka exited after one inning with a stomach bug, and 4 2/3 innings on July 4, when left-handed starter Jonathon Niese recorded just one out before being hit in the back by a line drive.
Colon, the oldest starting pitcher in baseball at 41, is 11-10 with a 3.85 ERA in 24 starts this season. He has thrown a team-high 161 1/3 innings, the 10th-most in the National League through Sunday.