--RHP Al Reyes was released Thursday without appearing in a game. The former Rays reliever signed a minor league contract with the Mets in mid-August and received a call-up when rosters expanded. C Gustavo Molina also was sent home to Venezuela to prepare for winter ball.
--C Brian Schneider homered twice Thursday against the Nationals. He had gone deep twice in a game only one other time in his career: April 19, 2003, as a Montreal Expo against Cincinnati. --2B Luis Castillo is expected to take over the second base position when the Mets open a series in Atlanta on Friday. Rookie Argenis Reyes, who had started three consecutive games, is hitless in 24 at-bats since Aug. 20.
--C Ramon Castro should start for the first time since returning from the disabled list earlier this month when the Mets face Atlanta LHP Jo-Jo Reyes on Friday. Castro had been nursing a strained right quadriceps.
--LHP Jon Niese will return to the rotation Monday against the Cubs at Shea Stadium. He's also due to pitch in the second-to-last-game of the season, against the Marlins on Sept. 27. But the Mets may be forced to use LHP Johan Santana in that Florida game on short rest instead if Niese underwhelms against the Cubs or the Mets are still battling for a postseason berth.
BY THE NUMBERS: 100 -- RBI plateau reached by David Wright, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. It marked the third time the Mets have three 100-RBI players.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "He was scared. He tells Cody Ross, 'Let's go!' Tells Elijah Dukes, 'I didn't do it on purpose.'" -- Reliever Joe Smith, lightheartedly, about teammate Mike Pelfrey's disparate reactions after plunking Florida's diminutive Ross and Washington's imposing Dukes with pitches that drew the opponents' ire in recent starts.
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