Assuming Denver isn't experiencing the first throes of "The Day After Tomorrow," the Mets will probably play baseball at some point on Thursday.
When they do, they won't have Ike Davis manning first base or powering the middle of the lineup. Davis flew back to New York Wednesday for tests on his injured leg and hit the disabled list Thursday with what's being called a sprained ankle and a bone bruise.
That's bad news, obviously. Davis has gotten off to a strong start this season and he's a reliable power source in a lineup that needs all the help it can get in that department.
The diagnosis comes as a bit of a surprise since Davis initially was saying he'd be back quickly from what was being called a calf injury. That kind of rapid change in direction smacks of the Mets' history with misdiagnosing and mistreating injuries for long stretches before finally getting players on the path back to the lineup.
In reality, though, Davis's handling is a sign that we've reached better days in the Mets' relationship with injured players. In the Omar Minaya era, Davis would certainly have stayed with the team in Colorado, flown with them to Houston and tried to play against the Astros.
He wouldn't have made it through a game during that series and would have finally gotten the necessary tests when the team got back to New York on Monday. Those tests would show a more serious injury than the one that's now going to cost him two weeks, which would mean Davis would miss somewhere in the neighborhood of a month.
The Mets made a lot of noise about injury prevention last season and it wound up being fairly meaningless. They might lose Davis for a few more days than absolutely necessary right now, but isn't that better than losing him for extra time on the back end?
Local
We'd love to say that the other silver lining is that the team will get to take a look at eternal prospect Fernando Martinez, but that's a bridge too far. Martinez is up from Triple-A to take Davis's spot on the roster, but he's not going to play much while the team keeps the light on for Jason Bay's missing talent.
That said, recent history tells us that it shouldn't be too long before something calls Bay away from the lineup. So we'll remain hopeful about a few Martinez sightings to tide us over until we're back to liking Ike.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
