Flores haunts the Mets

NEW YORK — Jesus Flores was supposed to be the New York Mets’ catcher of the future, a talented young player who was rising through the ranks of their farm system.

Until that day in the winter of 2006 when Mets general manager Omar Minaya decided to take a chance and leave Flores unprotected in the Rule 5 draft and Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals swooped right in and claimed him as their own.

Some 17 months later, there are Mets fans who still rue Minaya’s decision, even though current New York catcher Brian Schneider has acquitted himself well since his acquisition from the Nationals.

Those feelings of resentment are only magnified on nights like this, when Flores comes to Shea Stadium and takes down his former franchise like he did last night by driving in the go-ahead run in Washington’s 5-3 victory.

“They made a mistake,” Flores said of the Mets’ decision to leave him unprotected. “I just take advantage of it.”

With the game knotted 1-1 behind sterling pitching performances from Tim Redding and Claudio Vargas, Flores came to bat in the seventh inning with Elijah Dukes standing on second and two outs. He fell behind 0-2 to reliever Aaron Heilman, then showing patience beyond his years, battled his way back to run the count full.

“I’ve been working on it,” the 23-year-old said. “That’s why I’ve been hitting a lot of 3-2 counts. Just trying to calm myself down, look for a good pitch to drive and don’t swing at every breaking ball.”

On this particular payoff pitch, with Dukes running, Flores delivered. He laced a single through the left side of the infield, and Dukes came barreling around to score the run that would put the Nationals ahead for good.

“What an at-bat for the kid,” manager Manny Acta said. “Just a tremendous at-bat against Heilman.”

A flurry of subsequent hits, including run-scoring singles by Felipe Lopez and Cristian Guzman, capped a four-run inning and gave the Washington bullpen a nice cushion to close things out. Saul Rivera pitched 11/3 innings in relief of Redding, Luis Ayala recorded a key out in the eighth and Jon Rauch earned his eighth save with a rare, four-out outing.

“That’s an A-1 team effort right there,” Redding said.

But none of it would have been possible without Flores’ clutch hit.

The 23-year-old catcher isn’t supposed to do this in the big leagues. After holding his own as a Rule 5 pick last season, he was supposed to spend all of 2008 in the minors to refine his skills. But injuries to both Paul Lo Duca and Johnny Estrada left the Nationals without a starting catcher, so Flores got the call from Class AAA Columbus.

All he has done since is prove he belongs here. His RBI single last night raised his average to .364 and gave him six RBI in eight big-league games.

“He’s a bonafide No. 1 starter,” Redding said. “He’s been awesome since he came back.”

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