Collins: R.A. should be treated like King

CINCINNATI — It was the photos from Seattle that annoyed Terry Collins most. Sure, he and R.A. Dickey were irritated when umpires ordered Dickey to remove a pair of thin string bracelets on his right wrist before the second inning Wednesday. But when the Mets manager saw the picture of Felix Hernandez leaping in the air on the same day after completing a perfect game — with a thicker bracelet on his glove hand! — he felt that his pitcher had been unfairly punished.

“It didn’t help that I got four texts last night with pictures of Felix Hernandez with a wristband on after a perfect game,” Collins said Thursday. “That didn’t help me much. Somebody didn’t get the memo.”

Home plate ump James Hoye and crew chief Jim Joyce explained that they were simply following league policy.

“As I told James Hoye last night, it’s just really funny how things change,” Collins said. “You can have a guy throw to first base 200 times in a season, and the 201st time, somebody calls a balk. What did he do different? All of a sudden now it’s a balk. All of a sudden you can’t wear a wristband, but two hours

NO DUDA MONDAY

ago, you could.

“I don’t get that. I don’t understand that.”

As for Dickey’s bracelets, made by the knuckleballer’s two daughters before last January’s Mt. Kilimanjaro climb, Collins said:

“They were two stinkin’ pieces of string, and yet other guys wear big things and nothing is done. I just don’t understand. . . . The directive must not have got to Seattle.”

Not thrilled with Lucas Duda’s progress in Triple-A Buffalo, the Mets will not summon the outfielder for the beginning of Monday’s home stand. Duda is batting .258 in 16 games in Buffalo.

Another problem? “He doesn’t look much better in left field than he did in right,” one Mets person said.

“He is doing a little better (offensively),” Collins said. “He is working hard to . . . get himself spread out a little more, and he’s having a little tough time adapting to all that."

BEATO TO BOSTON

The Mets sent pitcher Pedro Beato to Boston on Thursday to complete the trade that brought catcher Kelly Shoppach to New York. Beato, a Rule 5 pick last season, has spent most of this year in Triple-A. The organization did not view him as a potential contributor at the major league level.