After a dismal 9-3 loss Wednesday that led to Manager Terry Collins publicly lambasting his team, the Mets received a boost Thursday with the addition of shortstop Jose Reyes, who missed the previous three games because of the death of his grandmother Maria Trinidad Reyes.
“Right now, my mind is on this game today,” Reyes said before the game.
To find a place for Reyes on the roster, the Mets placed the right-handed reliever Taylor Buchholz on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 30, with fatigue in his throwing shoulder.
Reyes was the Mets’ leadoff hitter for Thursday’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Reyes is third in the National League with a .335 batting average; Angel Pagan, who was the leadoff batter in Reyes’s absence, is batting .223. Reyes is among the league leaders in several other offensive categories, including hits, multiple-hit games, triples, total bases and stolen bases.
“When I need a day off, I’ll let you know,” Reyes said with a smile.
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Kepner, who had covered the Yankees for The Times since 2002, is in his second year as the national baseball reporter. He joined The Times in 2000 as the Mets beat writer. A native of Philadelphia and a graduate of Vanderbilt University, Kepner has also covered the Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise in California and the Mariners for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. 
Ben Shpigel is in his second year as the Yankees beat writer. He had covered the Mets for The Times since 2005. Before then, he was a staff writer for the Dallas Morning News for two years. He also worked at The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., and for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Shpigel received a bachelor's degree in English and journalism from Emory University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. He and his wife, Rebecca, and their daughter, live in New Jersey. 
Belson covers the business of sports after many years of writing about the business of practically everything else for the Times, Business Week, Reuters and Bloomberg. During his 12 years living in Tokyo, he wrote about baseball, kick boxing, marathon running and football in Japan. Since returning to the United States, he managed to persuade his wife, who grew up near the Yomiuri Giants' old stadium, to find it in herself to root for the Mets.
Sablich has produced news and multimedia for The New York Times since July 2006 after earning a master’s degree in new media from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He was born in Binghamton, N.Y. and resides in Queens. Sablich is still traumatized from his first trip to Yankee Stadium as a child when the Yankees starter Tim Leary was torched by the White Sox for 7 runs in one and two-thirds innings on Old-Timers' Day, July 15, 1990. 