PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- For a few moments, his first moments in a game scenario since July 2006, Duaner Sanchez was the junior high schooler trying to impress the varsity coach. His final warmup pitch and the first two pitches Sanchez threw to Ramon Castro in the Mets' intrasquad game on Monday were all about velocity. Technique, location, setting up the hitter -- none of that mattered.
"That was a pitcher who hadn't pitched in a year and half," said Randy Niemann, the man who directed Sanchez's rehabilitation from two right shoulder surgeries. "He just had to get through that."

Niemann was quite encouraged by the velocity of the three caveman pitches and more pleased by Sanchez's subsequent pitches -- sliders, changeups and more fastballs.

"He threw fastballs inside to left-handed hitters," Niemann said, "and they didn't come back [over the plate]" -- a sign that Sanchez's pitches had power behind them.

Sanchez faced six batters and threw 26 pitches, more than he had planned.

"I'm going to go home and sleep now," Sanchez said after his shower. "I feel like I pitched 15 innings."

On the first day of competition -- such as it was -- in Mets camp, Sanchez's six-batter sequence was clearly the focal point. The Sandy Alomars defeated the Jerry Manuels, 7-5, in six innings. And most of the participants were uncertain of the identity of their team.

But most of them had watched Sanchez's return through the prism of what he can mean in the summer when the swings and misses he accumulates in inordinate numbers will have consequence.

"It looks like he's on the way back," manager Willie Randolph said. "It's very positive to see him now after a year and a half."