Terry Collins started slumping Ike Davis against left-hander Mark Buehrle on Wednesday at Citi Field. And the manager also intends to start Davis on Sunday against left-hander Jamie Moyer.

So why sit Davis against southpaw Drew Pomeranz on Friday night, in the series opener at Coors Field? Righty-hitting Zach Lutz instead gets his first major league start.

Well, Collins partially pointed to Pomeranz's success against left-handed hitters. In six career major league starts, righties are hitting .287 against Pomeranz, with lefties hitting .214.

Davis is hitting .132 overall.

"As we sat here today trying to put the lineup together today, with knowing that Pomeranz can be really tough on lefties, we tried to decide what right-handed hitter might have the best shot at it today," Collins said. "We decided Lutz might, due to the fact this guy throws a lot of fastballs. Zach can do some damage. He's certainly a power-hitting kind of a guy, and this is a good place for those kind of guys to play."

By the way, it sounds like Lutz should be sticking around when Andres Torres is due to be activated Monday from the disabled list. When Jordany Valdespin was promoted, the justification was that the Mets needed a backup middle infielder with Ronny Cedeno on the DL. But, Collins said Friday, the Mets can get by with using Justin Turner at shortstop for a partial game if the need arises and then make a call-up for the next day, alleviating the requirement to carry Valdespin in Cedeno's absence.