Mets’ Gooden Hurts; Hurling Flaw Blamed

Dwight Gooden is pitching with pain. He is being treated for costochondritis, an inflammation of costal cartilage in the right rib cage near the sternum.

Gooden threw on the sidelines Thursday and is expected to make his next scheduled start on Sunday. But he said the pain has sporadically bothered him since mid-winter.

“It’s no big deal,” Gooden said. “It’s just that sometimes when I reach back like this”--he put his arm behind him as if to start a throwing motion--”I get a pain that shoots right here in my chest. Sometimes it hurts a lot. Sometimes I don’t feel anything.”

The New York Mets believe Gooden’s injury was caused by a flaw that has developed in his delivery. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said Gooden has been “opening up too much,” letting his left side turn toward the first base side of home plate as he delivers.