PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Joe Smith, Mets reliever, and Ryan Church, Nationals hitter, never had been introduced, never shaken hands from 60 feet, six inches, as people in their positions often do. Oh, each was familiar enough with the other. Smith knew Church batted left-handed and had pop. And Church, from vantage points other than the batter's box, had seen Smith's hard slider dart across the strike zone, and he had heard teammates' critiques -- something with a four-letter root followed by "nasty."

To a degree, the two shared mutual admiration, though they never had done any business with each other.

Their shared experience began -- and ended -- in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 17. A 1-1 pitch from Smith in the seventh inning became a pinch-hit two-run home run by Church and another unsightly episode in the Mets' slippery-slope September slide.

Smith had faced the Nationals three times previously, faced eight batters, struck out four and allowed one to reach base. Those appearances happened in April, and the difference between April and Sept. 17, according to Church was "about six or seven miles an hour."

Nowhere among the pitches Smith had served to the Nationals in April was anything so pedestrian, so blah, so hittable as the one Church crushed in September. No bite to it, only flight to it.

"We'd talked about it on the bench," Church said Sunday morning as he recalled the instance. "Wasn't the same pitcher."

Same name, different pitcher, altogether different results.

Smith and Church have been introduced now. They are Spring Training teammates in the Mets' camp, a distinction Smith fervently hopes will lead to their being Mets teammates of regular-season standing. Church is relatively secure as the Mets' right fielder-designate. Smith is the one with uncertainty as a regular companion.

He'd like to have a job in that place right behind right field in Shea Stadium. But the Mets' bullpen is likely to be a tight fit, and, unlike a year ago, his inclusion on the Opening Day roster doesn't appear probable -- even if he has regained that missing velocity.

The return of Duaner Sanchez and presence of Matt Wise have created obstacles for Smith. The Mets' bullpen is likely to include seven pitchers. Sanchez, Billy Wagner, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Pedro Feliciano and Jorge Sosa are likely members. And the nominees for the seventh spot are: Smith, Wise, Ruddy Lugo, Juan Padilla, Brian Stokes and, if he ever gets past his visa problems, Tony Armas Jr.

Smith stands as good a chance as any of them, and a better chance than a few of them, if only because the same sub-sidearm delivery that helped him win a job last spring still is a look batters don't often see. But that delivery must project April outs and eventually produce them -- particularly when right-handed batters are the enemy -- for Smith to be wearing No. 35 on March 31 when the Mets launch Operation Payback.

For reasons he identifies as having been "mentally fried," Smith lost that ability after a sensational start to his rookie season. He held opponents scoreless in his first 17 appearances (15 1/3 innings). But crooked numbers began to displace zeroes. The slider didn't dart, his pitches didn't sink. His velocity dropped as he hoped his pitches would. June got ugly, and July wasn't handsome, either.

By the third week of July, some 13 months after his professional debut, some 13 1/2 months after the Mets had selected him in third round of the First-Year Player Draft and four months after his 23rd birthday, Smith was demoted to the Minor Leagues. He returned in September and participated in the team's collapse.

All of it, particularly the good stuff, is a blur now.

"I wasn't really learning in the beginning," Smith said Sunday. "Everything went so well, I never learned what to do when it didn't. The game caught up to me. The guys told me it would, and I didn't say, 'No way, you're crazy.' But for a while, it didn't. Then it did, and that's when I started to learn.

"Billy [Wagner] and Schoenie were giving me advice all along, but I couldn't apply until it blew up. Then they started saying, 'This what I do when such and such happens.' I was in the big leagues trying to help this team stay in first place and trying to get myself right. It all got away from me.

"I was naive. I didn't know about the grind ... every day. I wasn't ready. I really hadn't pitched that much [27 appearances in the Minor Leagues in 2006]. Now, at least, I know something."

Smith came to camp a little lighter and leaner. But unlike last spring, he wasn't July-ready in February.

"I'm taking it a little slower. I have to get outs when the games start, not when I'm throwing BP," he said Sunday, his experience showing.

He believes his pitches are back and behaving properly. Church sneaked a peek with other day and saw the pitches he had seen in April, not the one he had smushed in September.

Smith believes the staff wants him to succeed. "Just from how they treat me and talk to me and what other guys say," he said. "I feel like they're behind me. [Coach] Sandy Alomar treats me like a player, he talks to me, not just about baseball.

"It makes me pretty comfortable. I'm still a rookie to these guys. And that's OK. I like it actually. Duaner says he can't wait to see me dress up as a stripper. They never got a chance to see me wear girl's clothes last year when they made the rookies dress up. I was in the Minors then. They say I have go through it. Fine with me. It'll mean I'm in New York. I'd love to show New York my legs."