"At this point in the season, no," Randolph said. "He's my closer. He's been my closer. He's got the most saves of anybody on my team. So right now he's my closer."

There is some faulty logic in there; unless there is a rare exception, a closer always is going to have the most saves on the team, regardless of how many he's blown. The fact remains that Looper, who basically blew Wednesday's 4-3 loss to Atlanta twice and is a good-but-not-dazzling 28-of-34 in save chances this season, is going to be on the mound for the Mets in a save situation.

"I'm not going to start switching up just because he had a couple bad outings," Randolph said.

There are no assurances Looper will be the Mets' closer next year. He does not have a guaranteed Mets contract for 2006, owning a $5 million club option with a $250,000 buyout. The Mets are trying to determine whether to bring back Looper, and his performance right now can impact that. Potential free-agent closers include Billy Wagner, BJ Ryan and Ugueth Urbina.

Looper said yesterday he wants to return and that the Mets have reciprocated that interest. The Mets could bring back Looper as closer or let him go, another possibility could be to go after a premier closer and use Looper in another role.

Looper said if the Mets gave him a fair financial package and got a big-time closer (he actually mentioned Wagner), he potentially could be amenable to that.

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Mike Piazza (broken bone in left hand) yesterday took batting practice on the field for the first time since the injury . . . Randolph was not thrilled with Carlos Beltran bunting in the first inning Wednesday with runners on first and second and none out. The manager said yesterday, "I've told him that I'd prefer him not to do that."