CINCINNATI -- Ruben Tejada starts at shortstop for the New York Mets for a third straight day on Friday. And that means Wilmer Flores remains on the bench.

Flores is 4-for-19 with no extra-base hits in his past eight games (six starts).

Manager Terry Collins recently met with Mets coaches, who believe Flores' production has dipped because he is fatigued.

"They all thought Flo was starting to run out of gas a little bit," Collins said. "[Infield coach] Tim [Teufel] hit some ground balls to him, and he just said, 'Look, I think he's getting tired.' [Hitting coach] Kevin [Long] said the same thing. So I said, 'You know what? We'll play Tejada for a few games and see if we can get Flo's energy back.'"

Tejada went a combined 4-for-7 on Wednesday and Thursday while making consecutive starts in place of Flores.