Jose Mesa once vowed to drill Omar Vizquel every time he stepped into the batter's box. Mesa even threatened to kill him.

That was in response to Vizquel's 2002 book that criticized Mesa for his performance in the 1997 World Series when they were teammates with the losing Cleveland Indians.

This weekend, Vizquel will be in town with his new team, the San Francisco Giants, but Mesa pledged yesterday to avoid further friction.

"I'm not going to be thinking about it," Mesa said, smiling. "If he comes up there to hit, I've got to do my job and try to get him out. That situation's over with. He said what he said, and I said what I said. All we're going to do is play. This is a beautiful game."

Vizquel wrote in his book, "Omar! My Life On and Off the Field," that Mesa's blown save in Game 7 against the Florida Marlins was the result of his reluctance to pitch in that situation: "The eyes of the world were focused on every move we made. Unfortunately, Jose's own eyes were vacant. Completely empty. Nobody home. You could almost see right through him. Not long after I looked into his vacant eyes, he blew the save and the Marlins tied the game."

Mesa responded in kind, telling Philadelphia reporters at the time: "I will not forgive him. Even my little boy told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

He nailed Vizquel in the back during an interleague game three years ago in Cleveland, just after the book was released. They have not met since because they have played in different leagues.

Mesa now maintains that his comments about wanting to kill Vizquel were taken too literally.

"It sounded bad, the way I said it. But I didn't mean to say it like that," he said. "What I said, you could say to anybody in the Dominican, the way we say things. People said, when I said that, it was like I'm going to kill him in the streets. No way. I'm not that kind of person."

Torres held back

Reliever Salomon Torres could be placed on the disabled list if his nagging neck injury does not improve soon.

Torres missed two weeks of spring training because of a muscle in his upper back that is creating neck stiffness, and that has carried over into his regular-season performance, manager Lloyd McClendon said. Torres has given up three home runs in his past two outings, one more than he gave up in 92 innings last season.

"It's affected him, no question," McClendon said. "We just want to give it a day or two and make sure everything's OK."

Torres is long-tossing now. If he shows improvement in the next day or two, he will be available to pitch Friday.

North Side notches

Second baseman Jose Castillo, out because of a strained oblique, had no difficulty in his second day of batting practice and is expected to be sent out for a rehabilitation stint with Class AAA Indianapolis today. He likely will remain there through the weekend.

Mike Gonzalez, slowed by a slight knee injury, has been cleared to pitch.