The dust has settled, and the New York Mets are in the playoffs and will face the Los Angeles Dodgers sans home-field advantage beginning Friday, October 9.
With the postseason beginning next week, Terry Collins addressed a number of topics regarding the NLDS at his final regular season post-game press conference. Here are some of the highlights:
1. The fun is only just beginning
“90 wins is a big step, it’s a huge step from where we’ve been and all the things we went through and to see the expression on their faces that they accomplished something. Even though they accomplished it last week, knowing what we’ve got ahead. I just talked to (Cespedes) and he said ‘the fun is just starting,’ and he is right. We’ve worked hard to get there and we’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to get ourselves ready this week and go out to LA and play like we know how.”
2. Bartolo Colon will be a “steadying influence” in the bullpen
“He brings a lot to the table and he’s going to be a steadying influence in that bullpen, we’ve got a lot of guys that are going to be in that bullpen in Los Angeles, so to have him sitting out there will help a lot.”
3. The Mets are confident in the rotation they’ve set for the NLDS
“I think Game 3 in a 5-game series is the pivotal game. So I told Matt a week ago, if we get in, you’re going to pitch Game 3. It’s big, it’s going to limit you obviously to the number of times that you’re going to pitch, which is part of the whole plan behind him saying ‘hey, I want to go out and pitch as much as I can at the end of the season.’
“And then we went with the guy who’s pitched the best all year, and that’s Jake deGrom. To have him start Game 1. Noah, who after his rest in September has been absolutely brilliant, he can go Game 2 and we’re going to come home and we have Matt taking the mound, so we kind of like the way it sets up and we’re going to let them go pitch their games.”
4. Terry appreciates the fan base’s patience, support
I sat here last October and told our fan base that their patience is going to be rewarded, but it was time for us to win. So I just wanted to go out an applaud them for all of their support. The last month, those series against the Nationals here. The energy in the stadium, I have never been around it, and the players talked about the importance of it all and so I just wanted to go around and thank everybody. You can’t shake everybody’s hand but just to let them know that we knew we were there, we appreciate their support and we promise to show them a good time come Friday.
5. Jim Leyland likes to throw stat books
“In ’92, we were getting ready for the playoffs against Atlanta when I was with Pittsburgh and all the information was not on a computer, it was in a binder that was about *this* thick. Jim Leyland at the end of the meeting took the binder and threw it up in the air and papers were flying all over the place and he said ‘understand something, this game is played by humans, who make mistakes.”
“So all the information we have is legitimate, but now we have to go out and execute it, and I think we have the guys who can go out and do that.”
