It’s been more than eight weeks since Mets lefty starter Jon Niese earned a win, despite a month-long run of spectacular starts.
But on Monday, against the reigning World Series champion Giants, the veteran southpaw finally got the “W” and a well deserved one at that.
Niese might’ve pitched his best game of the season against the Giants, twirling eight shutout innings and limiting San Francisco to just three hits while striking out four, reducing his ERA to 3.58 on the season.
With the shutout victory, Mets pitchers have not allowed a run in their last 19 innings after they also blanked the Dodgers on Sunday 8-0 behind rookie Steven Matz.
The last time the Mets produced back to back 3-hit shutouts, was on July 8-9, 2008, when Mike Pelfrey and Johan Santana threw back-to-back shutouts against the Giants at Shea Stadium. (ESPN New York)
Before Monday’s win, the last time Niese got a win, was back on May 9 vs the Phillies at Philadelphia. Since then, he went 0-6 in nine starts and that’s despite a 2.06 ERA in his last five starts.
“He deserved it a lot,” said manager Terry Collins on Niese earning the victory. “He’s pitched very, very well lately and has just come up short. It was another tremendous outing by him tonight. I’m glad we scored some runs for him for a change.”
Niese was so effective on Monday that he averaged only 10 pitches an inning in the game, ending his night with a 81-pitch effort before handing it over to closer Jeurys Familia who sealed the deal.
“We executed the game plan”, Niese said. “We knew coming into the game that they were going to be aggressive. The plan was to pound the bottom of the zone with all of the pitches. We were able to do that.”
Even though Niese may not be in the Mets future plans with the depth of their young starters, as long as he’s in the rotation, his bounceback stretch has been a welcome sign and only increases his value to the team and on the trade market.
