Bartolo Colon’s return to Citi Field was bittersweet. The former patriarch of the New York Mets pitching staff got a standing ovation, then plowed through their batting order for six innings – his only misstep was a line drive solo shot off the bat of Jay Bruce.
Colon’s counterpart Jacob deGrom bested his old buddy with six shutout innings, a beautiful sign for his first start since undergoing off-season elbow surgery.
Unfortunately Hansel Robles came unhinged in the top of the seventh retiring only one of the five batters he faced, loading the bases until Jerry Blevins mopped up his mess to keep it a 1-1 game.
Addison Reed filling in for the suspended Jeurys Familia was pretty perfect in the ninth, but Rafael Montero, coming off a promising showing this spring, exhibited shades of the wildness he exhibited last year.
Matt Kemp made up for a dismal opening day with three doubles, one of which proved to be the dagger when with two outs, Terry Collins made the dubious decision to intentionally walk Freddie Freeman who was 0 for 4 on the day.
The much-improved Braves relief staff got redemption from their six run opening day implosion by retiring 17 of 22 Mets batters.
The Mets only promising offensive takeaway was Jay Bruce’s prolific 3 for 5 at the plate. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come from last season’s beleaguered poster boy, who came oh so close to being the unlikely hero.
In today’s rubber match, Mets fans will hold their breathe for the return of what hopes to be the surgically repaired Matt Harvey, making his first start since last July, as he faces veteran Jaime Garcia in his Brave’s debut.
