While the news on Jenrry Mejia and his sore elbow put a damper on Monday’s Opening Day win over the Washington Nationals, there was a ray of hope in the performances of Jeurys Familia and Buddy Carlyle.
Both righthanders handled their late inning relief outings with efficiency and sheer dominance in the case of Familia.
A year and a half ago I predicted that Familia would eventually become a lethal weapon in the Mets bullpen and could ultimately earn the closer role for this team. He is now a heartbeat away from that happening depending on the results of Mejia’s MRI today.
All Familia did yesterday was come into the eighth inning and dominate the Nationals with a nasty sinker that was hard, heavy, and had great late break.
It was unhittable and hard for batters to resist. The sinker has always been Familia’s signature pitch, but last night it was especially devastatingly effective. Familia pitched a 1-2-3 inning and struck out a pair, including former Met Matt den Dekker.
After the game Terry Collins announced that Familia would take over as the team’s closer if Mejia misses any time. Nobody wants to win a job this way, but this could be Familia’s big break and his time to shine.
In the ninth inning, after Jerry Blevins came in to face and retire Bryce Harper, Collins called on Buddy Carlyle to get the final two outs.
The 37-year old veteran got both Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos to ground out to shortstop to earn his first career save and clinch the Opening Day victory for the Mets.
Carlyle posted a 1.53 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in 27 games for the Mets in 2014 and was re-signed to a minor league deal this past offseason. Congratulations to Mr. Carlyle.
So while the Mets potentially got some bad news in the bullpen on Monday, there were some very bright spots as well.
