I have a confession to make… When Tyler Clippard failed to get those two left-handed hitters out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s game, I was sweating and pacing. Those old feelings of doom and gloom started creeping back.
With the Mets up 5-1 Clippard, who is among the best in the game in getting left-handed hitters out, allowed a one-out walk to the dangerous Chris Davis and a single to catcher Matt Wieters. Uh oh… No big deal, after all we still have that four-run cushion, right?
So out comes Terry Collins who gestures to the bullpen with his right hand – by the way he looked just as nervous as I was – and in came the almost always reliable Jeurys Familia to get the final two outs of the game. I was feeling better already…
Familia quickly struck out Jonathan Schoop, who was having the worst game of his life, and the Orioles were down to their last out. But that’s when things started to go awry again.
In a moment of confusion or pressure or whatever, Familia induced a hopper between first and second that should have ended the game.
But after Kelly Johnson ranged right to field the ball and fire it to first to complete the play, Lucas Duda was off the bag and Steve Clevinger was credited with a single to load the bases.
So now with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, the tying run was up at the plate.
Struggling to throw strikes, Familia then walked JJ Hardy and Henry Urrutia consecutively to force in two runs and suddenly the Orioles had closed the gap to 5-3. And here comes the red hot Manny Machado.
Luckily, disaster was averted and after a nail-biting at-bat, Machado hit a grounder to Daniel Murphy, who made the throw to Duda to end the game.
“I’m not too sure how many times a lot of these guys have been put in the situation we’re in now, especially Jeurys Familia, in a playoff hunt, pennant race, and he’s the closer for the first time in his life,” Terry Collins said afterward of the near disaster.
We’re going to ease him through it, get him through it, and today was a good test for him.”
Collins admitted that he was so anxious drained that ninth inning, that he was giving serious thought to start throwing things around in the dugout.
And as for Familia, there was no hiding the relief on his face when the game was finally over.
“I left a couple of pitches outside and missed the zone a little bit,” Familia said after the game.
“I was happy because we won the game. I was just trying to do the best I can, like always.”
The Mets were happy to… Real happy… And so were the 15,000 or more Mets fans that showed up to Camden yards to root for the team.
However, Terry Collins did make an excellent point in that so many of our key players are experiencing this postseason environment for the first time in their lives.
It’s going to be somewhat of a challenge for some of them, because as we all know that kind of pressure can do things to a player no matter how good or how great they are.
Collins says he’s committed to helping Familia and some of the other young players through this, by easing the pressure and relying on some of the veterans like Juan Uribe and Bartolo Colon – who have been there before – to help ease some of the anxiety and lighten the atmosphere in the clubhouse.
