Good morning, Mets fans!
I was originally going to write about how it was nice to see our bullpen finally do a decent job last night, despite the loss. Then, I started digging through the box scores from the past few games and I realized something…
The Mets’ bullpen has not given up a run in the past 4 games.
That’s right, we’re 8 games into a season in which many horrible things have been said about our bullpen, and yet, in half of those games (the most recent half), the pen has been spotless.
Scott Rice replaced Dillon Gee with 1 out in the 8th on April 5th and retired 2 batters before Carlos Torres came in and pitched a scoreless ninth.
The next day, Gonzalez Germen entered in the 6th to help clean up Jon Niese‘s mess, after which Germen, Kyle Farnsworth, and Jose Valverde each pitched full, scoreless innings.
On Tuesday, Farnsworth and Valverde each tossed scoreless frames after Bartolo Colon pitched 7 strong innings.
And last night, Jeurys Familia and Gonzalez Germen helped the Mets keep the Braves off the board after Zack Wheeler gave up 4 runs in 5 innings.
The jury is definitely still out on the bullpen, but it’s been nice to see some competence from that unit in these past few games. The starting pitching has been pretty good as well, although our starters have generally had poor final innings in their outings this year.
However, the bats, after exploding for 7 runs on Opening Day, have been pretty disappointing. Wheeler wasn’t great last night, but he and the bullpen kept the team in the game and gave us a chance to win. The Mets rallied in the ninth and eventually got the tying run to third base, but you can only string so many hits together against Craig Kimbrel (who hadn’t started the inning, mind you), and the Mets, after struggling at the plate for the first 8 innings, predictably fell short.
The Mets have been lousy in innings 2-8 all season. That’s not a tendency that you see from winning teams. We can worry about the bullpen all we want, but at the end of the day, if the bullpen is being asked to control deficits rather than preserve leads… the come-from-behind, walk-off grand slams won’t always be there to save the day.
So, while our bullpen hurt us a bit in the first few games, it has been on the upswing lately and is not to blame for our more recent losses. What do YOU guys think about the pen so far this year? Who has impressed you? Who has fallen short of your expectations? Which internal options would you like to see the Mets add to the relief corps, and who would you like to see the Mets bring in from the outside?
Enjoy your day, Mets fans! Let’s take the rubber game tonight; I’ll be back after the game with the recap.
