Robert Gsellman, who will be relegated to a bullpen role once Steven Matz and Seth Lugo return from their rehab stints, won’t go down without a fight.
For the third consecutive start, the 23-year-old took the mound for the Mets and delivered a solid outing.
After turning in seven strong innings of one run ball May 29 against Milwaukee, Gsellman struck out five and allowed just two runs over 5 1/3 innings against the Pirates on Saturday evening.
Though, it wasn’t enough to give the Mets overworked bullpen any rest, as relievers were responsible for 11 outs on Saturday after Gsellman labored through a hefty amount of pitches in the early goings.
“Baseball gods bit us again,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “My god, a 10-pitch inning and then he goes back-to-back 27-pitch innings.”
Gsellman was relieved by Fernando Salas in the sixth after Gsellman had put two runners on base.
Salas kept the Pirates off the scoreboard and preserved the 4-2 lead handed to him before giving the ball to Jerry Blevins for the seventh.
Blevins delivered yet another quality outing with a clean seventh, but it was closer Addison Reed who did the real heavy lifting, firing two scoreless innings en route to the right-hander’s eighth save of the year.
“I called down to the bullpen and said, ‘Can you do two?’ And he just said, ‘Yup.’ We needed it tonight,” Collins said in regards to Reed. “He loves the eighth inning. He became, certainly, as good a setup guy as there was last year, but he never says a word. He just takes the baseball.”
Reed, who was pitching on four days rest (which has become a rarity with the Mets), has high expectations thrust upon him, but the closer is ready and willing to pitch whenever the team needs him.
“I’ve said since day one when I came over here, if they call down and want me to throw the first inning, I’ll throw the first inning,” Reed said. “If they want me to throw the ninth, I’ll throw the ninth. No change in my mindset. No change in anything. As soon as the game starts, I’m ready to go whenever.”
With Jeurys Familia potentially missing the rest of the 2017 campaign, the Mets will need Reed to be an anchor at the end of its bullpen, and Saturday night was a gutsy and promising sign from the veteran in his higher leverage capacity.
