On Saturday night, the Mets got a first hand look at just how important Jeurys Familia is to this team and to this season.
Staked to a 3-1 lead against the Braves, and with Familia unavailable to pitch due to the birth of his new son, the bullpen couldn’t lock down the win in the ninth inning and Atlanta ultimately won the game 5-3 in 11 innings. It was a jarring defeat to say the least.
Before the game, manager Terry Collins said he planned to mix and match in the ninth inning and he did just that albeit with disastrous results.
Collins handed the ball to rookie Hansel Robles to begin the ninth and he promptly walked the leadoff batter Chris Johnson and allowed a single to Andrelton Simmons to put runners on first and second with nobody out.
After striking out pinch hitter Juan Uribe, the young righty induced a double play grounder to short that should have ended the game. But Wilmer Flores bobbled the ball and was only able to get the one out at second base. Cameron Maybin then singled home Johnson as the tying run moved to third base with Freddie Freeman due up next.
Terry Collins then inexplicably decides to have lefthander Alex Torres come in to face Freeman, apparently unaware that Torres has reverse splits and lefty batters have a .758 OPS against him.
What happened next was no surprise as Freeman laced a single to center to tie the game and send it into extras.
Between Collins’ poor decisions and Flores’ inability to turn a routine double play, the Mets squandered another strong performance by starting pitcher Jacob deGrom.
Would things have played out differently with Jeurys Familia in to close? Most likely yes. But regardless, Flores needed to turn that double play and Collins should be well-aware by now that Torres is not a lefty specialist. They both failed to execute in my opinion, and because of it the Mets lost a full game in the standings.
