Since being acquired from the Oakland A’s, setup reliever Tyler Clippard has become a formidable weapon for the Mets bullpen.
In 12 appearances with New York, Clippard is 1-0 with one save, four holds, a 2.38 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 11 1/3 innings pitched.
Clippard earned that save against his former team, the Washington Nationals, whom he believes the Mets should easily widen the gap against in the NL East.
“We could easily be up seven games on them right now,” Clippard told Mike Puma of the New York Post.
“It’s just we have lost a few of these tight ones as of late. We’re playing very good baseball and the confidence has never been higher. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t expand the lead.”
The Mets lead the Nationals by 4.0 games as they get set for a weekend series in Colorado against the Rockies.
Despite the recent struggles of the Mets bullpen, Clippard believes that they will ultimately right the ship.
“I feel like everybody is throwing the ball well. We are kind of where we need to be, it’s just kind of how these games have been going.”
Clippard may just end up being the most significant of all the pre-trade deadline acquisitions by Sandy Alderson.
On Wednesday, Terry Collins talked about the importance of having a strong bullpen.
“The game today is about your bullpen, pitching and starting pitching. You look at the teams that really have long bullpens – they are the team’s playing really well.”
