Familia is foiled again, bats flop
JEURYS FAMILIA stood in front of his locker for the second time in less than 24 hours and took the blame. The Mets closer had been perfect until Wednesday night and now he has blown two straight saves. So Familia stood there and talked about how he lost Thursday’s game, giving up two runs in the top of the ninth of the Mets’ 2-1 loss to the Rockies at Citi Field.
“I don’t have excuse to say. They scored two runs on me,” Familia said. “I lost the game today and I will try again tomorrow.”
But there was more than enough blame to go around Thursday, Wednesday night and most of this season, really.
The Mets’ struggling offense has put a strain on every aspect of this team for the entire season that it looks like it is starting to even wear on their best pitchers now.
“To be honest, we could’ve blown that game open by some ground balls and we haven’t been able to do it,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “That’s what it comes down to. our pitchers, they live on the edge. It’s hard to do every night.”
The Mets have lost three of their last four games in what they have called a crucial home stand. But the Mets’ lack of offense is putting a strain on every aspect of their roster, including the bullpen. Their impotence was on full display Thursday, getting three hits in the second inning, but only sending four men to the plate. They stranded a lead-off hitter in three of the last five innings and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
“Driving in runs is mental, your mindset, all you’re trying to do is put the bat on the ball,” Collins said. “You’re not looking for anything, hey, work the middle of the field. That’s been the common denominator with (RBI guys) and we’re not doing it.”
The Mets went into Thursday’s game hitting just .204 with runners in scoring position overall, but even they had scavenged up seven runs in eight plate appearances with bases loaded and no outs before. They were hitting .217 with the bases loaded overall this season.
With the bases full in the 7th, pinch hitter Kelly Johnson grounded into a force out at home, Curtis Granderson struck out and Wilmer Flores hit a shallow fly out to center.
That left the bullpen with a narrow one-run lead, built on Rene Rivera’s RBI-double in the second, to protect for two innings.
Before Wednesday night, Familia had converted 36 straight chances this season and excluding three blown saves in the postseason, he had 52 straight regular-season saves. After Collins had said he would give Familia a day off Thursday, the closer approached the manager and pitching coach Dan Warthen and told them he was available even after the heavy workload of late.
In the ninth, Trevor Story led off with a hard-hit single to center and stole second. Familia walked David Dahl and Rene Rivera allowed Daniel Descalso’s bunt to roll up the first base line, assuming it would go foul, to load the bases with no outs. Familia got Tony Wolters to strikeout, but the Rockies scored the tying run on a fielder’s choice with no outs when James Loney booted Cristhian Adames’ grounder to first. Familia allowed the go-ahead run to score on a wild pitch, a sinker that got away from Rivera.
“Every time I come into the game, I just want to do my job, do it the best I can,” Familia said. “In that situation today, we can win...Today I can’t get the job done, but everybody knows I give 100%.”
And the Mets have been asking 110% from their pitchers this season to make up for their lack of offense. Jacob deGrom, coming off his worst start of the season, had given the Mets seven scoreless innings — scattering five hits, striking out six and walking one.
“My goal is to go out and put up zeros and keep us in the ballgame and give us a chance to win — we had the one run lead. Unfortunately we weren’t been able to hang on to it,” deGrom said. “The bullpen has been great and usually when I leave those games, I am able to get a win out of it.”
Thursday, deGrom could not get the win and while Familia was ready to take the blame, in the Met clubhouse and front office, there was a lot more of it to go around.