Jacob’s arm worth more than one win

MIAMI — Jacob deGrom knew he was done. The Mets’ righthander had rebounded after giving up rare back-to-back home runs in the second inning, and finished having struck out a career-high tying 13 Marlins. He walked off the field at Marlins Park physically feeling like he had thrown more than the 97 pitches he had actually thrown.

“I didn’t know how many pitches I had, I thought I had more, but I kind of figured I was done after that inning,” said deGrom, who was shut down last season to have surgery on his elbow. “It’s early in the season, I am coming off a surgery, I had a feeling I was going to be done.”

Saturday night, the Mets’ commitment to keeping their pitching staff healthy was tested once again. After watching their playoff hopes implode with pitcher injury after pitcher injury last season, the Mets’ mindset is that they have to pro-actively protect their arms.

Despite that pledge, the Mets already have two significant arms injured and have been taxed by two extra-inning games as their closer is serving a 15-game suspension. While GM Sandy Alderson said last week they are looking to add to their pitching depth, it’s a little late. Knowing they would most likely be without their closer to start the season, the Mets did not add a veteran arm to their bullpen this winter.

This series is showing why they should have done that if they were planning to protect their younger arms.

Terry Collins felt he had no choice but to shut down deGrom and turn a two-run lead over to Fernando Salas Saturday.

The right-handed reliever, making his eighth appearance in 12 games, gave up a two-out walk and then backto-back home runs to Christian Yelich and Giancarlo Stanton in the eighth to blow a two-run lead and take the loss in the Mets’ 5-4 defeat against the Marlins.

“I don’t know how many times we have to say that right now we have made a commitment to take care of these guys, to make sure we don’t over do it,” the Mets manager said with a bit of exasperation in his voice. “It’s easy to say, it’s easy to second guess, when you blow a save…. You could have ran Jake out there. … We’ve got three pitchers who are coming off surgery...now, if Jake goes out there and he gets in trouble, the immediate thing is ‘why didn’t you take him out?’

“I want to protect these guys. Jake was basically at 100 pitches, he was striking guys out, he was pitching great. That’s enough,” Collins said. “This guy has...Fernando Salas has done nothing but put up zeroes, so we went with that.” While Jeurys Familia made his first minor league appearance Saturday night to prepare for his return from the restricted list, the Mets are undermanned in the bullpen as they wait for him to come back on Thursday. The back end of the bullpen, veterans Jerry Blevins, Addison Reed and Salas, have been sharp, but they have been stretched thin with young middle relievers who have been inconsistent. So Thursday’s 16-inning game, in which Salas threw 22 pitches over two innings, has a ripple effect on the Mets pitching.

“Yeah, of course, but what are you gonna do? That’s what we’ve got. We’ve got to get through it,” Collins said. “Fernando threw (22) pitches (Thursday). He didn’t throw 40, he threw 20. So you know what, he fell behind (in the count). The way he pitched the first two guys (of the inning), you would say he was right on. All the sudden he walks (Miguel) Rojas, which was unexpected. Yeah, we could’ve gone to Blevins there, but if Yelich gets on who are we going to then? You’ve got Stanton coming up. I wanted Salas to pitch to Stanton. It’s Djust the way it is.” eGrom said he agreed with Collins’ decision to give the ball to Salas. He was also on board with the Mets plans to protect him and the other pitchers. “The goal is to be able to pitch all year and I wasn’t able to do that last year,” deGrom said. “The goal is to stay healthy and it’s early in the season. Salas has done a great job for us, he did a great job for us last year. It was a rough inning for him and that happens.

“I felt very comfortable handing the ball over to the guys in the bullpen.”

Saturday night, deGrom and Collins had no choice.