Collins rips Met effort
Terry Collins walked into the Mets clubhouse after their 7-5 loss to the Braves at Citi Field and delivered a kick to a team that is down. Despite losing their best pitcher and best hitter in a matter of a few hours, the Mets manager wanted his players to know they may be down, but they are not yet out of this season.
In what players called an “appropriate kick in the butt,” Collins made sure that the Mets were not feeling sorry for themselves after Noah Syndergaard was scratched with tendinitis in the biceps/shoulder area and Yoenis Cespedes left Thursday’s game with a strained left hamstring.
“Last year we lost David Wright, he’s out again this year. We lost (Asdrubal Cabrera). We lost(Neil Walker), we lost (Lucas) Duda, we lost Ces. We lost (Matt) Harvey. We lost deGrom, we lost (Steven) Matz. Ok, we still made it through,” Collins said he told the players in his first postgame meeting of the season.
“We can do that again, but it’s gotta start now,” Collins continued. “The weather is going to start changing. We can no longer use that as an excuse, not that we have, that can no longer be the excuse. It is now time to go out and grind it out as we did last year and it’s still April.
“I understand that also. But we can no longer sit back and say hey look, it’s ugly weather, we’ve got some guys hurt. No one cares. (The Braves) don’t care, the Nationals don’t care, you guys don’t care. The only things that matters are the guys in that room. That’s the product. They’ve got to care, they’ve got to go out and give us some energy and get this thing going and I truly believe we can do it.”
Jose Reyes admitted that he had noticed that the Mets were lacking energy as they have lost six straight and 10 of their last 11.
“We feel that way when we go out there, so it’s hard to win a ball game like that,” the third baseman said. “If you fall down 1-0, 2-0, we feel like we already lost. As a baseball player when you have that attitude that’s bad. We have to change that.”
While Jay Bruce said that the team was receptive, the veteran knows only one thing will matter.
“He thought it was important to say something today. I respect his decision. We have a group of guys who understand what it takes to win baseball games and play winning baseball and we’re simply not doing that right now,” Bruce said. “You can have all the team meetings or you can
EPA try as hard as you want, but I think winning the games is most important.” up and pitch Thursday’s 1:10 p.m. game until 10 a.m.
So, it was little surprise that Harvey went out and struggled, allowing six runs on five hits on a career-high tying five walks. The last time he allowed six runs was July 4, 2016, his last start before being diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and being shut down for surgery. “It’s different. It’s something I’m not used to,” Harvey said of the quick notice. “As far as today goes, I needed to do a better job of being ready.
“I was expecting to pitch tomorrow, so had a big workout yesterday so body wise it kind of tightened up,” Harvey added.
He said the “tightness,” he felt Thursday was a result of throwing too much and lifting weights on Wednesday night, which he would not normally do the night before a start.
“It took a while to get loose in the bullpen and going out there and trying to battle through it, it was a tough day,” Harvey said.
He is not concerned about any lingering affects. It was the second time in a week Harvey has had his start day pushed up by injury. He pitched last Friday when Jacob deGrom woke up with a stiff neck, but had more notice.