Quick hook from Terry backfires
ALL season long, as the Mets have underperformed and tumbled below .500 and battled through a shocking number of injuries to high-profile players, Terry Collins has remained consistent: He’s always managing to win that day. He’ll think about the next game tomorrow.
But in Wednesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Padres — another embarrassing, crushing defeat spurred by horrendous relief pitching — Collins seemed to deviate from his approach. In his first start since May 13, righthander Robert Gsellman was putting together his sharpest outing in more than a month, and perhaps his best performance of the season. He allowed three runs in his first six innings. And after a 1-2-3 sixth inning, Gsellman had thrown just 84 pitches.
Nonetheless, Collins pinch-hit for Gsellman in the bottom of the sixth, sending Travis d’Arnaud to the plate. Gsellman’s night was over, and he left with the Mets leading 5-3.
Collins handed the ball off to his bullpen, and the lead dissipated in dramatic fashion. After the game, the skipper’s explanation for pulling Gsellman contradicted his mantra.
“This kid has really been struggling,” Collins said of Gsellman, whose ERA ballooned to 7.07 after his start May 13. “At times, you want him to leave with a good feeling. And he gave us six good innings.”
Collins often defends his decisions by saying he was focused on winning the game. And yet Wednesday night, he was more concerned with his pitcher’s psyche.
Fernando Salas replaced Gsellman to start the seventh and retired the first two batters. But he loaded the bases with two outs on a pinch-hit single and two walks. Collins then replaced Salas with Neil Ramirez and his 10.32 ERA. Ramirez nearly allowed a go-ahead grand slam to Wil Myers, whose missile line drive to right deflected off the orange paint at the top of the wall. He settled for a game-tying single.
In the next inning, Hunter Renfroe led off with a massive go-ahead home run off Josh Smoker.
“You send him out, he gets in trouble, you got to go to Salas anyway,” Collins said, explaining his decision to yank Gsellman. “So we just said, ‘Let’s just start the inning, and he’s done his job.’” Gsellman was deferential after the game. “I was fine. I felt good. If Terry wanted me to go out for a seventh, I could have,” he said. “But he’s the manager, and he makes the decisions around here.” In need of a win? Call the Mets bullpen. Yet again Wednesday night, the depleted and struggling group of relievers collapsed in demoralizing fashion. Despite leading by four runs after four innings, the Mets fell to the lowly Padres, 6-5, at Citi Field.
Hunter Renfroe hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth, a mammoth shot to left. Wil Myers tied the game in the seventh on a tworun single off the wall. All three runs were scored off the Mets bullpen, which wasted a solid outing from righthander Robert Gsellman.
Gsellman allowed three runs over six innings but threw just 84 pitches. He was pinch hit for in the bottom of the sixth.
The Mets loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth but failed to bring a run home. Curtis Granderson and Rene Rivera struck out before Juan Lagares ended the game with a flyout to right.
Josh Smoker, who was the frontrunner to start Saturday in place of the injured Tommy Milone, surprisingly took the mound to start the eighth with the game tied at 5. He fell behind Renfroe, 3-1, struggling to command his splitter. Smoker then fired a 94-mph four-seam fastball down and in, and Renfroe smashed a towering fly ball into the second deck in left field — a nodoubter. The Padres took a 6-5 lead and never trailed again.
The Mets carried a 5-3 lead into the seventh inning when Fernando Salas took the mound. The righthander retired the first two batters of the inning before pinch hitter Chase d’Arnaud singled on a ground ball through the right side. Salas then surrendered back-toback walks, and Terry Collins pulled him in favor of Neil Ramirez to face Myers. That was a bad decision. Myers ripped a two-RBI single off the right-field wall, just missing a grand slam but tying the game. Renfroe, whose eighth-inning home run was the deciding blow.
METS VS. PADRES
Wilmer Flores is hitting .435 against left-handed pitching this season.
UNSUNG HERO
Flores, whose third-inning double with the bases loaded gave the Mets a 3-1 lead. He then came around to score on Granderson’s single in the next at-bat. Flores has 5 RBI in his last four games and is hitting .396 in May.
Rivera, who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts on the day Travis d’Arnaud returned from the disabled list. Rivera has just one hit in his last 12 at-bats. Tonight, 7:10., Jacob deGrom (3-1, 3.56) vs. Dinelson Lamet (0-0, 0.00); TV: SNY