Robles back with a bang, gets blasted
AP
THE STRUGGLES reliever Hansel Robles experienced before his demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas in May were something the Dominican righthander said he thinks all pitchers confront at one point or another at the major-league level. “I think pitchers sometimes will go through that where they get a little bit lost,” Robles said through a translator Monday after he was recalled before the Mets began a four-game home series against the Cardinals. “That was one of my lows. I think you have highs and you have lows, and that was a low for me. I try to just move past that now and I’m just glad to be back.”
He may not be back for long. Robles served up a three-run home run to Tommy Pham in the sixth inning on his second pitch of the night in the Mets’ 6-3 loss to the Cardinals.
Robles began the season with the big-league club, but his ERA soared to 6.23 over 21 games in the first month and a half of the ’17 campaign. In 21.2 innings of that stretch, Robles gave up 15 runs on 21 hits, while walking 13 and whiffing 23.
Terry Collins said Monday that at the start of the season, with closer Jeurys Familia serving a 15-game ban for violating baseball’s domestic violence policy, he and his coaching staff thought they would be fine with Robles handling the eighth inning and Addison Reed closing. Then Robles starting getting torched.
“We thought to ourselves we’re OK because we have (Reed) we can close with and Hansel to pitch the eighth and we thought that was going to work because of what (Robles) has accomplished in the last couple of years here. It just didn’t work,” said Collins. “I don’t know why. (Robles) didn’t make pitches, fell behind, got beat night after night by right-handed hitters by leaving the ball on the inner half and didn’t pitch like we thought he could, so we thought he had to go down and find that zone again.”
Collins said if Robles shows consistency in the majors again, “I’m sure he’ll earn” the 8th-inning role back. But that was before Robles’ disastrous return Monday night.
CES STARTS
Yoenis Cespedes was in the starting lineup Monday against St. Louis, and Collins said the Cuban slugger is “fine” after Cespedes limped off the field with hip discomfort in Saturday’s victory over Colorado and then was rested Sunday. Cespedes went 0-for-5 Monday and grounded into the game-ending double play.
Collins said he won’t ask Cespedes to play any differently when he is on the field, citing the outfielder’s defensive expertise in addition to his big bat. “This guy won a Gold Glove in left field,” Collins said. “We’ve talked last three weeks about defense, it wins games for you and having Yoenis Cespedes out there with a Gold Glove making some catches, even when he has to leave his feet helps us win games.”
WALKER ON THE MEND
Second baseman Neil Walker (partial tear left hamstring) ran the bases Monday for the first time since going on the DL June 15 and, provided Walker experiences no setbacks, he thinks he is close to playing in rehab games in preparation to re-joining the team.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” Walker said Monday. “I’ve got to run the bases again, make sure there’s no soreness or any issues. Once I get through that, I should be headed back toward some rehab games.”