Three goners, but Rafa may be a keeper
RAFAEL Montero’s unexpected transformation back into a dependable arm for the Mets continued on Sunday, despite their 3-2 loss to the Athletics at Citi Field. Montero coughed up three solo home runs, but nothing else over seven innings, his longest outing of the season.
“He threw very well. Just two hanging sliders killed him,” Terry Collins said, referring to the latter two Oakland home runs by Khris Davis in the fourth inning and a tiebreaking shot by Matt Chapman in the seventh. “Those are the things we talk about when you’re a young guy and they have the mindset of pound the zone, pound the zone. Once in a while you’ve got to go out of the zone. Surely, in a close game, you get hurt, two outs, nobody on.
“But he throws strikes and uses his pitches, he’s just gotta make the pitches that count. He’s done a nice job, did a nice job today. We didn’t have many opportunities. But he gave us every chance to come back and win the game.”
Montero sported a bloated 8.24 ERA when he was demoted to Triple-A in late May. But since returning, he has posted a 3.34 figure through 32.1 innings in seven games (four starts) to clearly regain some organizational trust.
“Things haven’t always come out so well for me,” Montero said through a translator, “but I feel the confidence that they have in me.”
Montero also rapped his first big-league hit with a single to right in the fifth inning — his first hit in 29 at-bats.
“Given how today went, just that part made me happy,” he said. “I’d been up to bat a couple of times, and nothing. So at least this time I got my first big-league hit.”
ANOTHER NO FOR CES
Yoenis Cespedes flied out as a pinch-hitter with the tying run on first base in the ninth inning. The $110 million slugger is batting just .213 (16-for-75) with no home runs and three RBI since June 27.
“We just gotta get the big guy going,” Collins said. “When we get him going, it’s a whole different lineup.”
TEBOW HOMERS
Tim Tebow homered and doubled in the St. Lucie Mets’ 3-2 victory over the Florida Fire Frogs on Sunday. In 25 games with the high Class-A Met farm team, Tebow is hitting .317 with four home runs.