Niese of mind
Lefty rights ship without Mets help
ATLANTA — Jon Niese kept the Mets in Sunday’s game even without the benefit of defensive support.
“It was a big step forward,” Niese said after the Mets beat the Braves 107 in 10 innings at Turner Field. “With everything that happened today it was a crazy game, but with a great outcome.”
Niese, who had allowed a fiverun inning in each of his previous three starts, was charged with two earned runs over six innings Sunday, but even that statistic was dubious: Lucas Duda muffed a popup in foul territory and wasn’t charged with an error in the third inning that would have made the two runs unearned.
Over his previous four starts, Niese had pitched to a 10.53 ERA.
“I thought he pitched better than the results were today,” manager Terry Collins said. “He certainly had much better command and made pitches when he had to, and hopefully that is what you’re going to see from him the rest of the way.”
Bobby Parnell’s first appearance in 12 days was a success, with the right hander pitching 1 ¹/₃ scoreless innings for the victory.
“I definitely feel like we’ve made some good adjustments,” said Parnell, who has a 6.10 ERA in 25 ap pearances this season.
“I really appreciate [pitching coach] Dan [ Warthen] and [bullpen coach] Ricky [ Bones] sticking with me and not giving up on me. It’s been a long three weeks to get my arm back up to where it should be. I feel like we’re going in the right direction. I just need more outings like today.”
The Mets improved to 3737 on the road. Since July 1, they are 2611 on the road, the best mark in the majors over that span.
Sunday marked only the third time in franchise history the Mets erased a threerun deficit or greater when they were down to their final out, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.