RARE LAUGHER
DEGROM GEM, WALKER HRs PROPEL AMAZIN’S
PITTSBURGH — Has a team ever needed a laugher like these Mets did Friday night at PNC Park? Shoot, the Mets could register a month straight of laughers, and they probably still would show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder from everything this young season already has wrought. Mets 8, Pirates 1 shouldn’t have raised your heart rate more than a few ticks, with Neil Walker celebrating his second Steel City homecoming by going deep twice while driving home four runs. In all, the Mets rid themselves of some of the stench from their prior two games — losses to the tanking Padres at Citi Field — by racking up 12 hits. Yet one pretty game doesn’t erase the stark reality of this group: It can’t excel unless its starting rotation excels. “We’ve got great hitters in here. I think it’s just a combination of everything,” Jacob deGrom said, after producing the best and longest performance by a Mets starting pitcher this season. “We’re going to get hot. We’ve got too good players to not win ballgames. Once everybody gets back and ready to go, it’s going to be fun to watch.” DeGrom, the Mets’ interim ace, justified the club’s decision to keep him out of Thursday’s wet mess in Flushing and push him back a day. On six days’ rest, the right-hander lasted 8 ¹/3 innings, throwing 118 pitches, as he limited the Pirates to a run and six hits while walking one and striking out 10. “He’s our guy right now,” Terry Collins said. “We’ve got to have him go out and shut the other team down, and he did that tonight.” With Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey scheduled to follow deGrom on Saturday and Sunday, the Mets are lined up optimally to kick off the sort of roll they’ will require to get this season back on track. Given Harvey’s recent struggles, that doesn’t guarantee much. Yet these are the Mets’ most accomplished and healthy starters at the moment, with Steven Matz and Seth Lugo perhaps one more rehab start apiece away from making their 2017 big league debuts. The Mets have a 5.04 starters’ ERA, ranking them 12th in the National League, and that has snowballed into the bullpen, which has a 4.94 relievers’ ERA, second-worst in the NL. The Mets put together a solid relief corps, but not the sort of dominant difference-makers that populated, say, last year’s Orioles, or last year’s Yankees before they traded Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller.
The Mets would be performing even worse than their 20-26 record if not for the offense, which ranked seventh in the NL with 235 runs entering West Coast action. The problem for the Mets is it’s hard to envision the offense getting dramatically better, even with Yoenis Cespedes’ return coming as soon as Monday. Michael Conforto has started to experience a market correction, as has the team’s overall hitting with runners in scoring position.
And while Collins showed off his most important strength Friday by having his guys ready to shake off the disappointing homestand, he never will be a master tactician. All man
agers look smarter when they receive consistently good starting pitching.
On Friday, Collins let deGrom take the mound for the ninth inning after 111 pitches and determined his starter wouldn’t pass the 120 mark, as he has to pitch on normal rest Wednesday against the Brewers. DeGrom made it through two batters, allowing a single to Gregory Polanco and striking out David Freese, before getting the hook for Fernando Salas, who quickly picked up the last two outs.
Now with a 3.23 ERA and two straight excellent performances after a rough start to the season, deGrom described his turnaround as “very satisfying.” He tweaked some mechanics and has been throwing light bullpen sessions on two consecutive days between starts, as he did in 2015.
The 2015 Mets put up a 3.61 starters’ ERA, fourth-best in the NL. Last year, despite getting ravaged by injuries, their rotation tallied a 3.40 ERA, third-best. They probably have dug too deep a whole to wind up that high again. Yet if they return to that neighborhood from here on in, they will give themselves a chance. The best chance they have, by far.