AN AMAZIN' TURN IN TEXAS
METS RALLY AFTER BLOWING LEAD /
ARLINGTON, Texas — Well, this was trouble.
Four batters into his workday Wednesday Zack Wheeler was already trailing the Texas Rangers 1-0, was still facing runners on the corners and one out. Wheeler had two full years to think about a lot of things, rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. A lot can creep into your imagination during those long months if you let them.
The specifics are never all that clear.
“Still,” he said, smiling, after the Mets had beaten the Rangers 4-3, “you always pride yourself getting out of jams.”
He got out of this one, coaxing a ground ball out of Robinson Chirinos (who would be heard from later), inducing the 4-6-3 double play that allowed him to go back to the dugout and recalibrate his night.
“And when he did that,” Terry Collins said, “he was pretty special.”
So little has gone right for the Mets this year, they are entitled to savor one of the true bright spots of the first two-plus months. Funny how things work out in this game, right? With less than two weeks to go in spring training, it was entirely plausible that both Wheeler and Michael Conforto would be left behind when the Mets headed north.
Now, Conforto is the most essential component of the Mets’ batting order. And Wheeler is the one true stopper in the band of starters that was supposed to dominate the National League and instead entered the game with an ERA over five. The Mets may seem inches away from the abyss, and they are; think about where they’d be if Conforto was in Las Vegas and Wheeler had been confined to extended spring training for an extra month.
Mike“He’s as Vaccarosteady as we’ve got,” Collins said.
He was on Wednesday, throwing seven innings and 108 pitches, allowing only that firstinning run on six hits, striking out four, lowering his ERA on the season to a best-among-thestarters 3.45. In his last seven starts he’s 3-1 with a 2.41 ERA.
Of course, he didn’t get the win last night because in 2017 nothing comes easily for the Mets. This time it was Jerry Blevins, the most reliable member of the Mets bullpen, who allowed a scratch two-out single to Nomar Mazara in the bottom of the eighth (only the fifth hit the southpaw Blevins has allowed a lefty this year) and then a gametying bomb to Chirinos that may well have been the worst pitch he’s thrown all year.
“Right down the middle,” Collins said. “You don’t expect that from him.”
That the Mets stole the win anyway an inning later thanks to some shoddy Rangers defense and some heads-up running by Matt Reynolds was what Collins chose to focus on; that, and Wheeler, who waited so long to be able to perform like this and has been such a revelation for a team so badly in need of revelations.
Soon, of course, the invisible anvil that’s been swinging silently above Wheeler’s head will come into play; at 62 2/3 innings for the year, Wheeler is nearing the assumed halfway mark of his innings limit. It’s part of what makes the prospect of a six-man rotation so appealing to the Mets, since the last thing they need to ponder now is removing their most reliable arm from the rotation.
There’ll be plenty of time for that. For now, it’s perfectly fine to forgive the Mets if they choose to savor a few of the things that have gone right for them this year. That ninth inning rally, for instance. Conforto, hitless last night but still on base twice, including getting hit on the foot to lead off the fourth for the Mets’ first base runner; Jay Bruce homered off Yu Darvish two batters later.
And Wheeler, who spent all those months rehabbing, spent all those months trying to play goalkeeper, deflecting negative thoughts and haunting images as he waited for his right elbow to get better. Who’s better now. And is having the time of his life.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “There was a lot of stuff going on, I didn’t know if I’d make it out of spring. I’m healthy and feel better after every start. I’m grateful for that.”
Not nearly as grateful as the Mets are right now.