OLD REED-LIABLE
Addison earns another save, finding past form
As soon as Aaron Altherr’s bat connected with Addison Reed’s slider over the middle of the plate, his head immediately sunk. From the sound of the bat, the ball seemed destined to turn a one-run lead into a tie score in a matter of seconds in the ninth inning.
“I thought it was out,” Reed said after the game with a slight grin.
And he allowed the grin after the ball didn’t quite have the distance, bouncing a few inches short of going over the center field wall, giving him new life.
The right-hander didn’t waste it, retiring the next three Phillies to preserve his second mulit-inning save over his past 10 appearances.
“The ball stayed in and my job is to try to keep them from scoring,” Reed said after the Mets’ 7-6 win over the Phillies on Saturday at Citi Field. “I was just happy it didn’t go out.”
It didn’t go out and it allowed manager Terry Collins to breathe a sigh of relief in the Mets dugout.
Collins didn’t agree with the game being stopped with two outs in the eighth inning for a torrential downpour that didn’t come and forced him into the decision to put Reed on the hill for the third consecutive day.
“It wasn’t raining hard at the time,” Collins said. “I got the ex- planation from the umpires that there was a storm moving in, heavy, lightning and winds. Amazingly as we see here often, it never came.
“[Pitching coach Dan Warthen and I’s] thought process was to go out there and win this game. Let’s bring [Reed] in, worry about this game and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.”
And Collins has that chance because Reed converted his eighth consecutive save and has seemingly reverted to last year’s form, relegating the worries of the absence of Jeurys Familia from the back-end of the bullpen would bring.
Instead, Reed has allowed just two runs over his past 16 innings (1.13 ERA) and six over his past 28 2/3 innings (1.91 ERA). The difference has been his ability to use his slider more often to get first-pitch strikes, making atbats more uncomfortable for hitters.
“He’s done a tremendous job,” Collins said. “He’s pitching right now better than he has at any other time this year.”
With Familia heading to Florida to begin rehab with a return slated for August, Reed will soon move back to his eighth inning role he’s excelled in during his career.
But until that time, Collins and the Mets have been able to rest easy with Reed during this recent stretch.