Door is open for Familia to close
ATLANTA — With Jenrry Mejia out at least another week and a half and Bobby Parnell not expected back until at least the end of April, Jeurys Familia has the opportunity to show Terry Collins that he should be closing games for the Mets this season.
And the manager would like to see that.
“If you’re a bullpen guy and you want to be a closer and you get the opportunity, you should run with it,” Collins said Friday before the Mets opened a three-game series against the Braves at Turner Field. “We don’t know when they are coming back. It would be nice if we had an exact date and we knew they were going to come back 100 percent healthy.
“(Thursday) we tried to get (Familia) some confidence. I said to him, ‘Hey look, the ninth inning is yours. Go out there and make your pitches.’ When I talked to him, I told him we were going to close with him and he said he was ready to take it on.”
Familia was shaky in his first appearance in the ninth Thursday. Collins gave him the ball with a four-run lead and Familia gave up a leadoff double to Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond and then a two-out, RBI single to Reed Johnson before getting Michael Taylor to fly out to center.
If he does get more comfortable and starts to dominate the ninth, Collins said there is a chance Familia will hold onto the role.
“That’s a tough one. I don’t know exactly how long it’s going to take Jenrry to get back,” Collins said. “I think maybe when he first comes back, maybe we’ll get his feet wet to make sure he’s OK. If Jeurys is throwing the ball good, we’ll leave him there for right now.”
LEADING MAN
Through four games, leadoff man Curtis Granderson has drawn five walks, including two to lead off games. “He’s done exactly what we hoped for a guy in the leadoff spot to do: that is work counts, get deep into counts,” Collins said. “He’s locked in. Even though he doesn’t necessarily have a lot of hits, every time you look up he is standing at first base.” ...
John Mayberry Jr. got his first start Friday night, in left field, going 1-for-4 with a home run. Collins moved Michael Cuddyer to first base and sat Lucas Duda against lefthanded Braves starter Eric Stults. Collins hit Mayberry in Duda’ s No. 3 spot because he wanted to keep the rest of the lineup in familiar positions.