DOUBLE DIP
Colon's arm, bat leads Mets to win
ATLANTA — Laugh all you want, but this was serious business.
Bartolo Colon getting a hit is usually just a novelty item, good for chuckles and maybe the blooper reel. But the Mets held Colon’s first hit of the season in higher regard Sunday. It only helped them beat the Braves.
“I just remember the World Series, Arizona against the Yankees, they brought everybody in and it was a jam shot over the infield,” Colon said, comparing his hit to Luis Gonzalez’s series winner against Mariano Rivera and the Yankees, after the Mets’ 43 victory at Turner Field to snap a twogame skid. “If everybody was playing normal, I would have had no shot.”
But Colon’s jam shot in the fourth inning touched the outfield grass for a RBI single, highlighting an afternoon in which the veteran righth ander pitched an efficient seven innings for his second victory.
The Mets ( 33) will arrive at Citi Field for Monday’s home opener against the Phillies happy to have avoided the embarrassment of a Braves’ sweep, after starting the season with two victories in three games at Washington.
Colon threw 60 of his 77 pitches for strikes and allowed three runs on six hits with five strikeouts over seven innings. The runscoring single against Alex Wood in the fourth gave Colon his first RBI since 2005.
Jerry Blevins earned his keep in the eighth, when he entered to strike out Nick Markakis and Freddie Freeman in succession with the tying run on base. Blevins then returned for the ninth and retired A. J. Pierzynski before Jeurys Familia got the final two outs for his first save since replacing Jenrry Mejia at closer.
Mejia was suspended 80 games by MLB on Saturday after testing positive for Stanozolol, a banned performanceenhancing drug. Familia had actually moved in to the closer’s role on Wednesday, when Mejia was placed on the disabled list with right elbow swelling.
Because Colon and Familia are Mejia’s two closest friends on the team, manager Terry Collins alerted them in a private meeting about Mejia’s suspension before telling the rest of the players Saturday.
“I have nothing to say about it,” Colon said. “My only concern is hopefully [ Mejia] will be back in top shape and you feel sorry for the guy because he won’t be here and I feel for him because we went through all that before.”
Colon’s PED suspension came while pitching for Oakland in 2012, when he tested positive for testosterone.
“At the moment when it happened I was embarrassed,” Colon said. “So I didn’t want to be seen. I’m happy that everything is in the past and I just wish [ Mejia] good luck and hopefully he is ready to go.”
With the game tied 33, Curtis Granderson led off the eighth with a pinchhit walk that fueled the Mets’ goahead rally. That run eventually scored on Daniel Murphy’s sacrifice fly, after Wilmer Flores had a key sacrifice bunt tomove the runners.
Colon lost his batting helmet after a swing in the fourth that delivered the runscoring single to give the Mets a 32 lead. The hit was his third in two seasons with the Mets. Colon told hitting coach Kevin Long in spring training his goalwas to get three hits this season— onemore than lastyear.
“When[ Colon] puts it inplay hegets ac heer, so when he gets a hit it’s a double cheer,” Collins said. “That was a big hit for us and certainly for Bart and it took about 10minutes toget the bees out of his hands, but itwas a good swing for us.”
Michael Cuddyer’s first Mets homer — a tworun blast in the first inning — got the team started. Cuddyer fell in a 02 hole before working the count full against Wood and sending a shot into the leftfield seats.
“To get down in this series 02 and come back in this hardfought game and win, we consider this game a success,” Cuddyer said. “Salvaging a win is all we could control today.”