Familia settling in
ATLANTA—The first few outings were bad. But J eurys Familia, returning from a 15- game ML B-imposed suspension for domestic violence, claimed he only looked ahead.
“Now, it feels great,” said Familia, who picked up his second save working a scoreless ninth in the Mets’ 7-5 win over the Braves at SunTrust Park on Monday. “I was feeling bad, things were going bad but I kept looking forward. Now I feel great.”
Familia said it took until his third outing for a key element to arrive: normalcy.
“It’s different pitching in the minor leagues. I started to feel good about the third outing. I started feeling normal,” Familia said.
Michael Conforto homered leading off the game for the Mets. Ender Inciarte did the same for the Braves in the home half. Uncommon — but not rare. Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon and Arizona’s Jean Segura did it last Sept. 14 at Chase Field.
Conforto’s leadoff prowess reminded Mets manager Terry
Collins of Rickey Henderson and Curtis Granderson.
“You’re leading the game off. They don’t want to walk you. They want to throw strikes and he’s getting pitches to hit,” said Collins. “It would be nice to have him, if we had guys getting on base, in the middle of the lineup so he could drive in runs, but we’re not scoring a lot of runs so why not let him hit where he’s producing some runs and that’s leading off ?”
Said Conforto, “I’m very comfortable there. To be honest, I’m comfortable anywhere. As for Rickey Henderson I won’t put myself in that category yet.”
Ex-Met Bartolo Colon was bummed by the Noah Syndergaard news. “I saw it on my phone and was like, ‘Oh no.’ He’s like family,” Colon said.
Collins said no decision has been made for Friday’s starter although either Rafael Mon
tero or Sean Gilmartin is likely.
Mets have fingers crossed that Steven Matz (left flexor tendon strain) and Seth Lugo (partial UCL tear) both could be back by month’s end.
“They’ re throwing off a mound. They have thrown off a mound. I have said the end of the month is probably a good estimate ,” general manager
Sandy Alderson said. “I did talk to [rehab coordinator] John
DeBus [Sunday] but again that’s subject to another 4 ¹/₂ weeks of progression.”
To replace Syndergaard, the Mets called up RHP Paul
Se wald from Triple-AL as Vegas. Sewald made his major league debut with the Mets April 8 and pitched in two games.
Alderson said Lucas Duda “felt a little discomfort from the exertion” of a rehab game so “we slowed him down slightly.”