Concerns Are Dwindling

We’re Mets fans, so we will never be satisfied. But the capper to a 7-2 road trip alleviated a lot of fears on Sunday. First off, the fear that Jacob deGrom was going to take a slow road back from his injury and his unfortunate time off to take care of his family. But if what he did on Sunday was coming back slow, I can’t wait to see what deGrom will be at full speed.

Of course, Jacob had the soft landing of the Atlanta Braves to come back to, but he got through five and two thirds innings in 82 pitches walking none and giving up one run. No small feat considering he gave up eight hits, and considering that he was going to his fourth best pitch a lot, his curveball. But that’s what you’re going to see a lot of from deGrom this season and in his career. You saw how he improvised in Game 5 against the Dodgers, and when he needed to go to pitch number four, he wasn’t afraid to do it, even after no pitching in 16 days. Even though he throws hard, he has a little bit of crafty in him. He’s the MacGyver of the starting rotation.

Then there’s the fear that the Mets can’t manufacture runs, well how does three runs grab you when they come in the first inning via single/single/sac fly, and in the sixth on the combination of walk/single/double/sac fly? I’d say that’s a manufacturer’s dream. Now granted, you would like to see them get more runs off of a guy making his major league debut from Marshall (famous for giving us noted arms like Rick Reed and Chad Pennington), but the runs they did get were “manufactured”. So I hope you all feel better.

However if you require something that will keep you up at night to function, then consider that the biggest question mark in the bullpen right now is Jeurys Familia, who gave up a run on three hits on Sunday and is sporting a WHIP of 1.89 this season. He turned a 3-1 lead into a white knuckle 3-2 victory. Perhaps it’s as simple as getting Familia a couple of true days off here and there and not a day off where he still has to warm up. The good news is that it could have been worse for Familia, who faced six batters but only threw 15 pitches. And while he was still a bit wild in and out of the strike zone, some of his stuff was nasty and induced weak ground balls. So I think even he’s getting there.

So after a 7-2 road trip the Mets head home for a three game set against a team that lost three of four to the Cubs, and was outscored in their losses by a count of 33-1. Nothing is easy, but the Mets are set up nicely to continue their run of victories which will continue to erase their stumble out of the gate. We will meet again tomorrow. Until then, I’m going to try to figure out how Jon Niese and Oliver Perez both helped their teams to wins with bats in their hands … on the same day.

Today’s Hate List

1. John Ryan Murphy
2. Cole Hamels
3. Shelby Miller
4. Matt Cain
5. Roger Clemens