Squawker Lisa, your Yankees claimed that people wouldn’t care about momentous home runs from 40-something players who had been busted for PEDs. Then Bartolo Colon knocked Yankees-Red Sox and the Kentucky Derby off the back page with one of the most surprising home runs in baseball history.
With his two-run homer in last night’s 6-3 win over the Padres, Colon now has as many homers this season as Jacoby Ellsbury (1 homer in 100 at bats) and as many RBI as Chase Headley (2 RBI in 77 at bats).
While Colon is slugging as well as some Yankee starters, he’s pitching better than most of their rotation. His win last night pushed his record to 3-1 with a 2.82 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 33 strikeouts in 38 1/3 innings. Colon’s ERA is last than half of the ERA of Luis Severino (6.31) and Michael Pineda (5.73).
Colon has more homers this season than almost-Met Carlos Gomez, who has no homers and 4 RBI in 97 at bats while hitting .206. Imagine how different the Mets lineup would look now if last summer’s trade for Gomez had gone through and the Mets had him instead of Yoenis Cespedes and his 10 homers, 29 RBI, and .290 batting average.
When Colon homered, the Mets cleared the dugout and hid in the tunnel so Colon would get the traditional silent treatment for his first homer. The dugout looked a lot like the Yankee Stadium stands do these days before the players returned to congratulate their hero.
James Shields gave Colon’s homer. I’m guessing this will retire his “big game” nickname for good.
Only one inning after Colon’s second-inning blast, Jon Jay cut the lead to 4-3 with a three-run shot. Suddenly Colon was in danger of blowing the lead and perhaps the game, which would have dampened the enthusiasm for the homer, at least among Met fans. But this team can have fun while continuing to win. Colon and the bullpen shut the Padres down the rest of the way and the Mets added homers by David Wright and Michael Conforto. Conforto’s homer went into a section with 1,400 7 line Met fans.
1,400 Met fans sitting together in San Diego to see Bartolo Colon homer in a Mets win? Times are good!
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