Bartolo Colon put the “sink” in Cinco de Mayo. And the Orioles were sunk.
Colon pitched masterfully, leaving the game with two outs in the eighth, having struck out nine men and walked none. The offense came alive — for them, anyway — with a three-run uprising in the fourth to give the Mets just the type of win they need right now: neat, tidy and with only the barest hint of drama. That came in the fifth, when Juan Lagares made a spectacular grab, ducking to his left and getting clipped by Michael Cuddyer. While older Met fans conjured up images of Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron and Met fans even older than that summoned George Theodore and Don Hahn, Lagares turned out to be OK.
Neither team could muster much offense the first three innings. Curtis Granderson led off the game for the Mets with a bunt single, but was erased on a steal attempt in a vainglorious try to jump start the scoring. Otherwise, it was an infield hit here, a walk there and nothing on the scoreboard. Baltimore got a rally started in the top of the fourth, notching two consecutive singles with none out, but Colon snuffed it with a great play on a wormy grounder off the bat of Delmon Young. He followed that up by striking out Caleb Joseph and inducing a groundout by Travis Snider. The bottom half belonged to the Mets.
Lucas Duda poked a hard double past Adam Jones — no mean feat, as it turns out — leading off. Cuddyer hit a slow grounder to the pitcher and Duda held at second. Daniel Murphy poleaxed a base hit to right center and Duda came home with the game’s first run and the Mets’ first run in 21 & 1/3 innings. The beleaguered Wilmer Flores then hit a booming double just fair in the left field corner, Murphy crossing to third. Kevin Plawecki then knocked one off the wall in left for a double of his own, easily plating Murphy and Flores.
This small squall of doubles was all Colon would really need. Sure, he gave up a one out shot into the Party Deck for Manny Machado’s fifth home run of the year, but he was never in any real trouble after the fourth. Colon’s night ended when Jimmy Paredes followed with a long flyout to the same area. Carlos Torres came on to record the final out.
Jeurys Familia — of course Jeurys Familia — came on to pitch the ninth and surrendered a leadoff home run to Chris Davis. After that, though, Familia was untouchable, getting Young to strike out, Joseph on a flyout to Cuddyer and Snider on a comebacker.
So raise your margarita glass to Senor Suave, Bartolo Colon. Tonight, he deserves it.
Gut reaction: All our offense was the fourth inning. How pathetic; one inning of scoring. But, a win is a win.
Familia righted himself when Plawecki came out to talk to him after going 2-0 to the next batter after Davis. If Kevin stays behind the plate its likely Juerys walks that batter and the inning devolves. KP did as much for the save as JF.
Wildly overstated, but point taken.
Right now, the Mets offense is unusually cold. I say unusually because from TDA to Plawecki isn’t a big drop, but it is a drop. From Wright to Herrera is a big drop. But, having two corner outfielders providing absolutely nothing in terms of power and production is what is killing this team. We all wanted difference makers this off season, but instead we got more complementary pieces. That’s always been the “Mets way”.
I would love to trade for a difference making outfielder but as long as these two guys are healthy, that won’t be done. Now, I’m not clamoring for an injury but I would suspect that if one of them goes down and the Mets can package a collection of prospects from their own and the ones they get for Murphy, Gee, and Colon, they may be able to get an outfielder like Carlos Gomez, CarGo, or Josh Reddick. CarGo is signed passed this year, he has two years left. Gomez has one more after this year. Reddick is playing for a big payday, he’s only getting $4.1 this year: Motivation
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Come on Texas i think you are being overdramatic. The Mets are still comfortably in the first place despite a lot of injuries and a few rough games.
Jake, I understand that one bad week doesn’t make for a bad year, but I’m just trying to plan ahead a little after the first month’s showing. We all know there is no way Grandy or Cuddy gets benched, but just saying if one gets hurt… We all know their contracts are insured… We can add payroll… Just sayin…
Gus, I hear your thoughts on the outfield corners, but I do not believe the Mets will trade for someone to replace either of their two big free agents. That’s why I wrote about Conforto below. I think they need another bat out there, but I fail to imagine the club going with a full-time replacement.
Colon is having a very good year and is 2nd in the NL in innings pitched. This has helped in keeping the bullpen fresh and rested. He is an integral reason the Mets are in first place.
I was never on board with the Flores experiment but in fWAR he is 8th among NL shortstops. Sure I would like to see an upgrade but maybe the Mets should start to be concerned about their two corner outfielders.
Plawecki will be an above average major league catcher. Nice hit last night.
It is fun to watch Juan play center field. Familia, even with the blip, continues to impress.
Tampa Bay’s Rookie of the Month, Devon Travis (6 HRs and 23 RBI for those of you who still like antiquated stats), had not played above AA before this season.
It’s time for the Mets organization to realize that the AAA outfield is relatively barren — it’s why we’re stuck with Kirkkk — and that the best hitter in the organization is in A-ball. It’s time to 1) Move Conforto to AA, immediately; and 2) Realize that he might help the NY Mets later this season if we allow it to happen.
I don’t want Michael Conforto to become an inconvenient fact.
The only concern I have is that Conforto can’t field — by some reports — whatsoever. So while the bat might be ready, the glove may never be.
I am saying, essentially, this: Try to win in 2015, try to win in 2015 . . .
Nothing will compare to the Cameron/Beltran collision for me. That was very hard to watch.