The Mets won for the 11th time in their last 13 games with a 5-2 victory over the Reds Wednesday night. The hot streak includes back-to-back sweeps over Atlanta and Cincinnati.
- Mets pitchers struck out 12 batters in the game, including seven from starting pitcher Matt Harvey. After opening the year with a 5.71 ERA and 9 Ks in his first 17.1 IP, Harvey has posted 11 IP, 4 ER, 2 BB and 12 Ks in his last two outings.
- Neil Walker tied a Mets record by hitting his ninth April homer, a solo shot in the sixth. Walker also drove in a run in the first, giving the Mets a lead they would not relinquish.
- With the Mets clinging to a one-run lead, Michael Conforto hit a two-run double in the sixth for the final runs.
- After pitching three straight days, Jeurys Familia got the night off. Addison Reed, pitching in his third straight game, pitched the ninth for the save.
- Since their last day off, the bullpen has thrown 19.1 IP in six games. Despite winning all six, the day off Thursday comes at a good time. Mets return to action Friday against the Giants.
Brian,
With 7 RP the Mets have now, if you knew ahead of time that you would need exactly 3 innings per game from the BP for the next 10 games, how would you rotate them? (For the sake of argument, lead of 3 or less entering each inning).
Just curious.
With their SP, the Mets shouldn’t need this much from the bullpen.
But I would rather have Verrett and Robles pitch 2 innings at a time. I don’t like this all hands on deck for each game and hope the game doesn’t go extra innings. That, along with the partial innings, is why we constantly have relievers who’ve pitched in four of the last five games.
Before the year started, I thought this was a team that could actually deploy a LOOGY and not be hurt, because their starters were going to go deep into games. But Blevins pitching partial innings 2/3 of the time adds to the strain, at least right now
Neil Walker is a very good player. His career slash is 337/435/772 with on OPS+ of 114. When he came to the Mets for Niese, there was a lot of pressure to perform well. He was replacing a very popular born and raised Met who was a post season heroe.Walker has rose to the occasion by leading the majors in homeruns and sporting a 286/304/597/901 line. Dilson Herrera may be the future but Walker is now.
What Pirate hitter can the Mets trade for next winter? It seems the New York drinking water has some supplements added to it. Right John Buck?
In a night that Conforto struggled, he still came through with a clutch hit. He is something special.
The Mets play 17 straight days. The bullpen useage is a concern.It is difficult to see defined roles. Right now it should be Henderson-Reed-Familia in hold/save situations. Those three don’t need a LOOGY to supplement them. Robles, Bastardo and Blevins should pitch mutiple innings when behind with Verrett as the traditional long man innings eater. The Math doesn’t work the way the bullpen is currently being used. The pen should be dragging by August if this continues.
Tough to complain when they are playing so well. LGM