Just Mets

Dillon Gee got precisely what he needed during his start on Wednesday: A good outing.

Gee gave the Mets seven strong innings against the Braves, taking a no-decision but allowing only two runs on eight hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

“He did his job against a lineup with eight left-handed hitters, and against a good team,” Terry Collins said about Gee. “He just does what he always does. He changes speeds. He kept himself in the game. He didn’t give up big innings. And you looked up and he’s still in the game in the seventh.”

The fact he was pitching in the seventh inning left some fans outraged, considering Gee has often struggled in the latter portions of his games. But on Wednesday, Gee allowed only a leadoff single in the sixth inning and pitched a flawless seventh, thanks to Juan Lagares’ unbelievable catch.

It had been a struggle for Gee leading up to this start. The jockeying of roles, the constant trade speculation, and now an immediate threat to his job in the rotation have left Gee a little uneasy, and arguably has affected his performance to date.

On Wednesday night, Collins said he and Gee cleared the air about his issues this week.

“He’s been a little frustrated with the whole scenario,” Collins said after the game. The wintertime, spring training, all he’s had to do. And he said to me, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to go pitch. It’s time for me to go out and pitch, and pitch my kind of baseball, which I know I can do.’

“I said, ‘Dill, you don’t owe anybody any explanations. You deserve this chance. You deserve to be in this rotation. You’ve just got to go do your job,’” Collins continued.

He did his job on Wednesday.

“I think I just needed to talk, and he was there for me,” Gee said at his locker Wednesday night. “We talked about a lot of things. I think I was going about a lot of things the wrong way. And I needed to take it upon myself to make sure that I’m getting it done out there. That’s what it boils down to. It’s me. It comes down to me executing and deserving to stay out there.”

Through his first two starts, Gee has talked about the need to use all of his pitches, and often times he’s gotten away from that strategy and he’s gotten burned in his starts as a result. His fastball has  a lot of movement, but his change-up is his best pitch, and it’s important he off-sets his fastball which the change routinely, since he isn’t dominant.  Most important is his ability to keep his entire reporter off-centered. In a way, he needs to throw less strikes, or less hittable strikes.

On Wednesday he did that and remained effective from start to finish.

It’s not clear what the future holds for Gee. In listening to Collins talk about him yesterday, it didn’t seem certain Gee would be able to keep his job after Rafael Montero makes his start on Tuesday in Miami. On the other hand, Collins said they will keep an open mind to the situation if Montero struggles in his next outing with Triple-A Las Vegas.

No matter what happens, Gee has remained professional about this, and he delivered in a big way on Wednesday for himself.