Just Mets

What a whirlwind it’s been for Dillon Gee.

Out of the rotation. In the rotation. Maybe out of the rotation after a rough beginning.

But on Monday, night, Gee made arguably the best performance of any Mets starting pitcher so far in 2015, further convincing Terry Collins he belongs in his starting rotation.

“We can put to rest that Dillon Gee can’t pitch at this level,” Terry Collins said after the win. “There’s been a lot of talk, and I feel terrible for him. But I think he went out there tonight and showed everybody he can do what he’s done in the past and he’s still got it in him.”

Gee allowed just one run in 7 2/3 innings last night. That run came on three consecutive singles with two outs in the seventh from Justin Bour, Dee Gordon, and Martin Prado.

“I was upset about giving up that run,” Gee said after his game. “I made a good pitch. And sometimes you have to tip your hat. Prado is a good hitter and he put a good swing on it.”

It would’ve been an undeserving loss if the Mets had not come back in their last at-bat last night, as Gee was brilliant from right from the beginning. Gee threw 57 of his 70 pitches for strikes in 7 2/3 innings.

Yes, 70 pitches in 7 2/3 innings.

Of those 57 strikes he threw, 15 resulted in groundball outs. He walked nobody – he’s only walked three batters in 25 1/3 innings this season.

“Tonight I got a lot of ground balls and they were at people,” Gee explained. “It was just one of those nights. Sometimes I’ve had nights where the ground balls aren’t at people and it’s a really rough one.”

It was one of those nights, indeed, although he had to settle for a no-decision.

It’s hard even to pinpoint what led to such a masterful performance. Obviously, he was able to throw strikes with any of his pitches in any count. The movement on his pitches had the Miami pitchers completely befuddled, especially his change-up and slider which are his two key pitches. He’s thrown the highest percentage of strikes of any pitcher in the league so far in 2015, and Miami’s game plan was to clearly be aggressive early in counts as a result. That helped keep Gee’s pitch count way down – he needed only 59 pitches through six innings. But with the movement and his ability to nip the corners all night resulted in next to nothing against him.

He was a lot of fun to watch, but not necessarily because he was masterful on the mound. The performance was an exclamation point on a successful war he’s won.

He has dealt with so much talk surrounding his roster status, his status in the rotation, his ability to pitch late into games, and so on. He’s handled it extremely professionally in public, but as Collins said last night, he’s a human being, and when we are doubted – especially in the public eye – it’s an emotional struggle.

On Monday, he won that war, and both reestablished and reassured everyone of his place on a big league roster.

“Dillon Gee is going to be fine,” Collins said. “Unless something drastically happens, he is going to be fine.”