Alex Torres was a last minute acquisition for Sandy Alderson and the Mets as they had a dire need for quality left-handed relief in their bullpen.
Torres wasn’t considered an ideal left-handed specialist considering his splits suggested he was more effective against right-handed hitters. He also came with a history of control problems, but also an ability to command hitters on both sides of the plate when he threw strikes. The reason behind his success has been his change-up, which acts like a screwball that dives down and away from the right-handed hitter.
The Mets were banking on Torres improving his command and leveraging his change-up for success, even more so after the club lost Jerry Blevins to a broken arm two weeks ago.
Torres has answered that call from Terry Collins and the Mets.
Torres has allowed only one run on four hits with two walks and 12 strikeouts in his last 9 1/3 innings, a span of 11 games.
He’s been even better since being promoted to the primary left-handed reliever in the Mets bullpen on April 19, the day Blevins broke his arm. He hasn’t allowed a walk and has allowed only a run on three hits with ten strikeouts in eight appearances since Blevins went down.
In his most recent outing on Sunday, Torres inherited a bases loaded, nobody out jam from Dillon Gee in the sixth inning. But all he did was strike out all three batters he faced to strand those runners an at least give the Mets bats a chance.
“Unbelievable job by Alex Torres, absolutely unbelievable,” Terry Collins said on Sunday. “I thought that was going to give us a huge energy boost so we could come back in and get some runs, but we couldn’t get anything squared up.”
Torres was seen pounding his glove upon retiring Yunel Escobar in the sixth.
“Getting out of the jam like that, that’s awesome,” Torres explained after the game. “That inning, the sixth inning, that’s late in the game, so we can’t permit them to score more runs.”
Terry Collins has said early in the year he prefers to use Torres to start innings, as his history suggests a high degree of success in those situations. But as a primary left-handed reliever, Collins has been forced to use him fairly frequently with runners on – four of his 12 appearances have started with men on-base. But he has only allowed one inherited runner out of eight to score in those four outings, showing he can be reliable in situations with runners on-base.
Since taking over for Blevins as the primary lefty reliever on April 19, Torres has thrown 27 change-ups, and the opposition has swung and missed 12 times on that pitch and has recorded two strikeouts with his change-up in that span.
He has allowed two hits on the change-up since April 19, but he’s also recorded two strikeouts on that pitch and again, has not walked anyone with that pitch during this run.
Overall, right-handed hitters are just 1-for-18 against Torres this year, left-handed hitters 3-for-15.
All-in-all, Torres has responded in a big way for Terry Collins and has risen to the challenge.
Just Mets 