Heading into the season, it was pretty understood the Mets had a pair of aces at the front of their rotation with Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom serving as 1A and 1B, respectively.
But enter Bartolo Colon, who has unexpectedly stepped up to be 1C in this rotation. He gave the Mets another masterpiece on Tuesday night, spinning out 7 2/3 innings of six-hit, one-run ball with nine strikeouts.
Colon allowed only a solo home run to Manny Machado in the eighth inning, and worked around one fourth inning jam in an otherwise flawless effort in which he didn’t walk a single batter yet again.
Well, not entirely flawless. He did strikeout in the third inning, in which his helmet fell off his head, again.
Then again, maybe that contributes to the art that is Bartolo Colon.
Colon – who is just 18 days shy of his 42nd birthday – is now tied for the major league lead with five wins with both Matt Harvey and Felix Hernandez.
The most amazing part about Colon’s early season success is his strike rate and control. As remarkable as he has been in recent years limiting the walks, it has been almost impossibly better in 2015 – he’s walking batters to the tune of 0.2 per nine innings (best in baseball), and hasn’t walked a batter since Opening Day, a span of 34 1/3 innings.
That impeccable control is resulting longer outings for Colon (he’s averaging more than 6 2/3 innings per start) shortening the game for the bullpen, and 88 pitches and per start.
His 533 pitches thrown is the fewest number of pitches thrown among qualified starters in baseball, minimum 40 innings.
“Didn’t he one game throw 80 strikes in a row?” Michael Cuddyer said after the game. “Fifty or something? You don’t get too shocked when it’s talking about him. You get amazed. He is amazing.”
Yes, he is quite amazing.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Bartolo Colon became the first pitcher in major league history to record a win against one team (Baltimore) for seven different clubs. Colon beat the Orioles with the Indians, White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, Athletics and now the Mets.
But last night, Colon beat the Orioles by changing the program ever so slightly. He mixed his slider in more than he normally does – he threw 16 sliders out of his 97 pitches. It seemed to catch Baltimore off-guard, as they only managed to put one of his sliders in play and did nothing with eight of the nine strikes he threw with it. That helped off-set his sinker which had tremendous movement , particularly inside which helped him get out of his fourth inning jam.
He really is rather inspiring, and certainly an awful lot of fun to watch. He just knows what he’s doing, is unbothered by any adversity, and has mastered the craft of throwing fastballs and changing speeds with it.
He has become such a valuable member of this pitching staff, and the organization as a whole. So many pitchers look up to him in the clubhouse, seek him out for guidance and advice, and he shows his worthiness by going out and doing what he did last night, and what he has done all year.
Quite honestly, if this team is going to be playing in October, it’s hard to envision the team succeeding without Colon serving as their 1C in the rotation. He can bring order to chaos, much like he did last night.
Just Mets 