Through his first five starts, it wasn’t always pretty for Jon Niese. He himself used those terms to describe a few of his outings.
But he had somehow found a way through his first five starts. Perhaps he was a little lucky at times, but players often have to be lucky to be good.
He had allowed 35 percent of the batters he had faced to reach base through his first five starts of the year. But that’s when Niese seemingly had been at his best. He’s been able to throw strikes, pound the zone and limit the walks, which is a big reason he’s been able to limit the damage when he has gotten into trouble this season.
But on Saturday night, Niese was just good. He allowed only six baserunners in seven innings of work, allowing just two unearned runs on five hits with a walk.
“I felt good with all of my pitches,” Niese said. “I was able to use my fastball inside. I was able to establish that, and it kind of helped with everything else.”
With his seven inning performance, Niese lowered his ERA to 1.95 for the year, the best among Mets starters and eighth best in the game.
“This is probably the best I’ve felt in three years,” Niese explained after earning his third win of the season on Saturday.
Earlier in the season, he was using his change-up a ton and shying away from his 12-6 curveball as a result. While he was sneaking by with that pitch, that’s not really what led to him becoming a staple in the Mets rotation. But lately, Niese has gotten back to mixing in both his curveball and his cutter with regularity, and he’s back to looking like Jon Niese again and finding a ton of success, specifically over his last two starts in which he’s allowed only one earned run in 14 innings.
Niese was left in the game to hit after a shaky sixth inning. Considering the team was trailing and has struggled offensively lately, it was a puzzling move on the part of Terry Collins.
But, Niese – who had thrown only 84 pitches through six innings – came through with a single and made his manager look like a genius in the process. He later came around to score when Juan Lagares launched a two-run home run to give the Mets the lead.
“I thought it was the right move. I appreciated it,” Niese said of his seventh inning at-bat.
Niese then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning, needing only six pitches to get through the frame.
Niese has pitched at least six innings in four of his first six starts of the year, has walked two batters or less in five of his six starts, and has held opponents to a flyball percentage of 16.3 percent, the lowest percentage among qualified starting pitchers in baseball.
Just Mets 