The last three starts have been nothing short of ugly for Jon Niese.
He is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA over his last three starts. He has allowed 24 hits, 16 earned runs, and 30 total baserunners in only 16 innings during that span.
The funny part is, the high number of baserunners has been a trend for Niese all year long. But before his start on May 14, he had found a way around those baserunners thanks to his ability to limit the walks, keep the ball on the ground, and pitch his way into some pretty good luck with runners on-base.
But, that luck has obviously run out for Niese as of late.
Niese was dancing in and out of trouble all afternoon on Sunday, seeing his pitch count rise and being forced to work out of jams. He was unable to work out of the fifth inning after he allowed a two-run home run to Andrew McCutchen on a hanging curveball which broke a 1-1 tie, followed by an RBI single by Francisco Cervelli which plated Jung Ho Kang.
Niese regretted the curve he threw to McCutchen in the fifth inning in particular, chalking it up to poor pitch selection.
“It was the wrong pitch. I should never even have thrown that pitch,” Niese said. “He didn’t look good on any of the other pitches I had thrown. The first hanging curveball I threw he actually put a really good swing on it. He just got out in front of it. I had a feeling he was sitting on that pitch. I should have just stayed away from it. And I knew he was looking out there. He wasn’t looking in.
“I just went away from the game plan. He made me pay for it.”
His command was actually a little better on Sunday than it was in his previous start against the Cardinals, although it wasn’t that good and he fell behind a lot of hitters. That forced him into a lot of deep counts which elevated his pitch count very quickly in yesterday’s game.
The funny part about the pitch to McCutchen in the fifth was it came on a 1-2 pitch which calls for off-speed. But he struggled with the placement of his curveball and cutter in the strike zone all day, as it was once again floating too much over the middle of the plate.
The curve he threw to McCutchen did exactly that, and that was pretty much it for Niese’s day.
Once again, Niese proclaimed himself 100 percent healthy despite his struggles.
“I feel great,” Niese explained. “The crazy thing is this is the best I’ve felt in a real long time. The results aren’t there.”
Whatever is going on with Niese, he has a lot of work to do to get back to where he needs to be. With the offense sputtering the way it is, the Mets cannot afford to be knocked out of these games like this.
Its unfair to expect Niese to be great all the time, but he needs to be better than the way he’s been, which can only be described as ineffective.
Just Mets 