Just Mets

It’s difficult to quantify the consistency of Bartolo Colon.

He doesn’t do anything with glitz, flare or power. In fact, Colon is the anti-glitz, flare or power.

Perhaps the best way to quantify Colon’s consistency is mystifying.

He leads the National League with eight wins against only three loses. While his ERA is 4.72, that can really be attributed to just two bad starts in the 11 he’s made. He has an 8-1 record with a 3.49 ERA in his nine other starts and hasn’t thrown more than 97 pitches in any of the 11 starts he’s made.

But why is it mystifying? Because Colon just turned 42 years old – he is the oldest starting pitcher in the big leagues.

That mystifying consistency continued on Sunday afternoon when he played stopper for the Mets. He allowed three runs on only six hits with two strikeouts, and didn’t walk a batter for the eighth time in his 11 starts this season.

“For the most part, he’s on all the time,” his battery mate, Anthony Recker said of Colon’s work on Sunday. “Occasionally you can tell he’s going to struggle or going to have to fight through it a little bit, but today was one of those days where he looked like he was going to spot up and he did.”

He did indeed, as he showed the consistent command of his two-seam fastball on both edges really for the first time in several starts. He mixed that in effectively with a change-up here, a slider there, but was able to move his two-seamer and four-seamer to both sides of the plate efficiently and without many consequences.

“I give all credit to the hitters and the team because they are playing well and the offense is scoring runs when I pitch,” Colon explained. “I’ve been able to have better command of my pitches, put the ball where I wanted to and be able to concentrate on in-and-out and make the hitters uncomfortable.”

Colon deserves credit too. Pitchers don’t win eight games in their first 11 starts because they pitched poorly, especially pitchers of Colon’s age.

Terry Collins attributes Colon’s success to how he conducts himself, his preparation, and his demeanor on a daily basis.

“He doesn’t have to say a word,” Collins said. “If you’re just a guy, a pitcher especially, pay attention,” Collins explained about Colon. There’s a reason this guy has pitched for [so many] years. And if you could do nothing else, learn about how he goes about things mentally. You don’t have to copy him, don’t copy him physically, just how he gets ready to pitch every night, I think it’s going to help your career.”

Colon went 4-1 in April and 4-2 in May. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other pitchers in Mets history have won at least four games in both April and May in the same year: Jerry Koosman in 1968 and Bobby Jones in 1997.

But Colon didn’t just do it on the mound. He delivered a go-ahead run scoring double in the second inning.

“I wasn’t sure [Tom Goodwin] was going to send him to second,” Collins said.

As good as Colon has been as a Met, he’s also equally as entertaining on both sides of the ball whether Collins likes it or not. It’s ok too – the fans love what he does at the plate, and even his teammates get excited for him 1when he does something at the plate.

He’s an accomplished, quiet leader for the Mets, something they wanted when they signed him in December, 2013. They probably never expected he could perform as well as he has since he was brought on-board, but that’s part of that presence he’s brought to the club for the last 14 months.

He has found a way, and only gets more mystifying with each start.