When the starting pitcher for any team gives up two runs in seven innings of work, that should be enough for his team to win a ballgame.
Bartolo Colon did just that on Saturday night. He was great for seven innings, dazzling the Diamondbacks with his two-seamer which has made a triumphant return after a hiatus in the middle of May.
The problem is, being great on the mound is no longer good enough for the New York Mets. Colon needed to be perfect, and unfortunately, he was slightly less than perfect and took an undeserving loss on Saturday night.
Taking a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning, Colon appeared to be cruising right along. He got the first two outs of the inning, but then allowed a single to Chris Owings.
It was the perfect storm to cause Colon’s imperfection.
The next batter was newly-acquired Wellington Castillo, who dunked a two-run home run over the left field wall to pretty much seal a come-from-behind victory for the Diamondbacks, as the Mets had absolutely no response to that in the eighth and ninth innings.
Colon was accountable for the home run, and didn’t blame the Mets meager offense for not supporting his outstanding effort.
“We’ve got a good lineup and we run into bad streaks at times,” Colon said after the loss. “Things happen, but that’s not my concern and I’m going to continue to do my job and do my best.”
He’s certainly a pro, and a really, really nice guy.
He’s also no longer terrible at hitting, as he recorded another base hit on Saturday night to give him a three-game hitting streak.
At any rate, Colon is clearly back from the slump he was in last month. He’s got great movement on his two-seamer and he’s relocated the command of that pitch which he had lost for 3-4 starts.
The most impressive part about Colon is that he stuck with the program despite being largely ineffective for a few weeks last month. He’s a long-time veteran, he doesn’t waver and he doesn’t get shaken by adversity – he knows what he needs to do to be successful at this point in his career, and he continues to dodge the blade of age which eventually gets everyone in this game.
The one thing which continues to plague Colon is the home run ball. He’s now allowed 12 in 75 innings this year. But that’s a product of a guy who relies strictly on a two-seam fastball with diminished velocity. Occasionally, it’s going to bleed out over the plate – like it did last night – and more often than not, major damage will ensue.
The hope is, those mistakes come with nobody on-base, especially with the Mets seemingly unlikely to be playing with large leads anytime soon.
Still, he deserved a win last night. Hopefully that happens more often than he loses in games in which he pitches better than most people half his age.
Colon fell to 8-4 although his ERA improved to 4.52 for the year. He’s 23-17 with a 4.21 ERA in 278 innings over 43 starts since joining the Mets before the 2014 season. He has more wins, more starts, and more innings pitched than any other Mets starter over that span.
Just Mets 