It was a hot, humid, stagnant kind of night at Citi Field on Friday night, presumably the first of many in this long summer of baseball ahead for the Mets.
The conditions at the ballpark were most certainly a factor for the 42-year-old Bartolo Colon on Friday night, as he struggled with his endurance due to the elements, which in turn affected the command of his two-seam fastball.
“[Friday night] he didn’t have his good stuff,” manager Terry Collins said of Colon. “He didn’t have the good movement that he normally has. He was up in the zone, which he hardly ever is, but he battles so well.”
Colon indeed struggled with the location of his fastball, and because of that, he was teetering on the edge of disaster beginning in the fifth inning. He allowed three singles to open the inning, then after an RBI groundout by pitcher Alex Wood, Jace Peterson doubled to score Jonny Gomes. But he managed to work out of it by getting a huge strikeout of Cameron Maybin and then getting Nick Markakis on a groundout.
“I was a little tired in the fifth inning, to be honest, a little tired and I tried to do a little bit too much,” Colon said of the troubles in the fifth. “It was humid and hot. I was just tired of the weather and threw a lot of pitches in that inning.”
It was definitely a struggle for Colon late in his outing on Friday, but he pitched really well and showed a lot of character in fighting himself to get through the fifth inning. His fastball was up, as Collins said, but outside of the fifth inning, it really wasn’t catching too much plate. He was able to use his two seamer to bust the Braves inside on both sides of the plate, and that might have been a key for him early while he actually had good stamina.
The key to the game for him was the fifth inning strikeout of Maybin. The Braves had Colon on the ropes, and Maybin has been fantastic with runners in scoring position all year. But he got him on a good sinking fastball, and the Braves didn’t respond at that point.
Colon truly earned his ninth win of the year, tying Gerrit Cole for the major league lead. He lowered his ERA to 4.41 for the year with his six inning effort. He’s allowed three earned runs or less in nine of his 13 starts in 2015.
He’s a gamer, and his fight with himself yet another example of how Colon leads by example on the field. Since July 23, 2014, Colon leads the majors with 16 wins.
That hasn’t happened by accident.
Just Mets 