Just Mets

The Mets defeated the Blue Jays by the score of 3-2 at Citi Field on Tuesday night. Here are my takeaways from the win…

He’s baaaaaaaaack.

The real Matt Harvey certainly stepped up tonight, didn’t he? After struggling mightily in his last four starts, including two separate starts where he allowed seven earned runs, The Dark Knight rose to the task tonight–and against the best offense in all of baseball to boot.

Harvey’s been a bit predictable of late, throwing a lot of fastballs in hittable locations. Tonight, that problem did not continue as his fastball location was much more precise and perhaps the biggest key to his night was the use of his change-up.

With men on base, Harvey seemed to dial it up even more and rather than pitching solely for strikeouts, he seemed to be pitching to contact more than ever in an attempt to save his pitch count and allow himself to get deeper into the game with the Mets depleted bullpen. You could tell Harvey was fired up from the get-go tonight, and when he retired his last batter to end the top of the 7th, that emotion showed as he pumped a fist and yelled into the Mets dugout.

For the night, Harvey went seven innings, allowing four hits, no walks and no runs while striking out six.

Parnell: Resurrected.

After Bobby Parnell came in and recorded the final two outs in the 8th inning, I said to myself, “who the hell is pitching the 9th inning?” Well, it was the same guy who finished off the 8th. With Jeurys Familia and Hansel Robles unavailable, and with Carlos Torres ineffective in the 8th, the Mets called upon the 30-year-old right-hander Parnell, just two appearances removed from Tommy John surgery prior to tonight, not only to pitch in crunch-time, but to attempt a five-out save against this daunting Blue Jays lineup.

Personally, I’m stunned at how this went tonight. After the Blue Jays cut the lead the Mets once three-run lead to 3-2, I found myself–and many of my fellow Mets fans on Twitter–to just be waiting for something to go wrong… But it didn’t.

Not only did Parnell convert the five-out save–just the second save of five outs or more in his career–but the 9th inning was completely effortless. He got the clutch catcher Russell Martin to ground out to short, followed that up by striking out Dioner Navarro and finished off Toronto by getting Ryan Goins to fly out to left field.

I’m happy for Bobby. Not only did the Mets need to hold onto this win, but it’s a big step in his return from Tommy John surgery. As the days and weeks go on, it’s quite possible that we see his role for this team increase.

There were some not-so-great things tonight, though.

First off–the offense. The Mets won the game, so I don’t want to harp on the negatives too much, but still, the Mets offense was only able to muster up three runs–and none after the 3rd–against Scott Copeland, a spot-starter for the team with the 2nd worst ERA in the American League. Juan Lagares and Darrell Ceciliani were the only two Mets in the lineup with multiple hits, and one of their three ones was driven in on a two-out RBI double by Matt Harvey. And later in the game, when the offense could’ve picked up the bullpen by providing a little bit of cushion, the Mets did little to nothing. Overall, not a great day for this team at the plate.

One more negative was Carlos Torres, who pitched miserably in his appearance in the 8th inning. Immediately following Harvey’s brilliant seven innings, Terry Collins called on the right-hander Torres to get through the 8th–unfortunately for the Mets, he couldn’t even retire a single batter.

After walking the leadoff man, Torres allowed hits to Kevin Pillar and Jose Reyes. It was on Reyes’ single where Torres and the Mets got a huge break when the Blue Jays should have had the bases loaded with nobody out, but Pillar was caught in between 2nd and 3rd and was tagged out. Still though, Torres couldn’t take advantage as he walked the next batter to re-load the bases for Jose Bautista, and his night ended there.

Other notes from Tuesday:

The Mets are 11-0 all-time against Toronto in New York.

With his 2-for-4 effort, Juan Lagares now has a seven-game hitting streak.

Darrell Ceciliani is now 7-for-his-last-13 at the plate.

Matt Harvey drove in his first run at the plate since 2013 with his 2nd inning RBI double.

With his 3rd inning sacrifice fly, Wilmer Flores now has 11 RBI in his last 15 games.

Bobby Parnell converted his first save since July 30, 2013.

The Mets finished their eight-game homestand, after starting 0-2, with a 5-3 record and are now 25-11 at Citi Field this season.

Terry Collins won his 340th game as the team’s manager, moving into third place all-time in franchise history.