The good news for Jon Niese is he appears to be past what was arguably the most ineffective period of his eight-year career.
The bad news is, he and the team are still not winning the games he pitches in very much – they are 4-9 in games in which Niese starts in 2015, the Mets have scored two runs or less in five of those starts and have been shutout twice, including Wednesday night in the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre.
Niese pitched well enough to win on Wednesday night, especially for the first six innings of his start during which he had allowed just two runs. He seemed to fade in the seventh inning when he allowed a home run on a hanging change-up to Kevin Pillar to make the score 3-0.
Still, Terry Collins was pleased with the effort from his southpaw.
“That might be the best lineup against left-handed pitching there is in the game,” Collins said in praise of Niese. “To give us seven solid innings and keep us in the game, he pitched absolutely outstanding. Basically the home run was a changeup he left up. But, otherwise, he pitched very well.”
Knowing he had a great challenge against the Blue Jays in their home ballpark, Niese knew he had to have a different game plan on Wednesday.
“I just kept them off-balance, kept them guessing, threw off-speed for strikes and out of the zone. I pitched them backwards at times. And our defense made some pretty good plays,” Niese explained.
Niese really had a good curveball working right from the beginning on Wednesday, and he was using it effectively down in the zone early in the count or, “backwards” as he put it. It was effect against both the lefties and the righties – they recorded only two hits against the 31 curveballs he threw on Wednesday, and 15 of the 18 he threw for strikes were not put in play by Toronto, another indication he had tremendous command of that pitch.
That helped him to induce seven groundball outs, a key to success against that lineup and in that ballpark.
In a way, he may have thrown it too frequently at times which made him predictable at points in the game. As he tired out in the sixth and seventh inning, the curve began to hang up a little bit on him and he started to get hurt a little more at that point in the game. Fortunately for him, he induced a double play in the sixth to limit the damage and help him pitch deep into this game.
Unfortunately, it was not enough for Niese, as he fell to 0-5 in his last six starts and 3-7 with a 4.21 ERA in 13 starts this season.
He’s allowed three runs or less in each of his last three starts and amassed 20 innings in that span. So all-in-all, Niese has pitched a lot better lately. There’s no debating that. Anytime a mid-rotation starter can give a club six or seven innings and allow three earned runs or less, they have to take it and find a way to win the game. Unfortunately, the Mets just haven’t lately for him.
He is aware of Steven Matz’s upcoming promotion, and it’s obvious to him what the direction of the club is in their starting rotation. But all he can do – both for himself and the team – is begin to pitch like the Jon Niese the Mets signed him to be in April, 2012 and show he can make the adjustments he made last year.
That in turn should eventually help the club both in the win column and as they try to potentially build a market for him either next month or over the winter, as well as help him build a resume for his next contract.
And lately, he’s done just that.
Just Mets 