It had been 9 1/2 months since Jenrry Mejia pitched in a big league game.
During that time, he had seen his closer job vaporized and handed to his close friend Jeurys Familia, who literally has taken the ball and ran with the job to 27 saves through the first 89 games of the season.
It was all his own doing. While he landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right elbow, he found himself on the restricted list just four days later after he tested positive for a performance enhancing drug, banning him for the next 80 games of the season.
Mejia was activated on Tuesday night as the team played the Giants in San Francisco, and while he had warmed up that night – and several nights to follow – he had yet to appear in a game until Terry Collins called his name in the eighth inning of Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Diamondbacks at Citi Field.
Mejia retired the only batter he faced in relief of Jon Niese in the seventh inning when he induced a weak flight off the bat of Chris Owings, who represented the tying run.
“I understand, because I was out like two, 2½ months,” Mejia said. “So now I came back and I had to wait for my time. Today was my time.”
Mejia admitted to having butterflies when he took the mound for the first time since the last game of the 2014 season.
“The first three pitches I was a little bit nervous,” Mejia said.
Manager Terry Collins recognized Mejia was nervous as he took the mound, but recognizes he needs Mejia to act and pitch like a veteran and get the ball to Familia in the ninth inning.
“All of a sudden everybody broke down and Jenrry got suspended and now it left it to Familia and some young rookies,” Collins said about spring training. “And right now the bullpen is coming around. Jenrry was nervous today. I’m sure everybody saw that. But we’re going to get better. If we can get to the big guy at the end, we’re going to win some games.”
He helped contribute to that in his first outing on Sunday.
Mejia looked like the pitcher he was last year for the most part. He’ll probably lose some of the antics and histrionics as one of the club’s setup guys, but the Mets need him to come into these games like he did today and get big outs to strand runners, keep runners from advancing, and put out fires.
It’s a different role for him, and something he has to adjust to at a time the Mets cannot have patience for growing pains. But he’s still talented enough and has been put through the ringer between converting from a starter to a reliever, back to a starter and then a closer, this should be a piece of cake as long as he can stay healthy.
For now, Mejia is pleased simply by the fact he’s back and contributing.
“I feel very, very happy,” he said with his usual smile.
Just Mets 