What seemed like the anchor which has held the Mets ship steady over the first four months of the season suddenly appears to be a little unstable.
Jeurys Familia has converted his last two save chances, although they have been anything but smooth after blowing his three previous save chances since the All-Star break.
Familia has lacked any kind of consistent command with his sinker since the All-Star break. He’s falling behind in seemingly every sequence, and he’s being forced to come over the plate with a straight, four-seam fastball. He’s getting hit like he hadn’t been for the entire first half as a result.
What’s worrisome about Familia is this isn’t just an outing or two he’s had to battle through. Once again, he blew three straight save opportunities, and in his outing on Wednesday, he wasn’t fooling anyone either. He allowed a run scoring single to Dee Gordon in the ninth inning which pulled the Marlins to within two after they started the inning trailing by eight. He then allowed a single to Derek Dietrich which inexplicably brought the go-ahead run to the plate.
Fortunately, Familia seemed to find his sinker in the final sequence to Christian Yelich, and he induced a ground ball to Lucas Duda to end the game, although it was a very loud out in what was another very disturbing outing for the Mets star closer.
But, it’s not just Familia.
In his last six outings, Hansel Robles has allowed four runs in six innings, although he has struck out six batters in that span, and on Wednesday night, Robles only recorded one out while allowing a hit, a walk and two runs scored as the Marlins nearly came from behind to beat the Mets.
Robles’ slider has been inconsistent, as he’s had trouble commanding that pitch in effective parts of the strike zone recently. He’s been able to dodge some huge bullets with his hard, rising fastball which escapes the zone up and in to the right-handed hitters, but he’s falling behind a lot and creating his own problems out there.
Outside of a few spurts here and there, this has been par for the course for Robles, too.
Bobby Parnell hasn’t had an easy ride, either, although his last two outings have been more effective than the three prior. The good news for Parnell is his velocity continues to rise – he’s now touching 97 mph with his fastball. But for now, it’s straight as an arrow and he has yet to get that crisp command of his knuckle-curve going on a regular basis.
Parnell’s issues aren’t really a surprise. He got off to a good start, but he has hit a wall which seemed all but inevitable. Remember, before being activated he had pitched in one game between July 31, 2013 and June 13, 2015. This is a process for Parnell, potentially longer than that for other Tommy John patients considering he had neck surgery which preceded his elbow injury. Again, all signs are pointing upward for Parnell, so patience is owed to his situation.
But the most important thing for the Mets is they restore the confidence and effectiveness of their late inning relief corps.
It’s a big reason why they’re in this position today – without that bullpen to go along with their elite starting rotation, they’re probably nowhere to be found in the pennant race.
Just Mets 