PHILADELPHIA – Everybody is the ace when they take the ball from Bobby Valentine, but it gets heavier when the Mets have lost five of six, and three in a row, which is why it felt so secure in the hands of Rick Reed last night.
“We need Rick,” said Mike Piazza. “If he continues throwing this way he’ll probably be labeled our ace. “He can be among, well I don’t want to say the elite, but the potential is there.”
Potential and Rick Reed have rarely been used in the same sentence in 34 years. Along the picket line, there always remained the potential for violence at the mention of his name, perhaps. And there always was a level of expectation that when the AAA world Series began, he would be on the hill.
But in going up and down for 11 years, nobody saw much potential in Reed as anything more than a back-end of a rotation pitcher. For an expansion team. If a plague wiped out the entire rotation.
Even when Bob Apodaca turned on the lighbulb in Norfolk and Bobby Valentine lit the way to New York, there seemed a little something too good to be true about Reed winning 16 games and pitching in an All Star Game. When he tired over the second half of the 1998 season, made two trips to the disabled list last year, gave up some home runs that went further than the AFL-CIO would like to launch him, you wondered if water had found its own level for a replacement player. Hey, nobody ever said this guy was supposed to be Cy Young to begin with.
Then Reed threw a three-hit shutout against the Pirates in a game the Mets absolutely had to have in the final weekend of the season,beat the Diamondbacks in a divisional series game, and threw seven innings of three-hit, two-run ball at the Braves. He was patiently waiting for a Game 7 start when the Mets’ run ended, but it has turned into a new beginning.
Reed came into last night’s game with a 0.57 ERA in two starts, enough to get the Mets excited about breaking their losing streak. Last time out, he gave up four hits and one run in 7.2 innings against the Dodgers. With the Mets having lost the first two game here 9-7 and 8-5, 7.2 innings were looking pretty good to Valentine and Reed looked like the guy to provide them.
“Rick has such great control he can throw any one of his pitches at any point in the count, and that breeds confidence,” said pitching coach Dave Wallace. “He knows he has good stuff and has good location as well.
“His command has been awesome of all his pitches, and he uses them at any time in the count.”
Last year, Reed loosened the grip on his two-seam fastball to give it more movement away from lefthanded batters, added a cutter that breaks the other way, and is looking like a guy who is taking it back up another level again.
“He constantly tinkers with things and it helps him,” Wallace said. “He doesn’t use the cutter all that much. But it’s the timing of it.”
“The stuff is better than people think,” said Piazza. “But the biggest asset is the tremendous control. The biggest thing I notice now is the pinpoint control.
“He’s always had a good sinker. I just think the ball is now lower, with more velocity. Guys are swinging at it, but it’s down and moving and very difficult to hit into the air.
“What I saw in him last September was that he was just more aggressive. This game is funny, you are going to go through stages. There was a time in the middle of last year when he was giving up home runs and lost a little confidence.
“He pitched a good game and he used that to become more aggressive and believe in his stuff. I’ve caught [Greg] Maddux three times in an All-Star game, and obviously hit off him, too, and I think he has a better breaking ball than Maddux has. And a change-up, too.
“But as far as movement on the fastball, it’s very similar. Both guys can throw the ball away at a left-handed hitter, then come back over the plate. It freezes a lot of guys.”
The Mets needed Reed last night to freeze their losing streak, put some chill in the Phillies’ bats to match the air. Potentially, it was the game that would turn around the team’s stumbling start, and their best pitcher had the ball. He is keeping the ball even lower than his profile, but if he keeps pitching like this, his cover will be blown. He is again, one of the most dependable starters in baseball and at age 34, still finding out just how good he can become.