LET the record show Jose Reyes took two pitches and Ramon Castro one before delivering key hits yesterday, allowing us to interrupt all the angst about the Mets’ batting approach to pronounce their rotation back to where it was when so rudely interrupted.
Oliver Perez, in his first start since his back began to stiffen up on June 26, threw 62 of 95 pitches over six innings for strikes and won his eighth, 5-2, over the Reds. And Jorge Sosa, who collapsed with a hamstring pull on the way to first base in Philadelphia on June 30, pitches tonight in San Diego.
Back to New Orleans goes Mike Pelfrey. And back to normal, theoretically, go the Mets, who, when the shutdowns of Sosa and Perez came about, had an abnormal 1.49 ERA in the preceding eight contests.
That was some serious chucking, of the approximate kind they will need this week in San Diego and Los Angeles, where they face pitching staffs with the two lowest ERA’s in the NL, the Padres (first) and the Dodgers (second), at least one which they likely will see again in the postseason.
“I see it as a challenging trip, good staffs at their place and rested, too, after the break,” said GM Omar Minaya. “If we come back in the same position we are now, that would be outstanding.”
Outstanding is a word to also describe the matchups of Orlando Hernandez vs. Jake Peavy tomorrow night and John Maine vs. Greg Maddux Wednesday night. The good news is the Mets will avoid Chris Young and Chad Billingsley; the bad news is Brad Penny likely awaits Sosa on Saturday.
In other words, this likely will not be a bonanza break-in week for new hitting coach Howard Johnson. But, as Willie Randolph will tell you, it’s all about the pitching anyway.
“Your starting rotation intact and giving quality starts, is what you look for, especially in the second half,” said Randolph. “It’s important to have that rhythm, that continuity.
“If the bats pick it up a little more, hopefully we’ll get back to where we were early in the season. But starting pitching sets the tone always.”
Well, not always, only in about 95 of the 102 baseball postseasons ever played. No. 103 is one in which the Mets expect to go far, even if they have to replace every coach to get there. Historically, coaches are more dispensable than good starting pitchers, of which the Mets could have six for four spots in a playoff rotation.
They will need them against Brett Tomko, Penny, Mark Hendrickson, Billingsley and Derek Lowe. Or against Young, Peavy, David Wells, Greg Maddox, and Justin Germano. Or, versus Ben Sheets, Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas and Jeff Suppan (in Game 7, of course).
Mark Buehrle has re-upped. Minaya does not believe Roy Oswalt and Dontrelle Willis will be available. So the Mets’ big July 31 pitching moves will be 1) for a relief pitcher and 2) to a calendar to plot how many more rehab starts Pedro Martinez needs.
By a hardly incredible coincidence, the four NL teams with the best records have the four best bullpen ERA’s, too, the Mets’ being, in Minaya’s mind, a not-quite-good enough fourth. One of the ways to better that is with starts eliminating nightly needs for relievers in sixth innings. And Perez immediately relieves some of that pressure.
He wasn’t lights out, except for the ones Adam Dunn put out next to the “SF” one-third of the way up the scoreboard with a fourth-inning home run. But Perez but did throw strikes and find gas in the tank to work out of first-and-second-none-out trouble in the sixth without further damage.
“We were unstable in Colorado,” said Minaya, a reminder that everything starts with the starts.
We know that’s repetitious, but repetition through two rotations in mid-June provided the Mets their best separation of the season from Braves and Phillies. And they need more of the same against excellent staffs worth staying up this week to see.