Mike Pelfrey had a complete-game victory over the Padres and tossed seven shutout innings against the Phillies on his way to a 9-1 start, but Alex Cora remains even more impressed by Pelfrey’s last outing — a gritty six-inning performance in Baltimore on Sunday.
“He had nothing and he still worked his way through six innings,” Cora said of the 11-4 win.
And that’s just one of the differences between the Pelfrey of 2009 and the pitcher who will take the mound for the Mets today at Yankee Stadium.
“Last year, it was, ‘When is it gonna happen? When is he gonna explode?’ ” Cora said of Pelfrey’s tough 2009 season. “Now, it’s ‘How long is he gonna go?’ It’s a great feeling.”
One that Pelfrey hopes will continue in the Subway Series. Even he admitted that had Sunday’s start against the Orioles happened in a previous season, he likely wouldn’t have survived long enough to get the win.
“If I had the same stuff before, I don’t know if I would have made it through it,” Pelfrey said. “Now, I can go through the thought process and am able to make adjustments. In the past, I might have let my emotions get the best of me and get down on myself. I wouldn’t have been able turn it around.”
He even used the unorthodox move of tossing his first two warm-up pitches before the third inning from behind the mound, in an attempt to keep the ball down. The drill worked.
It’s the sign of a more mature pitcher, something Cora saw in spring training, when Pelfrey struggled while working on his split-fingered fastball and ignored his rocky results.
“He had the mentality that he was just trying to get better each outing, like aces do,” Cora said of Pelfrey, who surrendered home runs at an alarming rate in March in hopes of getting off to a start like this when it counted.
“He wasn’t out there just to shut people down, he was getting ready for the season,” Cora said. “That was different for him and shows how he’s developing.”
His improvement has resulted in a 9-1 record and a 2.39 ERA — a far cry from the 5-2, 4.74 line he brought to the mound when he faced the Yankees almost a year ago, on June 26. That day, he gave up four runs in five innings of a 9-1 Mets loss — another disappointing outing in a disappointing season.
The Mets have different expectations heading into this game, his second against the Yankees this year, after holding them to one run over six innings in a 5-3 win on May 22 at Citi Field.
“I could always see what kind of stuff he had, that he could be dominant,” Jose Reyes said. “Now, he’s showing that’s what he can be. He’s fun to play behind. He’s the same guy, but a different pitcher.”