“If you can get your starters to get you eight and turn the ball over to him, I like your chances”. Having used only closer Jeurys Famlia out of his bullpen in Game 1, Mets skipper Terry Collins should have no qualms about utilizing a quick hook with the 23-year-old fireballer. A bullpen session comes 2-3 days before a scheduled start.
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Left-handed hitting outfielder Chris Coghlan also can play the infield. But a manager who’d been fired twice before over a lack of patience with contending teams in Houston and Anaheim was asked to manage the Mets, whose rebuild was of indeterminate length and depending on owners with enormous financial problems, and whose roster was often filled with players ill-suited for the tasks Collins was forced to ask of them.
Syndergaard and Matz are the third and fourth rookie pitchers to start for the Mets in a postseason game in franchise history, joining Gary Gentry and John Maine. This is just like the Dodgers, we’ve got two of the best in the game we’ve got to face.
One of the biggest reasons to consider Matz as a reliever would be a white-hot Schwarber, who is hitting. Denorfia appeared off the bench in four of the Cubs’ five postseason games going into the NLCS. “So, if he’s tender [today], he’s probably not going to be the Game 2 guy”. He showed off a high 90s fastball and a devastating slider. Earlier in his career, Rizzo struggled mightily against lefties.
“He’s not going to be flawless every time”, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
Arrieta simply didn’t have the same sharpness (two walks) or finish to his pitches (one hit batter), reminding everyone that he’s still human.
They never thought Jake Arrieta would be this good. He posted a 4-4 record with a 3.49 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 87 2/3 innings. “The first couple times he only threw 16, 18 pitches before the inning was over”. Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus ran a few numbers on regular season pitching appearances of various lengths which seem to support all of the above, but with less dramatic variation in numbers than the Druschel piece.
Although Syndergaard has thrown just 157.1 innings in the major leagues, his talent level is so high, Niese’s expectation for him can not be considered out of line. Zack Greinke, the Dodgers starter in today’s game, threw seven innings and allowed two runs in Game 2. In context, those numbers aren’t as worrisome.
Arrieta tries to extend his overall winning streak to 14 games with another dominant performance Sunday night against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Even when he has looked shaken, he has consistently shown the mental fortitude to battle through his jitters, and his stuff is electric enough that he is hard to touch up even when he has trouble locating. However, he helped bring this team to the playoffs for the first time in nine years and has received plenty of praise because of that. There are always risks in messing with a pitcher’s routine, ranging from loss of command or velocity, to the worst case scenario-injury.
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Yet, the tantalizing reward is why you consider the risk in the first place.
