The comment seemed to be universal. Before the season began, everyone said the Mets didn’t have enough starting pitching. No way they could win with the starters they had. They didn’t have enough of them, and not all of the ones they had were reliable.
“There was a question about our pitching,” Omar Minaya, the Mets general manager, acknowledged. “They were saying that even though we got Santana it wasn’t going to be enough.”
And what did Minaya think about his pitching?
“At the time I kept saying I thought getting Santana put a front-line starter on the staff.
When we started the year I felt we had Duque, Martinez, Maine and Perez We thought Pelfrey would start as a long man in the bullpen. I felt he would develop into a starter, but he had to develop. We’d have to wait for him. I thought somewhere in the second half of the season.”
Injuries have kept El Duque, Orlando Hernandez, out all season and drastically curtailed Pedro Martinez’s season. John Maine is on the disabled list for the second time. Mike Pelfrey? He didn’t wait until the second half of the season to develop.
Early in the season Pelfrey looked like a pitcher in serious need of development. The ninth player selected in the amateur draft only three years ago, Pelfrey struggled in his first nine starts with a 2-6 record and a 5.33 earned run average. He averaged barely five innings a start.
Then 17 days before Jerry Manuel replaced Willie Randolph as the Mets manager and Dan Warthen replaced Rick Peterson as the pitching coach, Pelfrey began blooming. No rose has ever turned out as sweet.
In his last 17 starts, the 24-year-old right-hander has compiled an 11-2 record with a 3.00 e.r.a. and has averaged six and two-thirds innings per start. He has pitched complete games in his last two starts.
“He’s developed; he’s been dominant,” Minaya said.
Pelfrey has become a No. 1 starter. He has to do the job for more than half a season, but his performance is matching his potential.
“A lot has to do with confidence with these young guys,” Minaya said. “It gets down to him trusting his best pitch, which is a hard sinker. Once they get to the major leagues they feel they have to find ways to get guys out with their best pitch. He’s sticking with his strength right now.”
Pelfrey has teamed with Johan Santana to give the Mets a strong 1-2 at the head of the rotation. Santana has a 12-7 record, but his record could be a lot better. Since June 1, he has a 2.25 earned run average but only a 6-4 record.
Santana and Pelfrey epitomize the Mets strength. Their pitchers have the National League’s fourth lowest e.r.a. among starters, 3.90; the third highest won-lost percentage, .582, and the second lowest opponents batting average, .248.
In the 15 games before they went to Philadelphia the starters won nine, lost one and had a 2.71 e.r.a. Subtract Maine’s recent start against Houston, in which the Astros scored eight runs against him, and the record is 9-0 with a 2.13 e.r.a.
Maine’s outing against the Astros preceded his placement on the disabled list with an ailing shoulder, the second time this month the shoulder has interfered with his pitching.
“The schedule works in our favor because we have a couple days off,” Minaya said, discussing the plan to replace Maine.
Whenever the Mets have lost a player to injury this season, Minaya has not rushed out to trade for a replacement. When Ryan Church missed so much time recovering from a concussion and with Moises Alou out for the season, Minaya eschewed the quick fix and stuck with the outfielders already on the roster, Fernando Tatis and Endy Chavez, and added two minor leaguers, Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans.
So it apparently will be when the Mets need a starter for a game in Milwaukee next week. “Most likely we’ll stay internal,” Minaya said. The most likely candidate is Jonathon Niese, a 21-year-old left-hander, who has a 5-1 record for AAA New Orleans.
They could use Brian Stokes, who started a game earlier this month, but he has been relatively effective in relief since, and the Mets desperately need relatively effective relievers.
“He is in a good spot right now,” Minaya said. “When a guy is having success you want to keep him there.”
The Mets’ relief pitching generally gives people a different feeling. Call it nausea. Anybody who can consistently get through an inning without giving up the lead would be a welcome addition to the corps of arsonists. The bullpen weakness was on painful display once again in the Mets’ 13-inning 8-7 loss to the Phillies Tuesday night.
Four relievers contributed to that loss, though Aaron Heilman was not one of them. Heilman is a maddeningly inconsistent reliever, a total enigma. He can look great one night, quickly dispatching three batters in an easy inning, then squander a lead and the game in his next appearance. Earned run averages are often meaningless for relievers, but in 69 games this season Heilman has allowed runs in 21 innings, hits in 42 and walks in 31. He has allowed 1.6 baserunners per inning, his worst record since his rookie season of 2003.
Luis Ayala is the latest addition to the bullpen. Often ineffective with Washington in 62 games, the 30-year-old right-hander was nevertheless attractive to Minaya because of his makeup.
“When you get to this time of year,” Minaya said, “you want to have guys who if they fail are not afraid to go back out there. You don’t want guys who are afraid to pitch in a pennant race. Ayala didn’t have a good record with the Nationals, but numbers can be deceiving. He pitched in the eighth inning with a lead 30 some times and held the lead.”
Ayala, pitching in place of the injured closer Billy Wagner, gave up the Phillies’ tying run in the ninth inning Tuesday night but the next night gained his second save to go with one win in six appearances as the Mets supplanted the Phillies in first place in their game of division leapfrog.
As the season has developed, the Mets have had enough starting pitching to reach the playoffs, but the relief corps has undermined the starters’ effort. If the Mets reach the playoffs in spite of the bullpen, it will be a minor miracle.