MIAMI – Overshadowed by Rickey Henderson’s amazing night was a fine performance by Bobby Jones, who also put aside his spring woes to pitch very well in the Mets’ 6-0 combined shutout of the Marlins.
Jones pitched seven innings, throwing his first scoreless outing since shutting out the Red Sox over eight solid innings at Fenway Park last June 6. That was probably his best outing of 1998, but Jones went on to finish the season a disappointing 9-9 record with a 4.05 ERA.
Last night, he confused the Marlins by changing pace and locating his pitches well, allowing only five hits and one walk while striking out two.
“You always want to get off to a good start,” he said. “The offense got some runs and it’s a little different when you have that behind you.”
Jones worked all spring on several mechanical changes in his delivery, but he said last night he wasn’t even thinking about that stuff anymore. Perhaps that was a good thing.
Jones was 1-1 with a 6.30 ERA in the spring.
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Rickey Henderson’s 12 total bases fell one short of the Met record shared by Darryl Strawberry, Claudell Washington and Jim Hickman.
Edgardo Alfonzo was 2-for-5 with a double. In the series he went 6-for-15 with three doubles, and three runs scored.
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Orel Hershiser decided to stay behind with the team instead of traveling ahead to Montreal early for tonight’s game, which is Expos’ home opener.
No one likes to be the opposing pitcher in someone else’s Opening Day because the crowd is pumped up, the home team is pumped and it’s like pitching against 40,000 people.
“I don’t like that situation,” he said. “You might have a team with guys that usually aren’t very impressive and all of a sudden they’re world beaters. That’s what happened her the other day.’
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The pitching matchups for the Expos series: Tonight, Hershiser (7-10, 4.41) vs. Miguel Batista (3-5, 3.80). Tomorrow, Masato Yoshii (6-8, 3.93) vs. Mike Thurman (4-5, 4.70). Saturday, Al Leiter (0-1, 7.20) vs. Dustin Hermanson (1-0, 1.29). Sunday, Rick Reed (1-0, 1.50) vs. Carl Pavano (0-1, 27.00)