There was a time, not that long ago, when people thought Jon Niese might be the ace of the Mets rotation this season.
That was before Matt Harvey started drawing comparisons to every former great right-handed pitcher.
But Harvey can’t pitch every day and while the Mets wait to see if he can follow up his near-perfect performance in his last start when he takes the mound today, they watched another subpar outing by Niese in an 11-2 loss to the Pirates Saturday at Citi Field.
The left-hander was smacked around for eight runs, matching his career-high, in just 4 ¹/₃ innings.
After starting the season 2-0, Niese is winless in his last five starts and Mets fans are clamoring even more for Harvey outings, as well as the arrival of Zack Wheeler.
Wheeler was scheduled to make another start with Triple-A Las Vegas last night and his potential impending promotion to the majors has drawn the attention of Mets manager Terry Collins.
“I just talked to [Las Vegas manager] Wally [Backman] at length [Friday],” Collins said. “I’ll read the report tomorrow. There’s a couple of guys out there to see him from the organization. I’ll call them and get another viewpoint. ‘How’d he look? How was his demeanor? How’d he go about things?’… I just want to see how he handles things.”
The Mets remain cautious with Wheeler, but he couldn’t be much worse than Niese or his teammates were yesterday.
After a smooth first inning, Niese faced immediate trouble in the second when he gave up consecutive singles to Gaby Sanchez and Jose Tabata. Clint Barmes drove in the first run with a single before Niese escaped further damage when pitcher Francisco Liriano hit into an inning-ending double play.
Niese gave up three more runs in the third, the big blow coming from Tabata, who collected another of his four hits, this one a two-run homer.
Niese finally exited in the fifth, but not before surrendering the first of two homers to Jordy Mercer and a run-scoring double to Tabata. Scott Atchison, who Collins had hoped to avoid using, allowed two inherited runners to score and the rout was on.
Pitching, of course, wasn’t the Mets’ only problem. They haven’t scored more than four runs since May 3 and were at times overmatched by Liriano, who was making his first start for the Pirates after breaking his non-throwing arm by slamming a wall in his home on Christmas.
He was good enough yesterday to strike out nine in 5 ¹/₃ innings.
As long as the Mets’ lineup is filled with players such as Andrew Brown and Juan Lagares, and with the struggling John Buck hitting cleanup, their rotation will have virtually no margin for error.
Collins is already worried about blowing out his bullpen because of short starts by just about everyone other than Harvey. Niese’s showing didn’t help.
As one fan wrote during yesterday’s banner day, “Hold tight and pretend it’s a plan.”
The good news is the loss brought the Mets closer to another Harvey show, something even Collins was looking forward to.
“This guy could have pitched years ago,” Collins said. “He’s got the makeup of what those guys had 20 years ago. He’s driven to be successful.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean much on days he doesn’t pitch.