PORT ST. LUCIE — Bobby Parnell last threw a pitch in a major league game last July 30 before being shut down with a neck injury that required surgery in September.
And while Parnell had returned to pitch in an intrasquad game last week and felt good, it wasn’t until Sunday’s outing against the Braves he believed he was back.
“This is it,” Parnell said of his most important outing of the spring. “I’ve been throwing a lot of touch-and-feels [sessions] and my second gear hasn’t been there.”
That changed Sunday, when he pitched the ninth inning of the Mets’ 8-2 victory over Atlanta at Tradition Field.
He wasn’t at his sharpest, but he did find that added gear toward the end of the inning, particularly when he struck out Tyler Greene to end the game.
“I felt in the zone, especially there at the end,” Parnell said. “I really wanted to know what my mechanics were going to be like in an adrenaline situation.”
Manager Terry Collins was pleased to see Parnell pass his first test.
“[It was good] to really see him let loose,” Collins said. “He was a little tentative in the pen, which I understand. Those last five or six [pitches] he let go good.”
And if Parnell proves to be healthy and effective, Collins likes the look of his bullpen.
“It changes the whole dynamic of your bullpen when your closer is 100 percent,” he said. “Coming off what he had to go through to now know he’s going to be out there another six or seven times here in the next three weeks, it changes the way you look at your bullpen completely.”
Parnell has been coming along slowly since arriving to camp earlier than usual and managed to convince pitching coach Dan Warthen to get game action a day earlier than the team had planned.
Parnell’s explanation was simple: “I wanted to go face hitters.”
But considering the Mets injury history — both recent and past — it’s easy to question whether allowing Parnell to bump up his schedule was the wisest move.
Collins defended it after the game.
“I’ve had enough conversations with these players about how to go about things and how to handlen … issues of their health,” Collins said. “I’ve said, ‘Hey, look, if there are question marks, you’ve got to be smart about some things, and Bobby was the main guy.”
Collins warned Parnell about coming back too quickly as soon as he arrived in Port St. Lucie.
“I talked to him in January when he was down here and told him we were going to do this real slow,” Collins said. “He thought he was ready [Sunday], so we got him out there. You’ve got to believe in your players once in a while. You can’t keep making decisions for them. They’ve got to be able to have a voice.”
Parnell insisted he didn’t have any hesitation about stepping on the mound again.
“The first time I picked up the ball and had no pain, that was the biggest step,” Parnell said before his outing. “As soon as they tell you your season is over and you have to have surgery, my attention immediately turned to this.”
It figures to be a while before Parnell tests himself on back-to-back days, and he expected to be sore Monday.
But with the way he has felt throughout the spring, he fully expects to be ready for Opening Day, despite fears he might need more time after such a serious procedure.
“Absolutely,” Parnell said. “I never really counted myself out. Ever since I’ve been throwing again, I was confident I would get to that point.”