The Mets, so far, have learned their lesson under Jerry Manuel. It’s the 1970s again. That means it’s all about pounding the strike zone.
That’s the reason for their recent success. The starters’ ERA of 1.28 over the last 11 games is so impressive that you have to go back to 1991 to find similar numbers, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
At Citi Field, the key is to get the early lead, pitch ahead and get outs. That again will be the emphasis today in an old-fashioned doubleheader against the Dodgers, beginning at 4:10 p.m., following last night’s rainout.
That’s the winning formula. Don’t be fooled by the fact that going into last night, the Mets led the National League in walks issued with 84. A lot of those walks were done with a “Pujols purpose,” not to let the opponent’s best hitter beat them. The Mets lead the NL in intentional walks with 10. There have been quite a few unintentional intentional walks, too.
Look what happened to Yankees manager Joe Girardi on Sunday when he decided not to walk the Angels’ Kendry Morales, even though the situation was crying out for the move — Morales hit a three-run home run.
Manuel, pitching coach Dan Warthen and bullpen coach Randy Niemann have pounded it into the pitchers’ heads from Day 1: Throw strikes.
“You got to throw strikes here, that’s such a huge part of our success here that we had to coming right out of spring training, even the first day, we had to make a special emphasis on that,” Manuel said last night.
Manuel had bullpen sessions charted to make sure the pitchers were pounding the zone. He made it key to a pitcher’s survival.
“What I do is I make it an emphasis,” Manuel explained, “and record it, and put it up and say, ‘This is why you are not here because this is what we need. You can see everybody else that is throwing strikes and you’re not, therefore . . . ‘ ”
Pitchers began competing amongst themselves. If Pitcher A is throwing more strikes than Pitcher B, Pitcher B wants to beat Pitcher A.
When you have the super-competitive Johan Santana, who will start today’s first game, leading your staff, a pitcher who does nothing but pound the strike zone, the system can run itself. The pitchers have to be competitive to make it work. Mike Pelfrey tries to keep up with Santana.
And remember what Manuel said about Jon Niese in spring training? He liked Niese because the lefty is so competitive. That peer pressure raises the competitive levels of Oliver Perez, who will start today’s second game. Perez’s velocity is down, but throwing strikes is the name of the game.
This works for starters and relievers. It’s so simple, all teams should be doing it, but so many teams have gotten caught up in ridiculous statistics, they have forgotten about the most important fact and that’s throwing strikes. General manager Omar Minaya also credits the two new defensive-minded catchers Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco for leading the way with the young pitchers.
“We’ve had runners on base, but this past weekend you saw we were able to pitch through it with the catchers working them through it,” Minaya said.
The best pitch in baseball is not a fastball, not a slider, not a cutter and not a curve. The best pitch in baseball is strike one.
The Mets staff owns a 3.17 ERA, fifth lowest in the majors. The pitchers have notched 153 strikeouts; in the majors, only the White Sox and Cubs have more.
You have to play defense, run the bases well and get timely hits for this to work, but it all starts with pounding the strike zone.
Baseball is a lot closer to being baseball again and not the video game that it became in the performance-enhancing drugs era. One run can win a game these days and pitching at Citi Field makes every run that much more precious.
The game is back to its roots: If you pound the strike zone, you can’t lose.