Jeurys Familia’s velocity has returned, but the Mets still have concerns about him.
According to manager Terry Collins, the right-handed reliever struggled warming up on Tuesday, when he pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning for the Mets. As a precaution, Collins scratched Familia from his list of available relievers for Wednesday.
“It is a red flag for me — no doubt about it,” Collins said before the Mets beat the Braves 4-1 at Citi Field. “I think we’re talking about a guy who has never relieved full time until this year. He didn’t pitch very much in April and now he’s got 43 appearances in two months, two and a half months. Yeah, I’ve got to be careful with that.”
Familia was unavailable to pitch Monday because of concern about a drop in velocity the previous day. On Tuesday, Familia returned to throwing in the high-90s.
“He actually told me when he was warming up [Tuesday] night he didn’t get ready very fast which means there’s still some stiffness in there,” Collins said. “So we’re going to be careful of him. But his velocity is back up. I think the day off helped him.”
Familia said he is not concerned.
“My body is a little tired,” Familia said. “But I’m OK.”
Collins said there has been no discussion of removing an outfielder from the roster to provide the team with extra infield depth. Eric Campbell is the lone backup infielder as the Mets carry six outfielders.
“It’s helped us a lot,” Collins said. “You have those matchups off the bench that you like. It seems like every time we put Bobby [Abreu] in the lineup he gets two hits. [Kirk Nieuwenhuis] has done a nice job, so I think it’s helped everybody but Curtis [Granderson], who plays every day, keep everybody somewhat fresh.”
Travis d’Arnaud’s seventh-inning blast gave the Mets a home run in nine straight home games — the team’s longest streak since Citi Field opened in 2009.
B.J. Upton’s RBI double in the sixth snapped a streak of 21 ¹/₃ scoreless innings by Mets starters dating to Sunday. In that stretch, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Jacob deGrom each pitched seven shutout innings.