DENVER — Who said it was impossible?
After all the platitudes manager Terry Collins had lobbed in the Rockies’ direction over the previous three days, after having watched that lineup mash Mets pitching, the idea one of his starters could take a shutout into the seventh inning Sunday might have seemed silly.
Collins certainly would have taken a more pedestrian performance from Dillon Gee. Even three or four runs allowed over six innings might have seemed appetizing after Bartolo Colon, Zack Wheeler and Jenrry Mejia had lined up with successive duds against the Rockies.
But there was Gee still standing in the seventh with a shutout intact before the Mets bullpen aced the final test in a 5-1 victory over the Rockies in front of 40,190 at Coors Field.
“I think I’ve had better stuff than I had today,” Gee said. “It was just one of those outings where I was just able to get them to hit the ball at people and get the outs when we really needed to.”
Gee (3-1) allowed consecutive singles to begin the seventh, but Carlos Torres and Scott Rice got three outs without allowing a run to score. Jeurys Familia then preserved the lead with a scoreless eighth before allowing a solo homer to Justin Morneau in the ninth.
Collins said he stayed with Gee at 103 pitches entering the seventh in part because he wants the right-hander built up for the summer. Gee finished at 113 pitches.
“We’ve been kind of hanging around that 100-pitch mark and even less sometimes,” Collins said. “I wanted him to get up there so we get into the middle of summer it’s a little easier to throw the 90-100 pitches.”
The Mets (16-14) snapped a three-game losing streak in which none of their starting pitchers lasted five innings. Gee ran his scoreless streak to 16 innings, a career long, dating to April 22 against the Cardinals. In three of his last four starts, he has not allowed a run.
Collins watched Michael McKenry and Corey Dickerson single in succession against Gee in the seventh. But Torres got DJ LeMahieu and Drew Stubbs out before Rice escaped the jam by retiring Charlie Blackmon, who began the day batting .372.
Troy Tulowitzki was on the bench for a day off, sparing the Mets from facing his .591 batting average at Coors Field. But Blackmon, Morneau, Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado were challenge enough for Gee and the Mets bullpen. In winning the first three games of this series, the Rockies had scored 28 runs.
The Mets will open a three-game series in Miami on Monday, with Jon Niese facing Nathan Eovaldi. For the second time this season, the Mets will miss Marlins ace Jose Fernandez in a series.
“Hopefully you go win a series in Miami,” David Wright said. “Then you are talking about a .500 road trip, which obviously isn’t terrible.”
Juan Lagares, a late addition to the lineup on Sunday after Eric Young Jr. was scratched, led the offensive attack by going 3-for-5. In his four games since returning from the disabled list, Lagares is 8-for-20 (.400) with four doubles and two RBIs.
Lucas Duda’s RBI double in the seventh gave the Mets a five-run cushion. Wright and Chris Young each delivered an RBI double in the third inning against Jhoulys Chacin and Daniel Murphy had one in the fourth.
Gee didn’t put two runners on base in the same inning until the fifth, when LeMahieu walked and Brandon Barnes followed with a single. But Gee got the next two outs, bringing his pitch count to 91 in the process.
“I always feel a need to get deep into the game — that’s my main goal out there,” Gee said. “I wish I could have gotten some outs in the seventh, but the bullpen did a great job coming in cleaning that up.”