Sports

Eighth-inning role setting up nicely for Jeurys Familia

MILWAUKEE — Jeurys Familia admits he sneaks an occasional peek at his numbers, but he doesn’t want to jinx himself.

“I don’t like to see them,” the Mets reliever said before the Mets’ 9-1 loss to the Brewers on Thursday.

Those numbers showed Familia, who didn’t pitch Thursday, with a 1.92 ERA over 49 appearances. Over his previous 19 games, he has allowed only one run, giving him a 0.47 ERA since June 12.
Another big performance came Wednesday, when Familia replaced Bartolo Colon in the eighth inning and worked a scoreless two-thirds of an inning and kept the tying run from scoring for the Mariners.

Familia in the eighth and Jenrry Mejia in the ninth have been major components in the bullpen’s rise from the ashes since the season began.

“I don’t ever think it’s automatic, but I’m certainly very relaxed when I bring [Familia] in,” manager Terry Collins said. “I take great comfort in the fact that I know that they are going to have to swing the bat to beat him.

“At the beginning of the year, one of the things that worried us most was that he was going to fall behind in the count or walk somebody. That feeling is gone now. He’s going to make them swing the bat. [Wednesday] that might have been as good of stuff as I’ve seen him have.”

Familia just wants to continue refining his pitches.

“I’ve been working since spring training on my command,” Familia said. “My two-seamer command and my fastball and right now I’m trying to attack the hitter. Make the hitter make contact and get a ground ball.”


Collins said it was difficult to demote Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas to clear roster space for Wilmer Flores, who went 1-for-3.

But the Mets were carrying six outfielders, and Nieuwenhuis had slumped recently, going 2-for-19 (.105) over his last 10 games.

“Unfortunately you reach a situation where there are only certain guys you can move,” Collins said. “As I told [Nieuwenhuis], it’s going to allow him to go down and be an everyday player, which as we’ve seen before is very beneficial, because when they come back they’ve gotten off to pretty good starts, some of those guys.”


Curtis Granderson returned to the lineup after missing two straight games with flu-like symptoms. He went 0-for-4.