Palladino: Struggling Mets Must Find Some Answers In Cleveland
By Ernie Palladino
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The Mets head off to Cleveland now, and that's a good thing.
After a 2-4 homestand against eminently beatable Philadelphia and Miami, perhaps Terry Collins can settle his toothless lions away from the fans who wait as impatiently as the manager to start biting opposing pitchers the way they're supposed to.
Perhaps Friday, as baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson on his annual day, Yoenis Cespedes will finally find the hitting stroke on Cleveland's Progressive Field that makes him worth the $27 million he's pocketing this year.
Perhaps now, that lineup will start picking up some runners in scoring position and capitalize on one-out, bases-loaded situations and make it just a little easier for people like Jacob deGrom's replacement Wednesday. If not for Kevin Plawecki's two-run single in the seventh, Logan Verrett allowing three hits over six shutout innings would have gone as just another in a growing line of wasted early-season pitching efforts.
Perhaps in the calm of the road, where adversity is a given, Collins can find a definitive plan for returning deGrom to work. Since the pitcher's baby boy bounced onto the scene Monday night, taking away one uncertainty, Collins can now focus on the sore lat muscle that could land the new poppa on the DL.
Whatever the Mets need to find on this road trip, they had best find it quickly. Seasons can get away from a team just like that. And the Mets are closing in on that scenario now.
That became evident Wednesday. They won, but only as an air of desperation hung over them. It was only natural, then, that Cespedes risked life and limb with his Lambeau Leap as he chased a foul ball into the stands, especially as his three strikeouts that game raised his total to 11 in his first 30 at-bats.
At $27 million this year, if he's not hitting he'd better lay it all out there on defense.
WATCH: Mets' Cespedes Hurls Himself Into Stands, Knees Fan In Chest Going After Foul Ball
The same goes for the whole lineup. The Mets are 11-for-59 (.186) with runners in scoring position, 26th in the league. They have driven in just 16 of those runners, good enough for 23rd.
If that sounds like it's stacking up a lot like last season, it's at least pretty close.
Not good.
It's exactly why Collins followed suit with Cespedes in the risk-reward department by running a bunch of tired bullpen arms out there. He couldn't let that 2-1 win get away. So he threw weary Jim Henderson, fresh off an extended stint Tuesday, in the seventh. He worked Hansel Robles on what was supposed to be his day off. He sent in Jeurys Familia for a five-out save on a third straight workday.
Later, he admitted that if the Mets had won a game or two more on the homestand, if they hadn't come within Plawecki's single of a Marlins sweep, he never would have signaled for Familia in the eighth.
But he was desperate for a win.
That is where this season is at right now.
But it can all turn around in a heartbeat starting Friday night.
Start with the evening itself, when the league pays homage to owner Fred Wilpon's barrier-breaking idol, the great Robinson. Continue with starter Bartolo Colon, whose latest sentimental journey takes the 42-year-old to the city where he started a baseball eon ago.
The day off Thursday afforded the bullpen some rest.
And just going on the road after a stressful and unsuccessful homestand could add another element of relief.
Sometimes it's good to get away, especially in times of trouble in one's own house.
But if the Mets don't find some answers on the road over the next nine games starting Friday night, the woes they brought to the road may just follow them back to Citi Field.
And that won't be good.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
