NEW YORK -- Not only was Jeurys Familia unavailable to close because of his heavy workload Friday, the All-Star candidate was not even at the ballpark Saturday.
Familia was with his family a day after son Jeurys Jr. was born.
The New York Mets, who had been 30-0 when leading after eight innings, summarily blew a two-run lead in the ninth and ultimately lost to the Atlanta Braves, 5-3, in 11 innings.
Manager Terry Collins said Hansel Robles, who started the ninth inning, was not his designated fill-in closer entering the game. Collins said he based the decision on matchups. He did not have Sean Gilmartin available because the lefty reliever had warmed five straight days, even though Gilmartin entered only two games during that span.
While Familia was absent, the Mets did not place him on paternity leave and replace him for the day.
“We’ve got young guys,” Collins said of his relief corps minus Familia. “We have four rookies down there. One of the things we’ve been able to do is -- because of our starting pitching -- pick out a matchup where they have to come in and face one or two guys instead of having to pitch an entire inning. And they’ve done very well with that. It gets to be a little tough at the end of the game when you don’t have that one guy you can turn to. But it’s all part of the development stage of them learning how to pitch and learning how to get through some big, tough, tight situations.”
