WASHINGTON -- Bartolo Colon still has an unsightly 5.34 ERA in the first season of a two-year, $20 million deal with the Mets. He undeniably had a positive day Saturday, though.
Bartolo Colon
#40 SP
New York Mets
2014 STATS
- GM9
W3
L5
BB6
K43
- ERA5.34
Aided by Juan Lagares' leap at the wall to take away a solo homer from Jayson Werth, Colon retired the final 11 batters he faced and turned in eight innings in the Mets' 5-2 win against the Washington Nationals. The lone damage came on Ian Desmond's two-run homer in the fourth -- the ninth homer allowed by Colon in nine starts this season.
“I was throwing some really good pitches, and I think that helped me out a lot,” Colon said through an interpreter.
Colon had been coming off an outing at Yankee Stadium in which he allowed seven runs (six earned) in 5 2/3 innings.
"He pitched ahead. You looked up in the seventh inning and, cripes, he had 70 pitches," Terry Collins said about the effort against the Nats. "You kind of figured he was on his game."
Collins added that Colon was capable of going the distance, but the staff wanted to get Jenrry Mejia his first major-league save in a situation that was not overly tense. Colon had thrown 105 pitches (71 strikes).
“He could have gone out. He was fine,” Collins said. “I just told [pitching coach] Dan [Warthen], ‘There can’t be a better scenario.’ We’ve got a three-run lead. It’s a save situation. It’s the ninth inning. We’ve got to find out. And we’ve got to see how he’s going to handle it.”
