“Sweat, dirt and rosin.”
Mets closer Edwin Diaz said on Saturday afternoon that he wasn’t planning on changing a thing with his pre-outing routine in his return from a 10-game suspension for a sticky-substance related ejection.
That’s exactly why the right-hander wasn’t nervous at all when he slowly trotted his way in from the PNC Park bullpen and was checked by umps prior to his appearance in the bottom of the ninth against the Pirates.
But after passing his first test back he was officially cleared to take the mound, Diaz showed some nerves, as he plunked shortstop Oneil Cruz in the leg with a 97-mph fastball leading off the inning.
He quickly settled back into his dominant form, though, and was able to blow a 98-mph fastball by slugging lefty Rowdy Tellez and then secured the much-needed victory with a game-ending double play.
“I felt really good,” Diaz said. “I was a little excited, I was trying to be perfect, but as soon as I got the hit by pitch I was just concentrating on making my pitches and throwing them where I wanted to and we were able to get the outs.”
And those were a crucial last three outs, which proved to be extremely difficult for the Mets to secure over the course of the ten games they were without Diaz.
New York’s bullpen posted the worst ERA in baseball over that span and they finished 5-5, with four of the five losses coming after they either had the late lead or it was tied after seven innings.
That’s exactly why Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said postgame that having his All-Star ready to close things out makes such a big difference for this team.
“It’s a totally different game when you have Diaz ready to go,” the skipper said. “I was able to be more aggressive making decisions and getting the starter out of the game and the bullpen bounced back big time.”
After a bit of a rough start to the season, Diaz appears to be back to his dominant form, as he’s shutdown three consecutive save opportunities and is yet to allow a run over that span.
David Stearns will likely still need to add a couple of relievers ahead of the trade deadline, but getting the All-Star back in the mix is certainly a ginormous boost for this squad.
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