Bartolo Colon’s absolute gem against the Atlanta Braves tonight couldn’t have been better.
The line was eight innings, no runs on seven hits. His 98 pitch effort made the game last just two hours and 38 minutes.
Colon is pretty much blowing out the pace of play argument running around baseball these days all by himself.
“I’m amazed when he goes out there every fifth day and nothing seems to faze him,” said manager Terry Collins. “Early in the game, you are sitting there saying this may not be the night and he just starts getting them out. He’s truly an amazing guy and deserved the win tonight.”
That was his 220th win on for his career passing Pedro Martinez for second place of all Dominican born pitchers. He trails only Juan Marichal’s 243 mark.
With the way he’s going, sometime next season, the 42 year-old will eclipse that mark.
And for those scoring at home, both Marichal and Martinez are members of Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
That is if the Mets don’t remove him from the rotation when Zack Wheeler comes back from Tommy John surgery after the All-Star Break.
If you’re Sandy Alderson and the Met powers that be, this is a decision that you may want to think about as the summer moves along.
You know what you are going to get with Colon. He’s generally going to be efficient around the plate every single start and the times he’s wild, he will get tattooed, since he’s wild inside the strike zone.
But as we have seen over the past two seasons, those starts are few and far between and Colon will generally be the guy you saw tonight.
And with Wheeler, you have an unknown with a very high upside. The hope is he comes back and pitches like Matt Harvey did last year, but with the type of surgery he had, you just don’t know. He’s a wild card out there.
Eventually the Mets will have to activate him, but why rush things if Colon is pitching so well.
Maybe the Mets can go to the six man for a while or maybe someone else will be on the shelf. Remember there’s a lot of baseball to be played, so you never know.
More importantly, you need to keep riding Colon until he can’t pitch anymore. Not only is he the type of guy who excels with work, but he also offers a very nice change of pace with the Mets four other starters.
After tonight, the Braves are going to get Harvey and Steven Matz. After being mowed down by the control pitcher, it’s going make those guys just look so much faster.
It’s just May 2 and there’s a lot that can happen over the next five months, but the Mets really should consider keeping Colon in the rotation when Wheeler comes back.
If he keeps having outings like tonight, they just may have to consider it.
The people will demand some action.
About the Author
