Familia gets the loss in Wild Card Game the Mets made thanks to ... Jeurys Familia
The Mets wouldn't have made the postseason without Familia
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
NEW YORK -- Wednesday night, after the Giants beat the Mets in the NL Wild Card Game (SF 3, NY 0), I heard one fan say something to another fan as folks filed out of Citi Field that stuck out to me.
"Familia is a great regular season closer, but not a great postseason closer," said that fan.
Familia took the loss Wednesday night when he allowed, in order, a double (Brandon Crawford), a strikeout (Angel Pagan), a walk (Joe Panik), and a three-run home run (Conor Gillaspie) in the ninth inning. It was only the second home run Familia allowed in 2016.
"I threw my sinker -- my best pitch -- and I was just trying to get a ground ball," said Familia after the Wild Card Game when asked about Gillaspie's home run. "I missed a little middle-inside, and he (took me deep)."
The Wild Card Game loss follows a brilliant regular season in which the 26-year-old Familiar led MLB with 51 saves. He pitched to a 2.55 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings, and was, by any measure, one of the top relievers in baseball.
This loss also follows a rough 20115 World Series, in which Familiar blew three save opportunities. That's how the "he's a great regular season closer, but not a great postseason closer" line of thinking originated. Look at his blow saves against the Royals:
- Game 1: Allowed a game-tying home run to Alex Gordon in the ninth inning.
- Game 4: Allowed back-to-back RBI singles to Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez in the eighth inning after a Daniel Murphy error opened the floodgates.
- Game 5: Allowed the tying run in the ninth on Eric Hosmer's mad dash home on Perez's ground ball to third base.
One of those is a legitimate blown save: the Gordon homer. That's on Familia. In the other two games he inherited the tying run already in scoring position and was sabotaged by something outside his control. Murphy let a ground ball ball go through his legs in Game 4, and in Game 5 Hosmer took advantage of David Wright's weak arm.
Do the three blown saves last year and the Wild Card Game loss this year indicate Familia is unfit for postseason closing duty? It does in the eyes of one fan, at least. This also ignores the fact Familiar threw 9 2/3 scoreless innings in the NLDS and NLCS to get the Mets to the World Series last year. And even after all those blown saves, he allowed only one earned run in 14 2/3 playoff innings.
Familia's fallen into that unfortunate category of being a great player who had some postseason issues. Alex Rodriguez knows Familia's situation well. So does Clayton Kershaw. Is it fair? I guess so. The blown saves did happen. But the postseason shouldn't erase the greater body of the work. The Mets don't sniff the postseason this year without Familia's ninth inning brilliance from April through September.
"I've been in that situation before. I know this a game," added Familia. "Every time I go out there, I try to do the best I can. I can't control what happened now, so I try to move forward and keep working hard to get here next year again."
